Médoc: The Wine Marathon
Part 1
🏃 42 Kilometers of Wine, Costumes, and History
On 5 September 2026, the 40th Médoc Marathon took place in Pauillac—Bordeaux’s famous wine marathon. Its 42.195- kilometer (26.2-mile) route wound through the vineyards and châteaux of the Médoc, while along the way runners encountered wine, music, costumes, oysters, and other local delicacies.
But how did an ordinary marathon turn into a celebration that draws thousands of people from around the world?
Introduction
…5 September 2026. 9:30 a.m. Pauillac, the Médoc, on the left bank of the Gironde, Bordeaux, France
Normally, the town has a modest permanent population of just over 5,000. But at the beginning of September each year, thousands of visitors and participants arrive for the famous Bordeaux wine marathon — the Médoc Marathon. In 2026, there were around 8,500 runners alone, while tens of thousands of spectators lined the course.
The start of the Médoc Marathon in Pauillac. The first runners are already out on the course, while the huge, colourful procession continues to cross the starting line. Ahead lie 42 kilometres through the vineyards and châteaux of the Médoc—a distance each participant will cover at their own pace and in their own way
In 2026, the Marathon celebrated its 40th edition. From the very beginning, the event was never conceived as an ordinary sporting competition based solely on speed and endurance. Sport, celebration, wine, gastronomy, and the Médoc itself were all part of the original idea.
Where Did It All Begin?
In 1983, six friends from Bordeaux, four of them doctors, took part in the famous New York City Marathon. What impressed them most was not so much the race itself through the streets of the “Big Apple,” the runners’ finishing times, or the grueling battle against the clock, but the atmosphere of a huge citywide celebration surrounding a serious sporting event.
When they returned to France, they decided to create a marathon of their own. One of its founders, physician Hubert Rocher, later described the idea roughly this way: they were serious runners, but they wanted to show a different side of sport—to combine genuine physical effort with pleasure and the French idea of art de vivre—the art of living.
To run 26.2 miles—and at the same time not forget:
Why are we living in the first place? What are we doing on this Earth?
And that is how the Médoc Marathon was born.
👉 The New York City Marathon is one of the largest and best-known marathons in the world. It was first held on September 13, 1970, with just 127 runners competing on a loop course in Central Park. Only 55 finished.
In 1976, the course was routed through all five boroughs of New York City for the first time—Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. That route has since become the marathon’s signature.
Today, more than 50,000 runners take part each year, ranging from world-class professionals to recreational runners, while some 2 million spectators line the course.
Besides New York, several other major marathons are famous around the world:
• Boston Marathon—held since 1897, it is the world’s oldest annual marathon.
• London Marathon—one of the world’s largest mass-participation marathons, combining elite international competition with a major charitable event.
• Berlin Marathon—above all, a “marathon of speed,” with an exceptionally flat course on which world records have repeatedly been set.
• Chicago Marathon—another extremely fast course and a huge citywide event, now attracting around 55,000 runners.
• Tokyo Marathon—Japan’s leading representative among the world’s elite marathons.
• Sydney Marathon—the newest member of the top tier, having joined the World Marathon Majors in 2025.
👉 The City Marathon evolved in the second half of the 20th century from a competition for professional athletes into a mass public event. There are several reasons for this:
• Accessibility. You watch a classic Olympic marathon on television, on your phone, or on your computer: only a few dozen of the world’s best athletes are running. But in New York or London, an amateur can run the same distance and the same course as some of the world’s most famous marathoners.
They know they will never play in the Super Bowl, compete at Wimbledon, or play in the FIFA World Cup final, but they can officially complete the very same marathon as a celebrated champion. For one day, an ordinary person is allowed not merely to watch a major sporting event — but to become part of it.
This was one of the factors behind the American running boom of the 1960s and 1970s: for huge numbers of recreational runners, the main achievement was no longer winning, but simply finishing. It reflects the familiar Olympic ideal: “The important thing is not to win, but to take part.”
• The city becomes the stadium. There is no need to confine spectators to grandstands: the course runs through neighborhoods and streets, across bridges, along waterfronts, and past historic landmarks.
• The feeling of “an ordinary person doing something extraordinary.” For a professional runner, 26.2 miles is a job. For an accountant, teacher, doctor, or mail carrier who has spent six months training after work, crossing the finish line may become one of the greatest personal achievements of their life—something to be proud of. That is why a marathon can so effectively bring together elite sport and ordinary human stories.
• Celebration and community. Music, spectators, volunteers, costumes, families lining the roads—all combine to create the atmosphere of an enormous public celebration.
• Charity. This is particularly striking in London: over the history of the marathon, its participants have raised more than £1.3 billion for charitable causes. It gives a runner one more answer to the question, “Why am I putting myself through 26.2 miles?” — they are running not only for themselves.
And the organizers of the Médoc Marathon went one step further: if a runner has already become part of a huge spectacle, why not dress them in a funny costume—one that still has some meaning behind it—pour them some Bordeaux wine, and feed them local delicacies along the way?
Show the Médoc through sport—and sport through the Médoc way of life
🍇 How the Marshy Médoc Became a Famous Wine Region
Today, the Médoc seems like a place that was somehow always destined for vineyards. But its famous wine landscape did not take shape overnight.
Grapes had been grown in the Bordeaux region since Roman times, but the Médoc itself remained a land of forests, pastures, and marshes for centuries. Individual vineyards appeared here during the Middle Ages, including around what would later become Pauillac, but the real transformation came much later.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, wealthy Bordeaux families and merchants began acquiring land here and establishing the first large wine estates. The 17th century proved especially important, when Dutch engineers helped drain extensive areas of the Médoc’s marshlands. Land that had literally been reclaimed from the water revealed its gravelly rises—croupes de graves—which provided excellent drainage and would eventually become one of the defining elements of the Médoc’s celebrated terroir.
The Médoc before and during the draining of its marshes. Drainage canals gradually transformed the wetlands between the Atlantic and the Gironde into land where the famous vineyards would later emerge
Gradually, estates appeared and expanded along the left bank of the Gironde, their names later becoming famous throughout the wine world. By the middle of the 18th century, the basic structure of the Médoc vineyards was already in place, while wines from the leading estates were gaining an increasingly strong reputation in England and elsewhere in Europe.
It was during this period that the modern concept of a château also gradually took shape—not simply as a building, but as a wine estate with its own land, vineyards, history, traditions, and reputation.
The next major milestone was the 1855 Classification, created by order of Napoleon III for the Paris Exposition Universelle. It formalized the hierarchy of leading estates that had already developed in the Bordeaux wine trade and transformed the names of many Médoc châteaux into internationally recognized wine brands.
Today, Pauillac alone is home to three of Bordeaux’s five famous Premiers Grands Crus Classés—Lafite Rothschild, Latour, and Mouton Rothschild.
So the runners in the Médoc Marathon cross a landscape that, over the course of several centuries, was shaped by water, gravel, human labor, trade, and wine itself.
📜 A Little History
The first Médoc Marathon was held on September 14, 1985, and attracted around 500 participants.
💡 An important detail: as mentioned earlier, the marathon began as the initiative of a group of friends, not as an advertising campaign by some wine cooperative or tourism agency. The Commanderie du Bontemps, the historic wine brotherhood of the Médoc, also played an important role in organizing the event.
👉 🏛️ Commanderie du Bontemps is one of the oldest and largest wine brotherhoods in Bordeaux, bringing together winegrowers, château owners, négociants, and brokers from the Médoc, Graves, Sauternes, and Barsac. Its modern organization was established in 1949, although it traces its tradition back to the medieval religious commanderies of the Médoc, which were involved, among other things, with vineyards and wine.
Its principal mission is to preserve tradition and promote the wines of Bordeaux’s Left Bank in France and around the world. Today, it has around 300 members, while more than 40,000 honorary commandeurs have been inducted through the brotherhood’s ceremonies.
👉 Bontemps is a small wooden bowl traditionally used by cellar masters to whisk egg whites for fining wine. It became the emblem of the brotherhood.
The official organizers of the Médoc Marathon define its spirit through four fundamental principles: Santé, Sport, Convivialité, Fête—health, sport, conviviality, and celebration.
They themselves warn that if, for you, sport is only about the stopwatch and setting records, this marathon probably isn’t for you.
“Enough of reducing a marathon to nothing but the result. Let’s use it to show people the place where we live—and the way we live”
At the same time, the sporting side is very real. This is a full 26.2-mile (42.195-kilometer) marathon.
👉 The first modern Olympic marathons did not even have a standardized distance. At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, the course was approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers)—roughly the distance from the town of Marathon to Athens. At subsequent Olympic Games, the distance varied somewhat.
At the 1908 London Olympics, the course was laid out from Windsor Castle to the White City Olympic Stadium. The organizers wanted the race to start at the royal castle and finish in front of the royal box. The resulting distance was 26 miles 385 yards, or 42.195 kilometers.
Marathon distances continued to vary for some time after London. It was not until 1921 that the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) officially standardized the marathon at 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 kilometers), effectively adopting the distance used in London in 1908.
At the Médoc Marathon, it is not only the first runners across the line who are celebrated: simply finishing the race is considered an achievement in itself. What matters is that you managed to cover those 26.2 miles, no matter how long it took you.
The male and female winners receive their own body weight in Médoc wine. Champions in individual categories receive cases of wine. Prizes are also awarded for the best costumes.
Taking part in the marathon is not free—runners pay their own way. In 2026, the standard entry fee was €110, while dinners, the Sunday walk, and other events were charged separately.
The Sporting Side
But the competitive side of the event has never disappeared. The Médoc has a very real “sporting front” of the marathon, where, despite the organizers’ philosophy, some runners are not there for the oysters, pâtés, or wine tastings—they are there for the result. And their times are officially recorded and preserved.
In 2025, for example, Florian Laplanche won the race in 2:27:11. The same runner won again in 2026, improving his time to 2:26:45. Among the women, Céline Mérel of Brittany won in 2026 with a time of 2:54:38.
That is serious competitive running, not a wine-and-food stroll in a funny costume.
The historical results are even more impressive. The course record belongs to Russian runner Sacha Lotov (Alexander Lotov), who finished in 2:19:20 in 1992. The women’s record belongs to Josiane Llado, born in Bordeaux in 1974, who ran 2:38:34 in 1999.
👉 How many participants complete the entire course? A surprisingly high percentage. Of those who actually start the race, roughly 85–93% usually finish— about nine out of ten.
That is quite impressive considering the 26.2-mile distance, the hot September sun, the surrounding vineyards, less-than-perfect road surfaces, food and alcohol along the way, and the Médoc’s countless attempts to persuade every runner that there is really no need to hurry. You’re not here for the result!
The Médoc Marathon route winds through vineyards and past châteaux. Spectators cheer on the runners along the road, while at numerous refreshment stations volunteers offer water, wine and local specialities
🏃 Médoc Marathon 2026
The course passed through the famous wine appellations of Pauillac, Saint-Julien, Haut-Médoc, and Saint-Estèphe, entering the grounds of individual châteaux along the way. The route featured 22 food stations, around 20 wine-related œno-sportif stops, and 55 entertainment points.
A refreshment station along the Médoc Marathon route. Water helps runners keep going, while wine and local specialities are a reminder that not everyone has come to the Médoc to shave a few seconds off their time. The sign above the table reads: “Welcome! Help yourselves, enjoy, and have a good run!”
And then there were oysters, entrecôte, cheeses, pâtés, grapes, ice cream, and tastings of wines from grands crus estates. For the 2026 race, 18,000 oysters were served at the 23-mile (37-kilometer) mark, along with 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of rib-eye steak, while cheese platters and ice cream awaited runners at around mile 25.5 (kilometer 41). Participants from 72 countries took part in the race, supported along the course by 3,200 volunteers.
👉 One of the marathon’s signature foods is oysters from Arcachon. Thousands are consumed during the event. The Arcachon Basin, southwest of Bordeaux and connected to the Atlantic Ocean, is one of France’s historic centers of oyster farming. Oysters have been known here since ancient times, while organized cultivation developed particularly rapidly during the 19th century. In 1860, under Napoleon III, the first imperial oyster parks were established.
Today, the Arcachon Basin is particularly important as one of France’s leading areas for the natural collection of oyster spat—naissain. Thanks to the basin’s salinity, climate, and marine conditions, young oysters readily attach themselves to special collectors.
The history of the local oyster, however, has seen several dramatic turns. The traditional flat oyster known as Gravette, cultivated here for centuries, was almost wiped out by disease in the 20th century. It was replaced by the Portuguese oyster, and after another crisis in the 1970s, oyster farms shifted primarily to the Pacific, or Japanese, oyster.
The thousands of oysters served during the final miles of the Médoc Marathon are more than just an unusual refreshment stop. The organizers literally bring together the different flavors of the Gironde along the course: the vineyards of the Médoc provide the wine, while the Atlantic and the Arcachon Basin provide the oysters.
The oysters appear on the tables roughly 3.7 miles before the finish, at the 23-mile (37-kilometer) mark. During the first 19–22 miles (30–35 kilometers), runners primarily need water, carbohydrates, and foods they can eat quickly, digest, and then keep moving. Raw oysters in the middle of serious physical exertion are hardly ideal running fuel.
But by mile 23, the meaning of the food station itself begins to change. Most of the runner’s work is already behind them. Only a little over three miles remain, and the oyster becomes less a source of “fuel” than part of the reward—and one of the principal “actors” in the Médoc spectacle:
— You’re almost there. Now you can afford to stop, catch your breath, eat an oyster or two, accompany them—if you wish—with a sip of local wine, and remember that you’re not simply taking part in a 26.2-mile race. You’re running the Médoc Marathon—the most hospitable marathon of them all!
It is already something of a pre-finish banquet. Serious runners who have come solely to chase a fast time fly past these gifts from the sea without stopping—even if their mouths are beginning to water.
Those who are running the marathon for pleasure, with their finishing time a secondary concern, naturally slow down and do not miss the opportunity to enjoy a local delicacy.
From the oyster farms of the Arcachon Basin to the tables of the Médoc Marathon. On the final kilometres of the course, oysters become one of the marathon’s most famous treats. But some runners face a difficult sporting and gastronomic challenge: to sample as many as possible while losing as little time as possible. Judging by his glance at the stopwatch, our runner has already begun calculating his average oyster-eating speed: the third one must be eaten faster than the first two
👉 In 2010, the route of the famous international cycling race, the Tour de France, passed through almost exactly the same area. On July 24, an individual time trial was held from Bordeaux to Pauillac — a distance of 32.3 miles (52 kilometers). Thus, within the very same wine landscape, two completely opposite philosophies of movement existed:
Tour de France: faster → even faster → as fast as possible → to the absolute limit of speed
Médoc Marathon: château → wine → costumes → music → entrecôte → another château → more wine → oysters toward the end → and the finish line, after all, isn’t going anywhere
And the distances are almost mockingly similar: that Tour de France time trial in 2010 covered 32.3 miles (52 kilometers), while our marathon is just over 26 miles (42 kilometers).
Except that the winner of that cycling stage, Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, covered his 32.3 miles in about an hour, while the organizers of the Médoc Marathon give their participants entirely different opportunities for deciding how to spend their time.
Some came here to fight for every second. Others stop to drink wine. And yet both groups call what they are doing sport!
One road through the vineyards of the Médoc—and two races. Stages of the Tour de France have passed along these roads, and every September they welcome the runners of the Médoc Marathon. The leaders have one thing in common: they have no time for wine, cheese, or oysters. For both cyclist and runner, something else matters now — every second counts
🔥 Wildfires and Wine
…Bordeaux, summer 2026
In the second half of July this year, wildfires in the region were exceptionally severe. Nothing of this magnitude had previously been recorded in local statistics. Bordeaux’s famous vineyards were not directly touched by the flames, but local winemakers were concerned about the smoke, which traveled far beyond the fire zones, and about its possible effect on the quality of the wines to come.
The fires coincided with véraison—the beginning of ripening, when the grapes start to change color. This is a sensitive stage, although the situation would have been worse had such intense smoke occurred immediately before harvest. But in September 2026, no one yet knows the final answer.
For Americans familiar with wildfires in Napa or Sonoma, the term “smoke taint”—smoky flavors and aromas in wine—is already all too familiar.
An American winemaker might ask his French colleague:
— Did the smoke reach you here?
— It did.
— So what happens now?
The Frenchman shrugs:
— Now we wait.
The smoke has cleared. But the answer to whether it remained in the wine will come later
Californians have already learned how to wait for that answer. Bordeaux is only beginning to learn how to live with a changing climate.
🎭 Costumes
The 2026 marathon was not just another annual event—it was the 40th edition. The organizers deliberately tied the anniversary to the marathon’s own origins, choosing “Les Années 80!” — “The 1980s!” as the theme. In a sense, this year’s celebration returned to the very decade in which the event was born.
Marathon participants usually—though not necessarily—run in costumes of their own choosing, making an already difficult distance even harder. But the 2026 rules put it almost as an order:
“Le Médoc se court déguisé!” — “You run the Médoc in costume!”
And so, on September 5, characters associated with the 1980s ran—or walked, depending on how things turned out—through the vineyards, past the châteaux, and along the country roads of the Médoc.
They reflected the changes that had taken place over those decades in Bordeaux itself, in France, and throughout the world. The 2026 Médoc Marathon became not only a race through the local vineyards, but also a journey through forty unforgettable years of history—from 1985 to 2026.
The costume theme had been announced. From there, it was up to the imagination of the runners—and ours as well.
So we decided to imagine whom and what we ourselves might have liked to see at the starting line. What costumes could tell the story of the forty years that had passed since the birth of the Médoc Marathon?
Here is our imaginary “runway” of participants:
No. 1—Robert Parker (1982)
In the 1980s, American wine critic Robert Parker became one of the most influential figures in the world of wine. His reputation was strengthened in particular by the great 1982 Bordeaux vintage: Parker was among the first to rate it exceptionally highly, while many European wine experts were initially more cautious.
His 100-point rating system quickly gained international influence: a high Parker score could increase both demand for and the price of a particular wine. Eventually, even the term “Parkerization” emerged, referring to the influence of Parker’s tastes on wine styles and market preferences.
Nos. 2 and 3—Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan (1987)
This pair represents not Bordeaux, but the wider world of the 1980s. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev became the central figures in the final years of the Cold War and in the gradual rapprochement between the two superpowers.
Their meetings in Geneva in 1985 and Reykjavík in 1986, followed by the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987, became symbols of the changes that would radically reshape the political map of the world by the end of the decade.
Two men who began the decade on opposite sides of a political divide ended it considerably closer to one another.
No. 4—Aerobics (1982)
Aerobics became one of the most recognizable symbols of 1980s popular culture. Bright leggings, leg warmers, headbands, and rhythmic music turned ordinary exercise into a genuine craze.
Jane Fonda played an especially important role in this phenomenon: her Jane Fonda’s Workout video, released in 1982, became an international hit and helped spread the home-workout craze around the world.
No. 5—Michael Jackson (1982)
It is almost impossible to imagine the music of the 1980s without him. After the release of Thriller in 1982, Michael Jackson became a global superstar. Our Michael Jackson look-alike wears the famous glove and an instantly recognizable stage costume.
No. 6—Madonna (1984)
Following the release of Like a Virgin in 1984, Madonna became one of the defining pop icons of the decade. Her costume features lace, jewelry, and the provocative fashion of the mid-1980s.
Together, Michael Jackson and Madonna are musical symbols of the era in which the Médoc Marathon was born.
No. 7—The First Commercial Cell Phone (1983)
In 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X appeared in the United States — the first commercially available handheld cellular phone. Enormous by today’s standards — a “brick” weighing about 1.8 pounds (800 grams) and costing nearly $4,000 — it quickly became a symbol of status and of a new technology: mobile communication.
No. 8—A Portable Cassette Player with Headphones: The Walkman Era (1980)
The Sony Walkman itself had appeared in Japan in 1979, but 1980 was the year it began its international breakthrough and became part of popular culture. The Walkman made music personal and mobile: for the first time, people could walk, run, or travel around the city with their own personal soundtrack.
No. 9—The Personal Computer (1981)
On August 12, 1981, IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer 5150. Personal computers had existed before — the Apple II, Commodore PET, and others — but the IBM PC became a major milestone. It helped transform the personal computer from a relatively specialized interest into a mainstream business tool and laid the foundation for the enormous ecosystem of IBM-compatible computers — one of the defining symbols of the technological revolution of the 1980s.
No. 10—Rubik’s Cube (1980)
Ernő Rubik invented his cube in Hungary back in 1974, but it was in 1980 that the puzzle reached the international market under the name Rubik’s Cube. Deceptively simple in appearance, it became a worldwide craze and one of the most recognizable symbols of the new decade.
No. 11—Pac-Man (1980)
In 1980, the Japanese company Namco released the arcade game Pac-Man. It quickly became a worldwide phenomenon and one of the most recognizable icons of 1980s video-game culture.
Pac-Man helped take video games beyond the audience traditionally associated with the “space shooter” games of the time. The idea was simple, colorful, and immediately understandable to almost anyone — a yellow character gobbling up dots in a maze.
No. 12—Dallas (1980)
The television series Dallas became one of the great TV phenomena of the 1980s. The series itself had premiered in 1978, but it was 1980 that turned it into a worldwide cultural event.
The season-ending question “Who shot J.R.?” created an extraordinary sensation, and by the fall of 1980, tens of millions of viewers were waiting to learn the answer.
The intrigues of the oil-rich Ewing family helped make the Texas cowboy hat one of the instantly recognizable images of early-1980s television.
No. 13—France and the TGV (1981)
In 1981, France launched commercial service on its first TGV high-speed rail line between Paris and Lyon. On September 22, the line was officially inaugurated by French President François Mitterrand, and regular passenger service began on September 27. The TGV quickly became one of the defining symbols of France’s technological progress in the 1980s.
Of course, thirteen costumes could never capture an entire decade. The 1980s left behind countless other events, discoveries, and images, any of which could also have appeared on the starting line of the Médoc Marathon.
France:
• 1981 — Abolition of the death penalty in France. One of the most significant social reforms of François Mitterrand’s presidency. The law was promulgated on October 9, 1981.
• 1982 — The first Fête de la Musique. On June 21, France held its first nationwide music festival, an event that would later spread far beyond the country’s borders.
• 1989 — Bicentennial of the French Revolution. France marked the 200th anniversary of the events of 1789 with major celebrations.
The World:
• 1985 — Live Aid. The massive concerts in London and Philadelphia demonstrated the new power of global popular culture and television.
• 1986 — Chernobyl. The nuclear power plant disaster became one of the most tragic and enduring symbols of the decade.
• 1986 — Challenger. The space shuttle was lost 73 seconds after liftoff, shocking millions of people who watched the launch on television.
• 1989 — Fall of the Berlin Wall. One of the defining symbols of the end of the political era that had shaped almost the entire second half of the 20th century.
The list could go on for a very long time. That is why the theme “Les Années 80!” gave the runners an almost limitless range of possibilities: all they had to do was open the enormous wardrobe of history and choose a costume that suited both their size — and their interests.
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