29th March - Day 76. Decided on the nearest restaurant, rather than take away. Great spot overlooking harbour. Ordered pizza and salads. Turned up and both great, Paul experienced dad in full flow with story after story, one in particular about me, not born yet, being kissed on both cheeks by a man in Switzerland! Too long for this report. Back to the hotel, picked up big bucket of ice from reception... and back to the room. Dad suggested we went into Paul's room to work so he did not disturb us, we agreed. I went back to our room to pick up some notes, dad was fast asleep with all the lights off! Paul spent forever trying to get the video on uploaded to youtube, we worked on the route, I iced calf's, knees, hamstrings and hip, also watched a lot of the video taken over the last few months, some good, some bad and some terrible but very funny. 11:20 came and I could not stay awake so left, Paul carried on trying to get the Video on until 2:30 without success! File format! What ever that is? Voltarol applied to achilles, knees and hip and fell straight asleep. Woke once at 2:45 legs playing me up then woke at 6:15 with alarm, whacked the snooze, 15 minutes more and out of bed at 6:30. Legs dead! No energy, knees had a dull ache. I set off and headed right when I reached the harbour, I followed the road through all the old part of the harbour fort, through a few stone archways, across a wooden bridge, that once was a drawbridge, and out onto a newer promenade round a new restaurant and out on a new cycle path. Very pleasant run past the Casino and all the newer apartment blocks, I turned and ran back east watching the sun rise above the turrets and old city. I stopped at the wooded drawbridge to take a photo. There were 3 people chatting by the bridge that turned and spoke, as I took the photo! I did not understand a word so said, English! Which I think translated means stupid round here. One of them spoke perfect English and explained they were waiting for the sun to rise between the castle turrets and my picture would be much better if I waited! I then noticed all three of them had at least 3 cameras each and there was me with my phone camera! I explained I could not wait and carried on across the bridge, along the rampart walled walkway and back through the old part of town to the hotel. Very enjoyable run, legs a bit looser and back before 8:00. Quick shower and I was first to breakfast, good feed then Paul and I finalised the route and critical dates back to London and dad took himself off for a walk. Back to the room, Paul had a bit of google route planning to do, so I got myself ready. Dad came back in saying, he has just had the best walk he has ever had round the harbour and old town! His phone rang and it was David from the Hemel and Berco Gazette. Dad passed me the phone and I had a good chat with David, a lot of old ground covered! and some new. Hopefully we get a good article in a prominent place in the paper, not the Births and Deaths page like the last one, to try and get all the local people aware and behind the challenge. The phone call took a while and made me a bit behind schedule. Call over Paul came in and said he was now coming with us this morning instead of staying here and going to the airport after midday! Apparently an agency wanted some photos sent to them today! We packed and paid in a rush and off we went to the finish point of yesterdays run in Lucon. I did run, before I started the marathon run, so Paul could take the photos. Loads of photos taken I stopped, quick towel down and we went through all pics to agree which ones to send. Surprising how peoples opinions differ! All done now to load on laptop and send to Tony, so Tony could send to agency. Now gone 12:00, I started to get edgy and anxious to get going! My body needs fuel at the correct times and exercise when the fuel has turned to energy, leave it too long and I will have no fuel! Paul was using my laptop so we could not get going until he finished! All this is so important, we need to get more coverage to get to a bigger audience so we can raise more, much needed, donations! Anyway the Dongle finally worked and all chosen photos sent, unfortunately it was now gone 2pm!!! Paul shot off to the Airport, at his usual million mile an hour pace in the smallest Citrion hire car I have ever seen, feel sorry for the next person that gets that car! We went back to the car park in the centre of Lucon to prepare and set off. I now did not fancy running at all! It was too late to eat before running but I knew I would suffer during the run, my legs were stiff due to running for the photos, working up a sweat then stopping for two hours! Eventually set off from Lucon to Les Essarts, I felt dreadful from the start! My legs did not want to join in, the wind was in my face, it was red hot and all I kept thinking about was stopping! I set myself a target of 10k, if I still felt like this I would stop and try again tomorrow. The route out of Lucon was a bit strange and it looked like we were heading for a duel carriageway! Dad received a rant from me about going wrong, knowing how I felt and apparently looked, he ignored me and followed the sat nav to the correct road, D7! I apologised and we cracked on. The route was actually very nice, great scenery, rolling fields, quiet lanes and lovely little hamlets and villages. However I felt dreadful! I pushed on through 10k wanting to stop, I reached 19k, dad was not at the agreed distance which gave me the hump so I did not stop, dad got shirty and said I will stop exactly at 3 miles and shot off! I fought through to 28k met dad, he asked me if I was stopping? I said of course not, if he had not asked I would have stopped! I somehow got to 10k to go with my legs working on memory! At this point I decided I would finish the run, I put my head down and used my arms far too much, must have looked very strange, and pushed on to the finish by the huge church in Les Essarts, Marathon completed in 3'56"54, I felt dreadful but elated to have completed the mentally toughest challenge yet! Still very hot but now gone 6:30 I had my orange in the sun, enjoyed the moment then in the van and off to find the accommodation. Found St Fulgent and our hotel, not quite like St Nicolas in La Rochelle! Paul paid for the La Rochelle hotel so I do not know how much it cost, I would say a lot more than this one! Still plenty good enough for us, we went inside checked in and were taken outside to the car park? Very nice lad told us to drive to the other end of the car park, we did anticipating an annex block. No, we were in the converted garage next to the road! Still, as I said, it is good enough for us and private enough to cook tomorrow night, we were informed they shut the hotel at weekends! Unloaded the van into the garage and went in. I did not feel great, a little sick and very tired, I laid down and covered up with whatever I could put my hands on and fell straight asleep. I woke an hour later shivering and shaking and starving! I had a quick very hot shower, felt a bit better, so we headed for the restaurant. The restaurant was nearly full with what looked like workers. It was a set menu, fish pate, steak or pork and Banana split for desert. I had steak, dad pork. Consumed very quickly, I did not feel well at all, we left and returned to the garage. Really not feeling well, now 10pm, I decided an early night was all I could do, try to get a good nights sleep and see how I felt in the morning. Dad had not said a lot, apart from to see if he could do anything, until I was just getting into bed. He asked me if I want to run tomorrow! I instantly got the hump, said a few things about no choice then thought about it. Actually a good question and the answer is yes, I do want to run, so I must get myself in as best shape as I can to run as best as I can, fast or slow. I do not know if dad knew that was a good question that actually helped me or just something he said? Not a bad sleep, up a few times with the odd stabbing pain and cramp, but overall not bad