Paul Thompson recounts the trip to Reims including the races on 13th October 2024.
Four Canterbury Harriers attended the 2024 Reims run with myself and Sammy-Jo in the half marathon and Phil Wyard and Julie Cox both running the 10k.
As first timers visiting Reims with the Harriers we were pleasantly surprised how easy and straightforward it was to take part in the weekend and representing our club.
Phil arranged logistics with Patrice from the Twinning Association in Reims and we were given codes to use in order to sign up to the race for free. With changes to the medical certificate required in France this meant simply watching a short subtitled video after which you can download the certificate – all free to do. Once the certificate was uploaded to our race entry we were good to go.
A 10am ferry meant we arrived in Calais around 1pm French time and were in Reims by 4pm. Once a few km out of Calais it is motorway almost all the way to our meet up point in Reims.
We were met by Patrice and went to the race village to collect our bibs. We were then taken on a walking tour of some of the city before being treated to a meal courtesy of the Reims twinning association. During this meal we were also introduced to our hosts who very kindly put us up for the night and looked after us. Our host was wonderful and language was no problem as they spoke very good English, having been an English teacher. They made us feel very welcome and ensured we were very comfortable for the night and a good choice for breakfast on race day was available. We were also able to shower after the race and then head out to all meet up for lunch before heading back to Calais for our ferry home.
All in all, a really enjoyable experience and would thoroughly recommend. Hopefully I’ll be returning next year.
Paul Thompson
