Sunday 18th March MARATHON 60

18th March - Day 65. Restaurant full of locals, great atmosphere, prawns for me, fish soup for dad, pork and potato followed by rum and raison ice cream! Lovely, good chat with dad, tried to think how far back we could remember where we have stayed. Dad managed 2 and I got to 7! Both of us were very tired so back to the room and in bed by 10:30. Room very basic but with 2 big beds and a shower room in a cupboard! Unfortunately the mattress was foam, very comfortable to start but not at all after a while! Anyway better than the van! Up at 6:15, normal routine of getting my legs to move done. Our van had to be parked a distance from the hotel due to the roadworks and the fact the hotel had no parking! My plan was to get up put on my normal bottoms and hoody, this changed due to the fact it was hammering down outside and my bottoms would get waterlogged in minutes! The only shorts I had on me were beach chequered nike shorts so on they went and off I went, quite looking forward to a rainy run! I was wet through to the skin in minutes but had a great run. I went towards the sea front of Vieux-Boucau-les-Bains weaving through rows of empty, no doubt summer houses and up a tarmac runway over a huge sand dune. As I got to the top I was hit by a gust of wind rain and sea spray, it was great! I fought my way down the other side to the beach, no promenade or walk way just sand. I did not take my phone due to the weather, so I could not take a picture! It was breathtaking, literally and pictorial! I fought my way back through the very wet streets past the van, all ok, and back to the Hotel Marioneo. Very wet, 6.3k in 48? Min. A few photos taken by dad from the dry forecourt and back to the room for a shower in the cupboard. Down to breakfast, terrible, one bit of french stick and one miniature croissant! Porridge too far away so asked for more! Got another piece of bread! Still very cheap and overall better than the 70's sports centre. Weather improving we packed, paid and in the van by 10:15 drove on to the village of Moliets-et-Maa, the point dad turned right instead of left yesterday! Got changed in the van with the weather now deteriorating, tried to massage calf's and apply Volterol to knees and hip! Eventually got going dressed for the rain at 11:25, lovely run on the D328 past some great villages and along tree lined, undulating twisting road! Very enjoyable apart from not being able to run freely, back to the manufactured style that really takes it out of me! Anyway I ran past a little coastal village called Huchet, I laughed to myself for a while, my old mate Steve Huchet's family must have originated from there! Back to the run, after an initial down pour, the sun came out and I sweated buckets. Eventually caught dad up to take my jacket off and it went overcast and started raining! It was like that to the end! I had to stop for a loo and stretch off my hip at 23k then pushed on through to completion. The roads were very quiet, flat, tree lined and straight, tough on the mind! Completed the marathon 3k before Mimizan along a tree lined, flat and straight road in a hail storm! All good though and very pleased to complete my 60th marathon in 4'16"05, joints hurt a lot for most of the run and my left achilles area is more swollen, ice required. Quick photo and video done by dad, who was shivering after standing in the storm filming me run to the finish! Quick orange and change out of wet clothes and we were off to find accommodation. As I said yesterday everywhere is shut so our hunt started straight away. We drove to Mimizan Plage. Completely dead, dad wanted to give up and find a town inland. There was one sign for a hotel called Atlantique, we followed through a very empty but fairly large beach town towards the sea. We eventually found it, it was open, it was lovely, it was good value and had very friendly people. Quick coffee, bags up to the room, quick shower and I laid down and had a great sleep from before 5:00 to 7:30! Needed! Quick freshen up and ready to go down to eat, hopefully good, I need to eat well tonight, then back to the room to ice! Hope you all have had a good weekend & Happy Mothers Day.