THE NICE 10K Nice work!
This month Julia Armstrong returns to Nice, where last she ran a marathon, to take on a 10k. A serious bout of tummy trouble almost put a stop to her race…
around their lovely house, which was built in a cherry orchard and has a view of the mountains rising up, the perfect view to sit in the late afternoon sun having a drink in the garden. Ventout, the famous col that is often part of the Tour de France, is not very far away. “I went for a pre-dinner run and had a sense of times gone past – memories nudging at the corner of my being. I spent a lot of time in France in the eighties driving through it and running races for cash, Francs, as they were then, and my body and soul remembered. The following day passed in a lazy haze of catching up, sitting in the sun, and eating lunch in the local café. Bliss.
M Tummy trouble
“However, my restful preparation for the Nice 10k on the Sunday was to be interrupted. I woke up at 2:30am on Friday
y trip to Nice to race was made into a holiday, by first flying to Provence where my brother and sister-in- law have a house in a small town called Opedde. I flew to Marseille and an hour later was being shown
Recovered and
ready to get her number at Expo
morning with an ache at the top and bottom of my stomach, and this was to herald what was to come – the rest of the night until 8am spent in a violent case of diarrhoea and vomiting! “I spent the next day chatting in the sun, wrapped in a
blanket as I kept getting shivery with a fever, and sipping all day on dioralyte and cola. My brother was worried and took me to the doctor, asking him if I should race – he of course said ‘No’. In France you cannot race without a medical certificate, but I had ‘one I prepared earlier’ from Nick Webborn in Eastbourne, confirming I was fit to race. “I have to say, as I shivered my rather fragile way through
Friday, the last thing I thought I’d be doing – or wanted to do – was race. Last year the volcano ash had ‘stopped play’. I wondered if once again, I wouldn’t be running the Nice 10k.
A new dawn
“Saturday morning dawned, though, and I awoke feeling completely better, if a little weak. My brother Stuart drove me to Avignon for my train to Nice. I had some breakfast and all seemed well! I drank some more cola that had seemed like a friend yesterday, and I was also craving ginger beer, but could find none. The journey unfolded following an idyllic coastal route. I texted Fiona – RF’s editor – as we passed through Cannes, where the marathon we had both run had finished, and then at Antibes, the halfway point. “I stepped out of the station to find Nice busy with Saturday
Relaxed runners the day before the race
34 ■ RUNNING FREE
afternoon activity, and waited for a taxi to weave its way through the streets, delivering me to my friend Wendy who was waiting in the reception of our lovely little hotel. I told her
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