dave a walker: Vaal River City Marathon

Cade is Black , Pasha is typical Husky and Amber

Based on the month or so before this marathon I am not surprised at all about the eventual outcome.

In July 2025 Cade went blind
We adapted but it was hard on Cade as he looked frustrated .
Gradually by July 2025 he was running around like a hooligan chasing Hadedas, barking at the them, chasing his tail...
On the 8 August he puked just before we fed him.
We tried vets , various diagnoses, see progress and regress
On Saturday 29 August he passed away, we presume it was from Aspiration Pnuemonia
We had an good soul searching weekend at Utopia
But arrived home to no power
I reported to Eskom and registered for updates
2 days later sms came through the power has been restored - except it was not..
Back to Alfred and this time updates were not offered.
We went to Di to shower before and after the Marathon..
Really fed up now I escalated the fault. It affected 4 properties as a transformer had been hit by lightning.
I had a missed call from an Eskom number while I was trying to check our solar setup and ensure internet was up and fish were getting some oxygenated water. But ciuld not call back
I therefore escalated to higher channels.
An Eskom Technician Nathi eventiually called and told me that the new transformer had arrived and they would install on Friday...
2pm Friday I called Nathi, Eskom do not have a truck to install the transformer.
Nathi managed to get a truck and install the trsnsformer so Liz could shower before flying to Oz.

From the above which is a brief summary of circumstances, Garmin sleep targets have been missed , stress levels are at all time highs.. There were some highs in that time but overall a really tough time.

Being an overall confident in my ability person I set off with my sub 5 hr goal in mind. I managed to do the first 21 as my first sub 2:30 since Om Die Dorp in January, when I realised this I guessed I would take strain, but still felt confident and it was really only when I started the only real climb at 34km that my calves and hamstrings said how about going a bit slower, whereas my mind said we need to keep this pace to qualify.

With everything going on with Cade our training has been poor especially distance wise.