Chefs and wine: it's as natural a pairing as cheese and crackers, the one complements the other. Chefs and running – well, with the exception of a very few (I can think of Michel Roux Jnr and that terrier Gordon Ramsay) this is a more strained union. Most chefs would rather kick off their clogs in the company of a pleasant vintage (they do spend all day on their feet) than don a pair of trainers.
As for wine and running, everybody knows that's not a wise combination. Everyone that is except the French, whose Marathon du Médoc, which took place over the weekend, is a celebration of exactly that.
Each year thousands of people, many of them in flamboyant fancy dress, gather in the town of Pauillac in the Médoc area of Bordeaux to run a course that winds through some of the world's greatest vineyards and is, without a doubt, the most Bacchanalian event in the charity sporting calendar.
This year a team from Park Lane's Galvin at Windows restaurant comprising chef Chris Galvin, general manager Fred Sirieix and assistant restaurant manager Andy Sicklin joined the throng to raise money for their own charity.
More than 30 chateaux opened their gates to the sweating masses, and as usual local producers laid on tables of 'degustation' offering everything from foie gras and escargot to artisan cheeses. The result is a carnival-like celebration with runners and spectators enjoying the best the region has to offer as the route winds through the almost mythically scenic grounds of Bordeaux's wine producers.
As the day wore on entrants were encouraged along the 42k course by increasingly enthusiastic chants of "Allez! Allez!" from the local people who had gathered in multigenerational hordes to cheer them on. A bedraggled, half-cut Jesus, the Village People, chain gangs and numerous clowns sprinted, jogged and hobbled their way through the vineyards. It is, of course, a uniquely French event. Can you imagine seeing such local pride and blasé attitudes to drunken running in Tunbridge Wells?
So how did team Galvin fare in the 30 degree heat? Having spent the previous night filling up on duck, monkfish, red wine and cognac at Chateau La Lagune, surprisingly well, as it turned out.
The uber-fit Sirieix finished in a very impressive 229th place with a time of 3h40m. He was crossing the finish line around the same time that I bumped into a shattered, chafed, but determined Chris Galvin at the legendary Chateau Lafite Rothschild, roughly the halfway mark. He finished triumphantly after 6h26m minutes, just four minutes within the medal cut-off time, and an hour after Sicklin's 5h27m.
"It's a great way to see how families and villages really embrace and celebrate the local gastronomy," said Galvin. "Because as much as I'd love to see that happen in England, it doesn't." Which got me thinking.
We have the odd eccentric regional event, like gravy wrestling in Lancashire, treacherous cheese rolling in Gloucestershire, Yorkshire pudding boat races near the market town of Malton, and of course we're famed for our pub crawls, which involve some element of exercise. But while these events are great on a local level, there's nothing that really sums up the nation as a whole.
What food-related sporting event might fit the bill? What about a Full English triathlon with Cornish pasty catch, the fish and chip fling and roast beef rounders?
