61km – 8H52’
Altitude : 4m
Average heart beats per minute 100
Good evening everyone,
Even though school holidays begin tomorrow I have homework because again today the emphasis was on youth and the race goes on…
At 7:00 AM Serge and I wake up in our own soft bed. The team is up and the sounds of morning activity fill the house.
At 8:15 AM we head toward Goderville where Serge is greeted by a few runners, two of which will run the whole stage with him: Cyril from Le Havre and Eric from Fécamp.
Mr. Blondel, President of the Communauté de Communes Campagne de Caux is ready and dressed to run the first kilometers with Serge to the town of Bretteville du Grand Caux: first stop at the town’s school. Yesterday Serge was in 6 schools of the district and this morning he will stop in 4 more before reaching the Com Com of Le Havre: la Codah (community of greater Le Havre). We will have gone through 15 of the 22 towns in the district of Goderville.
Serge is ahead of schedule and takes a break because his next meeting is at the entrance of Octeville with the Jules Verne school: 90 children are waiting for Serge at the fisherman’s round about to run through the town to the bus that will take them to the waterfront in Le Havre so they can finish the stage with Serge. The children of the Admiral Courbet School join the group to increase its size.
Besides these encounters, there were runners from the countryside who came to run a bit with Serge. Some even took a day of vacation for the event.
The waterfront is calm; the sun comes out following a misty morning and preceding a gray afternoon. In the distance we see a cloud of young runners dressed in yellow and blue with Serge among them, radiant as usual. Mrs. Brindeau of the Codah organized this with her team and we thank them because our association will continue and already the children are sending us piles of e-mails.
There are some changes in Serge’s support crew: Joël has left us and we will see him in Beaufort en Vallée. Brigitte, our neighbor spent the day with Eliane and René to help with feeing. She brought her famous coconut flan which Serge adores.
Tomorrow will probably seem a bit dull without the enthusiasm of all the kids.
Serge thinks he will paper our dining room walls with all the drawings, flags and messages that he has received over the past two days!