77.7km – 9H44’
Altitude : 251m
The stage for October 16: Montargis – Fontainebleau (the itinerary will be posted online later)
Finish October 17 at l’INSEP – Avenue de Tremblay, 75012 Paris
There will be no stage between cities
Serge will enter l’INSEP around 9:00 a.m. and will run on the track in the INSEP until 11:06 a.m. He will be accompanied by everyone who wishes to run these last two hours of the Around the European Union Footrace, and celebrate the 365 days of the race.
An emotional chain of events and the most wonderful refueling of all our races…
At 8:00 a.m. we have an appointment at the Centre Lelerc in Viriat which is opening its doors for the first time in 30 minutes. It was inaugurated last night.
The director welcomes us and invites us all in for breakfast before the first opening. Denis and 3 other young directors are there, as well as a few runners and a young boy who has come to have his diary, “My Little Daily,” signed. At 8:20 the runners are off, while the first grocery carts wait in line outside, eager to discover this new shopping center. The weather is beautifully sunny.
Serge is running in familiar country when we approach Saint-Trivier. He looks admiringly at the ponds of the Dombes and at the poultry. At 2:30 p.m. he enters Saint-Trivier and on the town hall square there is a surprise: some 20 people are waiting for him: uncles and aunts, cousins. We didn’t think that the family would all be mobilized for his run through this small corner of the Ain department, which is so dear to Serge. The majority of the family still lives around here, except uncle “Georges,” known to the Internet followers who were with us on the Paris-Tokyo and his daughter, Carole, who came expressly from Lyon with her daughters and mother. It is a real although unusual family reunion that takes place at the roadside. We all have a thought for Serge’s parents. The lady mayor of Saint-Trivier has come to greet Serge.
Then, exceptionally, Serge takes control of the itinerary; the only time in 11 months. He chooses his route to reach “Glétin.” No use looking for it on a map, not even on the GPS. “Glétin” is a small road that leads to a farm and not just any farm; it is the farm where the Girard’s lived and gathered when Serge’s grand parents farmed. Between Saint-Trivier and “Glétin,” the whole family follows Serge in convoy. The young cousins: Valentine and Juliette, Paul and Tom, run with their big cousin.
Then comes the moving part: 10 vehicles park at the entrance to the farm. Martine and Marc, the owners, welcome us with open arms. They don’t even seem to be surprised by this invasion. It is almost as if they had been waiting for us, even though they had not been warned about our visit.
We are invited to enter the farmyard and to set up a refueling worthy of the occasion: local sausage, cheese and wine for everyone. It is with emotion that Serge looks at the farm and everyone remembers: here there was a chicken coop, there the pig sty, there the stairs to the bedroom, etc., etc. Martine and Marc extend their hospitality by offering to let us visit the buildings. Everyone accepts. For Serge, it’s time for soup: “it’s the most wonderful refuelling of the whole race” he tells me and adds “do you realize that it is in the Glétin farm, with my family”.
It’s a long refueling, a moment where we would like to stop our watches and suspend time, to have a few more minutes. It was a brief meeting but a strong emotion full of memories, good memories which the elders share with the children. It was an unusual family reunion, at the roadside, surrealistic but so intense and very real.
Michelle, René’s wife, leaves her dear heart, whom she will see in Paris on October 17. Then the dream team takes to the road in the direction of Beaujolais. We cross the Saône, there is a mountain chain just in front of us and we will sleep tonight in the Rhône department. It will surely be a good night for our runner and his dreams will have him wandering near Saint-Trivier-sur-Moignans.
P.S. A wink at Eddy, who ran with us for a few minutes in Belleville while he pushed his daughter, Louise, in her stroller. Long live the Around the European Union Footrace.