I was tickled by an article I found in the ‘i’ newspaper, which I bought from the WH Smith on the station platform last Thursday, having just completed the run.
The headline read: ‘Briton pulled over for trying motorway jog’. It told the story of a British long distance runner, who having completed the demanding Spartan Race at Valmorel, had attempted to run on the hard shoulder of the 109 mile stretch of motorway connecting the ski resort with Lyon airport. Apparently, he made it 25 miles down the A43 before being picked up by the local gendarmes, who said that it wasn’t the first time that this had happened and that ‘it’s usually British nationals’, who attempt such feats, before continuing: ‘It’s strange to run on a motorway. Maybe in the UK it’s a national sport.’ As someone who previously ran round the boundary of the M25 London Orbital (without running on the hard shoulder) for a previous artwork, this particularly amused me. The article ended with the words: ‘Efforts have been made, unsuccessfully, to establish the man’s identity and to find out whether he caught his plane.’ (With thanks to Luke Rix-Standing, who wrote the piece).
I complete this post with some images of the work from the exhibition ‘PLACE: Relinking, Relating, Relaying’ that continues at the Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge until the 17th February. With thanks to Robert Good and the ALL team for all their support.
(Incidentally the route can still be viewed from the locatoweb.com website or app. Choose ‘Tracks’ from the menu, type Vero_350 in the search and click on the track).
