COVER N. 516 - MOROCCO

Postmark: Meknes CD 20.09.2024

Posted on the 20th September; Received on the 3rd Ocftober 2024

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The Marathon.... I can't even imagine what it is like to run for over 42 km... for me running is mostly pain, intermingled with boredom and suffering... I love to walk, at my own pace (which is not that slow...). Proof of that is that everyday my first routine is to go out after breakfast and walk for about 1,5 hours. I find it therapeutical, and invigorating, and I do get pleasure out of it, something that running completely excludes from the equation, as far as I'm concerned...

All this because a while ago I completed my daily walk and am now in front of the computer with a letter that I received from Morocco with that country's official FDC for the 2024 Euromed issue, this year subordinated to the theme Sports of the  Mediterranean. Un grand Merci, Pierre!

Now that I look at it in more detail, I don't know if the runner wearing Morocco's colours (same as Portugal’s, by the way) sprinting at the head of the race to the finish line is a marathonist but even it was just a 100 m race, my thoughts regarding running would be the same :-)

Anyway, the painting reproduced on the 9.80 dirham stamp issued on 08JUL2024, as indicated in the first day postmark, is quite nice and colorful and  is a fitting homage to all Moroccan running athletes, like Soufiane El Bakkali, who won gold in the 3000 m obstacles race in the 2024 Olympics in Paris.