Day 7 / Plomion - Chateau Porcien / 43.74 km

Today I run to Chateau Porcien. My last stop before I reach Reims. The plan is to stay 2 nights in Reims. Mainly to rest but also to do some siteseeing and drink champagne. 

The distance to cover is 40.5 km including 4 bigger hills and a lot of smaller hills. People walking take normally 2 stages to reach Reims from Plomion. In order to reduce to 1 I plotted my own path. Here I go. Oh yes, It’s raining again....another day in paradise.

I start climbing immediately. It is pouring but I’m in reasonable spirit. After 1 km I ask myself what the purpose is to run in pouring rain in the middle of nowhere. Different answers are available. I continue to run as I do not find a reasonable answer.

My logistic preparation is improving and my first objective is to run 10 km to a small village where Goodle (Google+God) indicated the avialability of a bakery and a bar. I  have nuts, a sandwich, chocolate cakes and a Mars as contingency in my backpack (a healthy runners lunch). After km 12 I check my gps as normally by know I should have reached the village in mind. I’m running in the wrong direction.....Options are to return, which means an additional 4 km for today. I check Goodle and see an alternative route to take. It is still raining. Around 11 o’clock, 2 hours running, 18km further and a lot of hills later I  finally reach a bigger village where I have a drink in a bar and take some rest. I still have 22 km to cover. Goodle informs me that all the villages I will pass do not have any shops or bars. After consuming my chocolate biscuits and nuts I start running again. It is still raining. I start with a climb. The next target village is 8 km away.

I feel  like I’m running in emptiness.

It continues to rain. I continue to encounter hills. 35 km covered. I’m getting tired. I ask myself again what could be the purpose running in the rain in the middle of nowhere. Again no reasonable answers come to my mind. 

I establish a new principle. It’s not run-economical to run a hill with an incline higher then 6% longer then 1 km. Maybe I establish the principle because I’m getting tired. I start watching at my sportswatch more often. My gps directs me to a path which changes after 100 meter in a clay dirt road. There is another hill. Running is no longer an option. 39km. I’m happy I have an excuse to walk. I think I will take up pottery as a hobby. I start to collect enough clay at my shoes to make big vase.

The dirt road changes into a normal road. It stops raining. I start running. Climb a last hill. Enter Chateau Porcien after 44 km. I feel invincible. I may have found the answer to the question why I am running in the pouring rain in the middle of nowhere.

Song of today : The deconstruction - Eels

T.

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