Macclesfield Harriers

by **Julian Brown** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 11:31 am

our pals Julie Gardner (sans chiens) and Jo's 'big sis' Alison Brind, who are having a go at the Grand Raid Reunion next week.

They tell me Reunion is somewhere in the Indian Ocean, (hopefully their pilot knows a bit more) and the race seems to involve 100 miles running up and down volcanoes. Just like Buxton then.

I'm sure they know what they're doing..... well, erm, fairly sure.....

More info here http://www.grandraid-reunion.com
and here http://parcours-grandraid.sfr.re
(where you can also get live updates once the race starts)
All the best Ladies.

by **mudskimmer** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 2:08 pm

Blimey ladies - you always have to go one better than the rest of us (only joking). Good Luck to you both & enjoy!

by **Simon** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:47 am

Crikey... looks an epic trip. Hopefully we'll be able to see a report?

Good luck!

by **Julian Brown** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 11:00 am

Our two ladies (I use the term loosely) set of at 10pm local time last night with up to sixty-odd hours of trundling along ahead of them, you can check how they're getting along here..

http://coureurs-grandraid.sfr.re/

...currently Julie is leading the vet 50 ladies.

I'm sure they'll be having lots of fun.

by **phil cheek** » Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:44 pm

Any news???
I can`t find Julie in the final results.She was leading the class with 15Km & a little!! climb to go.Hope it didn`t all go pear shaped.
Alison is shown finished in an excellent 52 hours.Well done.

by **phil cheek** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 2:06 pm

Julian tells me that he understands Julie did finish BUT ran past the last check without registering so is down as a DNF.
Sacre Bleu,bet she`d have been reinstated if the name had been Julie Jardinier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Knowing Julie I was sure she wouldn`t have stopped that near the finish unless she`d been in serious trouble
Phil

by **Colin Ardron** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 7:29 pm

Reminds me of the time when a certain Laurence and I were disq. in a KIMM event for not punching the very last checkpoint a few hundred yds from the finish. I still hold this against all those people standing around the checkpoint who kept very quiet.

by **mudskimmer** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 11:21 am

.... or my last UTMB where I got timed out at Courmayeur by 3 mins on leaving the checkpoint,not entering. As I sat there in tears they let a French group thru' who arrived 20mins late into the c/point.
I really hope Julie gets re-instated, and very well done to them both !!

by **phil cheek** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:14 pm

Not funny when you`re on the receiving end as I know from incidents on the Nice triathlon ,but it`s been going on in different fields forever.
In the 60s they got so fed up with the Minis winning the Monte Carlo Rally they found a completely spurious way to DQ them after the event for a lighting system that had passed their own scrutineering at the start.
Back in the 50s(I think) they found a way to declare a tiny 1 litre French car OVERALL winner of LeMans ahead of the Ferraris,Jags etc by dividing the number of laps completed by the amount of fuel used!
They also wonWW2 & are part of a wildly successful currency.
Mais c`est la vie.Vive La France

by **Colin Ardron** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:00 pm

they do have some nice mountains though.

by **Julian Brown** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 3:16 pm

If you ride past a bar at 1am on a long bike ride in France they offer you a bottle of beer... even if you're English.
If you ride past a bar at 1am on a long bike ride in England they chuck an empty bottle of beer at you... especially if you're French.

So the same, really, just a slight difference in emphasis.
Strangely, though, long bike rides are more popular in France than in England.

by **phil cheek** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 6:31 pm

I`ve always enjoyed France & found the people very friendly,but that doesn`t seem to stop them being serial cheats.
A Frenchman once told me it`s a sort of national sport,you set the rules & then your job is to stop me breaking them.
From rumours I keep hearing we`ve got some french genes showing in some folks approach to the Fell handicap!
Phil

Macclesfield Harriers

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