The next Marathon runner I see will be run down.

Day 10 - 3rd June

The next morning was spent picking up some more supplies for the trip (BBQ & Coolbox). We managed to collect the goods without hassle, but upon leaving the store and trying to get out of Plymouth we somehow got stuck in the middle of the Plymouth Half Marathon.

Now I haven’t run a marathon or half marathon before but I fail to understand why a city needs to be shut down to let these people go for a jog. Can we not setup a course in the local parks or sporting grounds and have them do a few laps of that rather than stopping everyone else from going about their daily business?

After being told that we should wait until the roads are re-opened at 2pm (it was 12pm), we decided to camp out in the local cinema carpark and bide our time. In her ongoing search for the best public toilet in Britain, Mum got chatting with one of the local wardens who informed her that he was going to open up the exit for about 15 mins to let some cars out and she could go through if she hurried.

Mum definitely hurried. I haven’t seen anything quite so funny as a 63-year-old woman bolting across a Plymouth car park in those funny curvy, old people shoes. In fact it looked like she was in the middle of the car park on a treadmill at the rate her upper body was moving and not her legs.

Mum finally got to the van and somewhat out of breadth tried to tell us what the marshal had told her minutes before hand. After using some sign language and words between the gasps we finally figured out what she was saying and headed towards the exit.

Finally out on the road and away from the pesky marathon runners we made our way towards Mont St Michael near Penzanze in Cornwall. We found a handy little layby just outside of Marazion and parked up for the night.

After a long day of driving, we took a walk through the local countryside down to the coastline and to get a view of Mont St Michael. It was definitely worth the drive after Mums reaction to seeing the structure out to sea and we had an enjoyable stroll back to the van to cook up the previous nights couscous and pork chops. 

Taking Mum for a walk through the local countryside to get a view of St Michael Mount.

Perched on a stile - English term for a plank of wood over a fence.