Sani Stagger 2014

It is so great to have a wife who whenever I suggest something says yes! To celebrate our anniversary we normally do something different like Kaapsehoop Marathon in 2011 when we took our Moms to a cute little cottage ,left them there  for the day as a we sauntered  down to Nelspruit to qualify for Two Oceans 2012. A race we never did because we went to Nepal instead.

Sani Pass is a beautiful drive which we did as a tour on our first anniversary when we stayed at Sani Pass Hotel and on our own for our 10th when we stayed at Fairways. So logic said we needed to do the Sani Stagger Marathon for our 20th!!! We decided to try and get Fairways and if that Timeshare came through we would try and get into the race. Well the Timeshare came through with a beautiful Chalet on the 14th Fairway looking at the Rhino- a 3030m peak. The day entries opened I was online and could not get onto the site for about 15 minutes.Eventually I got entered only to be thrown out again when I tried to get Liz in. The race has 230 places for the 21 which is just the down part of the race and 500 for the marathon, eventually I got Liz in as well, numbers 13 and 24!! Previous winners get the low numbers so we must have been near the front..  Later I heard the 21 sold out on day 2 but the marathon only got to 407 entries.

How do you train for a marathon that gains 1500m of elevation in 21ks only to turn around and go back down? I had visions of doing specific hill training but nothing materialized, we did a few fast 21s as well as a hardish SABS 42 where I did a good first half but struggled for pace on the second lap and Liz struggled with nausea and puking. This was 6 weeks before Sani so it had to help. 2 weeks before we set off to do a 25-30k route from home only to be caught in a major storm at 16ks where we were at our furthest from home. Liz and Shane got cold and managed to get a lift home, determined Dave however completed his walk, I had never actually trained in the rain and actually quite enjoyed it. Needless to say Liz and Shane got colds! We would normally have done the 32k tough one the week before Sani but went to the Natal Midlands to celebrate Nikkis 50th- normally stay with Nikki and Myles before Comrades.We managed to do a 20k on the Saturday but Liz was still not feeling good and on Sunday it rained before we could set off on a training wun.  Liz went to the doctor on Monday but managed to get better without taking antibiotics... that was a relief for me....
Liz needed some new running shoes and the place I go to had some trail shoes on real special, so I got her some. Seeing the previous rain and forecast of more we expected wet conditions on Sani. Her shoes seemed pretty good she decided to use them for Sani, having walked in some mud in the Midlands I decided to get some for myself, being US14 I unfortunately do not get sale shoes. I managed 20ks in the shoes before the race. The forecast looked too good to be true, rain up to the race and once again after the race..Would it hold true?

We had a good drive down, about 7 hours to Underberg to get our race packs, then on to Fairways, as we arrived it started raining, managed to unpack without too much getting wet! What an amazing location! 

As we were getting up at 4AM we had a early dinner, broccoli and humus which is our usual and some ostrich sausage and Bok Choi with Sweet potatoes. We had some biltong and dry wors on the way down so guess we had enough protein. It rained throughout Friday night... we both decided to wear our first ascent base layers under our running vests. This was a good idea as it kept us warm, and prevented sun burn... It rained on our way to the start.. As we parked on a flat field of mud I seriously hoped to be able to get out when done.... The rain stopped, we still could not see the mountain for mist.

One thing I really like about small races is you get to cross the start line just after the gun. We met the one other Midrand Striders member- Peter Bosch en route to the start, he was number 11, also very eager to do this race. Every race needs a plan no matter how faulty it may be..

I like splitting up any race into segments, normally marathons are 7/14 k segments , I guessed that would not work here so decided on

16ks in 1:55  - the so called flat section

next 10ks in 1:55  - the really steep up and down

and final 16ks in 1:55 the so called flat section

This would give me 5:45 which I though would be an excellent time. So what for Liz, I thought she should be roughly 20 minutes quicker per section. 

Well the so called flat section on most races in Gauteng would rate a 4 out of 5. I guess I missed a trick here. A problem with all the rain was that any section of the dirt road that was flat was either mud or a pool of water--- Liz and I were most grateful for our trail shoes!!

I was 2:11 to 16 ks and started worrying about the 3:45 cut off at the top. Not knowing how long the up would take I did no really have an idea of a good turn around time.. At least there was no mud after about 10ks and as the sun came out it got hotter. Gradually the mist at the top of the escarpment lifted and we could see most of the road to the top.. Being as determined as I am I started pushing the pace a bit, at the 14k mark I heard the lead runners had summitted , at about 16 they came past me.. Amazing strong runners, most of whom are top 20 in Comrades quality athletes. The 21 starts 2:30 after we do so we see them coming down en-mass. I guessed that Liz would be coming down with the bark markers of the 21 and did not want to miss her. She had taken biltong, dates and preserved ginger to try and combat her nausea, I hoped it worked! I just munched dates on the way up, they are easy to digest and full of nutrients. I  carried an energy bar which I was to share with her. I was in my last k when I saw Peter come hurtling down followed closely by Liz. She was looking good and feeling ok, did not want the energy bar, she made the top in 3:10 and I made it in 3:20, not a bad time I guess , The top looked pretty innocuous, almost a disappointment. The last 3ks to the top took 41 minutes. Not bad under the circumstances.

 Turn around , yes we are in the clouds!!

  now to get down... This was the view at about the 22k mark on the way back down.

How fast can one go back down? Boy its steep, Each time your foot lands its like 30cm below your other foot. You feel like you are hurtling down  passing all those who were with you in your own struggle up, recognising faces, trying to encourage some. Gradually realising that some would miss the cutoff.. Getting in to the realisation that its down hill now... also realising how much the  going up took out of the body. At 24ks I crossed a stream and stood on stone that rolled, I twisted my left ankle did not feel to good for a step or two then on we went. At 25ks I met up with a runner doing his 3rd race from Estcourt, he wanted to do 6:15 I said I wanted to 5:50! At the 26k mark I was on 3:46 so actually faster than my estimate of 3:50, just to keep it up.  At 27ks a car was coming down behind me and I need to move to the right, the road is very stony and as I changed lanes I stood on a stone and twisted my right ankle, same again pain did not last long so determined too concentrate more, slow down a bit and make sure I finished. Believe me any uphill on the down was hard.. I kept on trying to guess my finish time , my GPS said the course was a bit long so I had to build that into the equation as well.. At 38ks I knew I had to go sub 7:30 per k to break 6 hours, every k marker I achieved my goal. The last km measured 1.2km ( a benefit of an out an back race) I knew I was tight. I made it in 5:59:59 seconds on my watch, official time of 5:59:52 in position 194 of 407 starters. 

Job Done...

Liz and Peter finished in 5:34, if Liz had done her 4:45 that seemed like a good plan at the time she would have been 7th lady overall, and not 7th Vet as she ended up. I guess it is a toughie!!

The rest of Saturday I watched Arsenal beat West Brom , I am not sure if my calf muscles were cheering for Arsenal but they were jumping around a bit. I also had a quad on my right leg that cramped along with pretty tight hamstrings.  We celebrated with a good bottle of Red , a 1999 Le Bonheur Prima that we found in the Midlands last week, and had our first good sleep for a few nights.            

No cramping during the night so that was good. We decided to do a cycle as recovery, my Glutes were both pretty sore and my hamstrings were not sure about the cycle, Liz's Quads were pounded on the downhill so she was tender. We managed a 16k cycle which was good on the legs, we also did an easy walk around  the golf course. On Monday we set off to Sani Spoors for more cycling, great 10ks along the river  with lots of bridges then a good 2km climb followed by our first experience on rocks, these got a bit much , then we discovered a bridge, later we discovered we should not have crossed the river, but we did, cycled round some mealie fields, then through a muddy field, and decided to abandon the trail and follow a dirt track back. A good 26ks on the bike and we were beginning to feel better. A cheese tasting followed by a walk on the golf course... 

Tuesday we did a mtb route at the resort  followed by an extended trip to a nearby resort. 22ks done. I then felt up to 9 holes on the golf course,  I guess Liz my lucky charm should always join me, Probably played as well as I have for a long time. Today we hiked to Sleeping beauty cave and feel that our legs are back to normal so tomorrow we will go up the Rhino, a beautiful peak that we always try and climb when we stay here..    see Comrades 2013 for our last ascent

Comrades 2014

We stayed with really good friends in PMB on the Friday having collected our goodie bag and numbers. It is really nice shirt so that means I will have to complete the race so I can wear the shirt. Also nice we get a different Male and Female shirt. 
On the Saturday we always drive the route even though it is not advised it works for me. We have decided that we will always spend the night before and after race at the same place as we  feel it alleviates some stress. Liz was not in a good space the 2 weeks before Comrades so we toyed with a DNS and a DNF and a finish bearing mind that she baled last year. My mind could not get around the benefits of a finish and we therefore both decided that doing the race was the right thing.
We had a member of our club staying at our hotel in Durban who's second would take us to the start, another possible stressfull situation alleviated. Not sure if I was nervous or scared or still asleep but hey it was 4AM. Martin and Liz at least looked happy!!

The start of Comrades in PMB for me is amazing somehow the atmosphere is amazing, singing Shosholoza and Nkosi sikelel iafrika our National Anthem is very emotional. A really good build up to the start of such an iconic race ...

I managed to get quite far forward as the pens were opened , but still my feet did not move until 90 seconds after the gun and I managed to cross the line in 6:53 even though it was only 228m. 14622 people started  the race from the 20000 odd total entrants a 30% fall out before the start. 

My goal was to get average pace to below 7:38/km and then attempt to get a bit lower and keep it as low as possible  for as long as possible. The biggest problem with this whole idea is that essentially you have a hard 60 odd km  route which is pretty undulating and then follow that with a a tough 30km down hilll. I do find it interesting that my Garmin seems to add distance on the down run but its distance is pretty spot on on  the up run! This affects my ave pace so even though my Garmin said 7:40 at Lion Park the official time was on 7:50.  

  

From the above you can see that the section between halfway and Winston Park is my "slow section", there is a long 7 km long uphill which is pretty tough. I need to include some long uphill climbs in my future training. I really liked the fact that I could  could lower my pace as I got near the end.

Overall I found the first 20ks and the last 20ks great but struggled through the middle 50kms. I guess it may have had something to do with trying to keep updated on Liz's progress via SMS which never seems to work properly! No SMS's came through till 58 ks so I was bit worried but then a friend said that Liz had been through at about 64ks and was looking strong.

I had various  small niggles in the middle 50ks, from tight calves , cramping arches, sore hamstrings and tight quads, the thing that got me the most was my abs and chest that got quite sore. This could  have been a consequence of the downhill and the need to stabilise by using my core.  I did struggle in the middle section but remembering we start an hour before sunrise and end at around sunset it is a long day!! With the year I have had I guess the stress also had a bit of an influence on my day.  

I do find it interesting how many participants I keep on meeting along the way who I either know from other races or this one. Runners tend to go quite fast downhill and then slow down uphill so we do seem to pass each other quite often. Comrades is a race where I doubt more than 10 entrants actually attempt to walk the whole way, I only know of 3 walkers who attempted it this year, Geoff was 5 minutes ahead of me and he was trying for 10:30 or to average 7:00/km and Gayle who normally just makes it but missed by about 8 minutes.

The most impressive part for me was that I ended strong, I was able to accelerate at the end and really felt good. It is amazing walking along with all the green number club, many who were in their mid 20s, one doing his 27th consecutive race, these are the guys who inspire me to continue, maybe I will still try for my ten, I  have done 4 now, Liz is on 8 so she will definitely do 10 to get her permanent number. 

When I finished  and went up to the  club suite and Liz was not there I realised she must be in  the medical tend and sure enough her she was on a drip as she was dehydrated from nausea and vomiting again! She could not drink the last 10ks or so and was very dehydrated at the finish. 2 hours after finishing Comrades she walked the 1km + back to the hotel with ease. Overall it was a successful day 2 more medals accumulated and some confidence restored.
     
You can view some photos here as they are uploaded Photos
There are also some videos here which give an idea of what it is like on the route. Note by blue cap, it makes it easier to pick me out! Video
    

Comrades Training 2014

What can I say about this years Comrades training?????
When 2013 ended I was so pleased and really expected 2014 to be an improvement, can one ever be more wrong. The only thing that has gone well for me this year is my training, but other parts of my life have not been as successful as would be nice. My 85 year old mom broke her leg in December, she never walked again eventually passing away in April, just ten days after Liz's Aunt who was 93, having also fallen and broken her leg and passing away from complications a few weeks later!! My work has not produced enough income this year I am working on some new ventures so hopefully it will improve, Liz's job situation is not easy mostly personnel issues but.... I suppose just a normal year?

Anyway this is supposed to be about my training... I achieved a 10k pb on my only 10k race of the year , getting closer to the 65 minute. I will continue working on speed  for the rest of this year. This year we tried to do more back to backs, we did Tuks 21 followed by Pirates 21 in Feb. These are really good as you walk on the second day on tired legs but you do not suffer the same effects as a marathon/long race. In March I did my first Om die dam 50k which was  my longest walk since Comrades 2013 having only done a 32 in the interim!! It was a toughie but it did help build strength. We also managed to do the Ford 21 followed by the Harcourts 32 as back to backs , the Ford was fast and flat and the Harcourts was pretty hilly but not too bad. I still managed a pb on the 32 which was great.

Our April training was really great,  managed  401km for the month, that was a well achieved goal. We like to do some strange or different races so did the Bergvillle to Ladysmith 52. It was a good race but the profile seemed to downhill near the end but had a slow poison from 42 to about 49 which was quite hard. Liz and I both finished well followed by night at Tendele in the Berg where we did a 16k hike that in my mind I thought was about 7ks, that hurt a bit but helped the recovery. We managed our usual 100km over the Easter weekend, there are organised routes for this but we just do our own thing, I carry a day pack with drinks and food which alleviates seconds and makes us pretty much independent.

In May we did our usual Wally 21 where I had sore shins for the first 7kms but I did manage to accelerate through the race which was good. 4 days later we did Colgate 32 normally the coldest race of the year but this year was warm, I did a  7 minute PB which was very satisfyimg. Liz is struggling with nausea and did not feel great after this race. We are now trying biltong as a stomach stabiliser which seems to help.

So in the end I had done 1421km in training for Comrades, Liz did 1550kms and neither of us actually missed any training day this year because of injury or colds/flu. That is quite a record.
   

Comrades 2013.....

What a race, up to 52ks I was feeling great, then the wind almost blew me off my feet. My legs got really tired walking into that wind, the dust dried my mouth out.... I normally  would have a sachet at every other table, from about 60 ks  I was taking an Energade and a water , and was thirsty and dry halfway to the next table.
At 72ks I met us up with Liz, the first thoughts were, "wow shes finished and come back to second me" however I soon realised that was not possible - she had baled, she been puking for about 10ks this has never happened to her before, after a race yes but not before.
The number of pukers and passed out going up Polly's was really scary.
Finished with a PW of 11:54.

Ok so summarising this years training, we missed too many long races - Long tom cancelled - :Loskop rain, possibly also my dislocated toe, stress with Max, work issues etc. But there again how do you train for excessive heat and wind.

We left Joburg for our 6 hour drive to Maritzburg to stay with Nikki and Myles as is our custom. They have a really great house and a re a most welcoming family, on the way down we decided to go to get our numbers on Friday to save some time, we also went to the finish area so as to familiarise ourselves with where to go and what to do on race day. We had Liz's cousin Joe with us from the UK so we showed him the International tent, and our club tent. He though the trip down was quite short, as he fell asleep as soon as the car was moving  We then went to a spot called Worlds View its really beautiful, with amazing almost 360 degree views. Had a nice relaxing meal followed by a good sleep, probably the first of the week. An amazing Omelette was followed by a drive down the route, this may be a bad idea but it is good in some ways to know whats coming. One problem was we did the route on the way down, which tends to hide some hills.

We checked in to our hotel a mere 15 minute walk to the start the 15th floor!

We walked to the expo as Joe had selected  Durban as his pick up point. The normal queue was taking about 2 hours, Joe had an International pickup which was really quick. We browsed a bit then left a few tonics with various sponsors/charities with spots along the route went to see the start area, and timed our slow walk back to the hotel. This took 20 minutes, there was a short cut we could take so 15 minutes was allowed. We spent the afternoon preparing everything, then took a short walk along the beach. A friend Gerhard  joined me with a Guinness and we went off to dinner. I had peri-peri Chicken breasts, they being Durban were nice and hot, Liz also had chicken, Joe being a youngster had a Pizza and a Pasta!.  

The alarm went off at 3:45, what an ungodly hour, at least the Durban start is warm, no sub  5 degree starts here. Joe headed off for breakfast, I munched a muffin, Liz never eats before a race. We set off for the start around 4:30 and I took an appletiser to drink along the way, I had a  consciously hydrated well over the last few days, but then I stopped drinking so much on the evening and morning of the race, this was a definite decision as I tried to limit my pee stops.

Got to the start and H batch at the back was already about 6-8 rows deep. Liz (C) and Joe( D) went forward to their batches. I met up with a few club mates, shared some stories....Just before the start a lady a few meters from me collapsed, it was very stuffy and hot for 1 hr before sunrise. They managed  to move her off the route, you never find out what happens in cases like this. The National Anthem was sung with gusto, as the enormity of the race starts to dawn...

As the gun went off , I  started my watch, 2 minutes later a guy next to me asked when the gun was going to go off! no movement yet. slowly we moved on and got mobile. Out of Durban is ok as the road is quite wide and  although it is up hill, I actually tried to think of the race as one long uphill....

 
 In the past I have always struggled with busses as they keep over taking me then stopping and up setting my rhythm. They generally have a run walk statergy, but there were no 11:30 busses, so no one trying to emulate my pace. I passed the 12:00 bus at 2ks and never heard or saw them again. I felt really good as I went along just trying to get my my average pace down to  7:50 region. My first k  having taken 13:36, I achieved my goal at 20ks, just as we started up fields hill, which was hill number 2, yes you are right this year I hardly noticed  Cowies which is hill 1. It was around I here I passed a "lady" with as WALKER tag. a while later she was in front of me, I then discovered she was running the downhill- I voiced my severe disapproval of not covering up or removing her walker tag.  I met up with Carmenn at 34ks within 30 seconds of my estimated time 2 seconds out from my previous up walk. . Got a tonic water and some dates along with a  chocolate coated nougat... Liz was 40 minutes  ahead, Gerhard  was 30. Liz was therefore a bit behind her goal.... My dates got me up Bothas hill which was a real ba$tard 2 years ago  I lost a lot of motivation on this hill. By 42ks I was 3 minutes faster than last time, by 52 I was 6 minutes faster, I at this stage thought i could maybe do a 11:20!!   At around 40ks they had a tv on and were cheering on the leading runner, I joked to someone next to me, they say its downhill all the way now, this was met with a stare as I walked past. At the half way i caught up with as walker Edward and I thought great at last I can find out more about him, as I was about to draw level he stopped with his club tent, he passed me right near the end on my first Comrades. He baled after Polly Shorts this year.

At 51ks we started a nice downhill, as I turned the corner the wind almost blew me off my feet. I was struggling to walk downhill, as it was a berg wind, ie coming down the mountain and heating up along the way, it was hot, being about 1pm it was at its hottest.. it was really hard work into the wind, my legs started aching from the exertion. over the next 20ks till I met Liz I lost  5 of those minutes, I did get another tonic from the Breakthru tent at 59ks which helped a lot, quinine being an anti-inflammatory. I did take a Norflex around here as my legs were understandably getting a "little" tired. As I started off after the BreakThru table I saw Geoff who is a really strong walker, he normally gets faster the longer he goes- his goal was a 10:30  so I knew he was in trouble, as he appeared to be puking. I passed him, as he stopped to get some magic spray on his hamstrings. He almost caught me going up a hill but appears to have baled somewhere as he did not finish.

I did not know what to do when I saw Liz, I knew it was really tight for me to make it, if i tried to help her, we probably would neither have made it. Not an expert on the subject but puking says your body has had enough, she was probably dehydrated, could not keep anything down. Not sure what to do I respected her   decision as the wise one. We have  gone through it a few times, neither of us have ever baled a race. My one consolation is she recovered quickly, and over the next few days added the 16ks to her weekly total, feeling absolutely fine, She could have ended up in hospital.
To quote from a news report

"833 runners were treated at the Finish Venue at the Pietermaritzburg Cricket Oval; 366 were attended to at the main Medical Tent while 427 sought R&R, rub-downs and mild treatment at the St. John’s Tent. The majority of the patients were treated for dehydration and exhaustion.

35 patients were treated at Durban’s St. Augustine’s Hospital while 61 patients were treated at Pietermaritzburg’s St. Anne’s Hospital. Of these, four patients were admitted to the ICU at St. Annes Hospital while one patient was admitted to the Medi-Clinic.

The Comrades Marathon’s medical provisions for Race Day have been described as ‘possibly the world’s largest temporary medical facility outside of a conflict zone’.

Dr Boulter says, ‘The main Medical Tent usually sees an average of 250 patients on Race Day but this year was different and more demanding in that we attended to 68% more patients."

I hang on till the end roughly losing 30 seconds per km to my previous UpWalk. I passed some people I knew, many lying motionless on the side of the road, I was really hoping the medics got there fast but not much one can do! I basically felt that I could make it so tried to walk conservatively, not forcing the pace, but still going fast enough to get complete the race. I was drinking 2 sachets at every table, 4 times my norm, I did not have to stop for a pee break, normally I have stopped twice.  The wind dried my mouth and removed all sweat. I was thirsty for the last 35ks of the race, 2 sachets hardly wet my throat. 

  

There is no better feeling than hearing the stadium announcer telling you how little time you have but knowing      that you are "safeish" Its not over till the fat lady sings.. Going in to the brightly light stadium, suddenly you realise a day has passed since you left Durban, and once again you will be rewarded  with the smallest medal you will ever receive. I guess its reminiscent of the old war medals, not the modern day Dictator medals and I suppose we do this race to honour those who have died in defence of their countries. The fact that it was a PW of 11:54:52 has no bearing, I am enormously proud to have finished this race. I was bone dry when I got to the finish, it normally get cold very quickly in PMB but I did not need to even  change my clothes.     

The queue was toooo long at the energade/soup tent so I set off for the BreakThru tent. Liz was looking a bit distraught for not finishing,  but at least hour family has 10 medals. Will there be more? I guess there will.....

Gerhard finished his 10th Comrades what an achievement, I've known others achieve this, but to have a friend and  training partner do it was really very special.  He did 10:59 which gave him a bronze medal for finishing within the old (but not original) cut off.   Joe did a very comfortable 9:47, he says with lots of walking.  

We set off to find Carmenns car she parked outside the parking area but traffic is a real pain as so many seem to wait until the last finisher finishes. We went to Steers and most had a double thick Chocolate Milkshake which was eaten with a spoon....

5 of us got our tired legs into the car, at least its as Auto as Gerhard (I think) had his legs on the gear lever, being the tallest I was in front, my quads were in a cramp for half the journey.... Thanks Carmenn for the excellent service! dropped off at our door, we went to our rooms to analyse the day. It was really hard for Liz, but I suppose it could have been worse. 8 years ago she watched comrades from her bed while recovering from DVT. 

The next day we treated ourselves to breakfast and then off to uShaka Market  to buy some spices  and a bunny chow for Joe, this is curry served in a 1/4 , 1/2 or full loaf of bread with the dough being taken out to make room for the curry. Having promised to order a full, he settled on a 1/4!!

We now had a date with 6 others from Liz's family who we were meeting at fairways in the berg for the week.

This was a really enjoyable week with list of wine whisky and no song. I played 8 holes of golf on Tuesday   

 Liz did a 8k run, I did 12 holes on Wednesday and felt much better for it.  Debbie introduced us to PNF stretching which helped my hamstrings and calves recover. No injury just over work tiredness. A  number of the family went for a tour up Sani Pass ( reminds me must enter Sani Stagger on 1st August .  http://www.sanistagger.com/STAentr.htm ) 

Then on Thursday the 4 youngsters went up the Rhino, a 18k hike with about 1200m elevation gain. Jono struggled a bit but the other three had started comrades so were much fitter. It is a tough hike but its the 3 rd time I've done it and I enjoy it every time.  Joe ended up running up the last section with hot on his heels. On the way to the start the temp in the car said -6degC. I doubt the day temp went much above 15..  

Liz and I both felt rotten on Friday while driving home, headaches flu or something. My calves are a bit tight now and I can feel my quads a bit from coming down the Rhino. We both still have headaches but hopefully a few days rest will cure all..

We survive to race another race!

Suikerbosrand Done

We were invited by the mountain club of SA to a presentation by Nepal Tourism on a group of Nepalese woman who have set out to climb the 7 summits see www.sevensummitswomen.org for more. We could not turn this opportunity down, having been in the Kumba last year. So Namaste's were brought out of the closet, it was a great evening although they served us dinner around 9pm. A bit late for the night before race!! We ended up going to bed around 11:30pm. No Guinness this time!

The alarm sounded at 3:30, we got ready hoping to leave before 4:00am, I was not exactly sure where the start was but we entered the entrance gate I found on my gps and off we went. There are tow entrances, this was not the right one. I managed to find the other one on the GPS and off we went, a bit of dirt driving was fun but a shortcut none the less. The road in the reserve could not cope with cars parked on either side and traffic both ways so it took some time to find parking, then to sort out our entries,Liz wen to the loo and I said  to meet back at the car. About 100 in front of me with mere minutes to the start, the helpers were struggling, many people could not find their numbers but they kept on searching. I saw our names on an envelope, being tall helps sometimes, grabbed them and  gave them to the guy handing out our T shirts. I ran back top the car, it was only a few minutes before the start, got our numbers on, I have printed some labels without details on to save time. As we were leaving the car we heard the announcer I guessed the start was delayed. Others were still coming in to the car park. We made our way to the  where we though he start was, where are all the runners?  I stopped to tighten my shoes as my feet were moving around in my shoes. In the distance we see the leads runners nearly a 1km down the road.. no delayed start, start the watch and off we go. When I got to the 1k marker my watch was close enough to 1km to be happy I found the start.
   

 This the profile, other than the up and down it has no correlation to the profile on the entry. Having some severe misgivings about the race , the organisers etc, by 5km I was really enjoying the race. I set out to do the downs at or below 7.00/km and to try and keep around 7:30 on the ups.   I did however decide to keep it comfortable and not push too hard. I ended up going a bit slower than I hoped- my hopes were actually way too fast for this route. I find it amazing when doing a 52 how going through 21 or 32 or 42, which are normal race distances, does not feel like the end of the race, but just an achievement of a distance marker. I go to 21 in 2:34 which was good, 32 in 3:55  and 42 in  5:14, I was really happy with these times, but up to    35ks my average was still 7:22. It was from here onwards that my pace slowed. The hills contributed but also the lack of long distance training had an impact. I suppose that's why we do these longer races, to build up the required stamina.
It was encouraging to be able to leave many runners behind over the last 10ks, even when we drove out after finishing I saw numerous runners who I had passed during the race. Next major race is Loskop 50 on 20 April, there is the possibility of a 50k training walk on the 7th April, maybe a slow  LSD there would be a good idea.
I really struggled with my shoe laces today, they were way too tight, I did not want my heels moving up and down. I tried  stopping to loosen   them and release the double know but then a few ks later the knots came loose, but were still tight over the top of my foot. I could feel they were really tight but did not want to loosen them too much.The tops of my feet, directly under the laces knot were pretty swollen after the race, they have gone down today but are still a little tender. I think these shoes are a narrower fit than my other pair of Kayanos. I will need to sort this out before my next long one as these are intended as my Comrades shoes...

Another race down, 248ks for the month so far can I get to 400? Time will tell

52k @ 52

This race should be fun on Thursday

Sunward Fordyce 52 km, Half Marathon & 10 km
Date: 21 March 2013 Time: 06h00 Organisers: Sunward Athletics Club Distance: 52; 21.1; 10; 5; Province: Vaal Triangle Start: Kareekloof Facility Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve
Enquiries:
Contact 1: Cheryl Gould (W) 011-5249502 (F) 086-6503503 (C) 079-5907259 (Email) admin@sunwardac.co.za (Website) www.sunwardac.co.za Contact 2: Brian Gould (C) 078-4576893
Entry Details:
Pre-entry Closing Date: 14 March 2013 www.enteronline.co.za Pre-entries close on 13 March 2013. Entries are also accepted at the start from 04h30 but are limited to 1 200 entrants for the main race.
Route Description:
Difficulty Rating: 4. Route Type: Circular The route winds along a tarred road through the scenic hills and valleys of the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, and finishes at the Kareekloof picnic resort. The organisers promise a tough but unusual run as a variety of animals can be spotted along the way. This route is always challenging but rewarding with excellent pre-Comrades hills to negotiate. This race has been described as "not for the faint-hearted" by participants.
Suikerbosrand Marathon
Prizes and Give-Aways:
Gold medals to category winners and silver medals to all finishers in all three events.
Course Records:
Name Time Year Men J. Teffo 03:13:06 2006 Women L. Folsher 03:57:10 2012
Editor's Notes:
The race takes you away from the demands of urban traffic as only official organisers' vehicles are allowed along the route. A number of clubs are using the event as a pre-Comrades long run because of its timing on the calendar. The route offers everything Comrades has and possibly a little more! Because of environmental and logistical sensitivities it is imperative that you arrive early for this race. The half marathon starts at 07h00 and has a 3:30 hour time limit. The 10 kilometre race also starts at 07h00 and has a 02:00 time limit. Finishers: 812

http://www.runnersguide.co.za/Calendar/RacesInSa/Details.aspx?RaceNo=1500029397

Vaal Marathon

As noted previously this years race planning  has not worked out like previous years. I like to do  my long races about a month apart to allow for recovery between races. I am essentially now 1 marathon behind what I had planned, but missing a marathon is not a real problem as I prefer longer slower races.

With the disastrous month of Feb behind us- Sasol cancelled, Holiday gone wrong, near disaster with Max our precious dog.... March looks set to be a much better month for me anyway.      
In the the last few weeks we have not been able to train as regularly as we normally do, but I still got some good sessions in, Liz however needs her daily fix and without she gets grumpy, loses focus and .... enthusiasm.

We were up at 3:30 to head off to Vereeniging for the start of Vaal marathon, the fast and furious route promising a good time for all.   I had hoped to leave  just before 4 so as to get to the start around 5, to allow enough time to stretch the legs , enter and hand in Liz's tog bag. We were only a few minutes late but the traffic build up was starting as we got within 2km of the stadium, the trusty GPS got us a back route to the parking.
Entries were simple, the air was a lot cooler than expected which could be due to the presence of 3 rivers in the area, even by the start at 6 am it was warm enough.
My goal was to follow my pacing chart from fellrnr, get my ave pace to 7:00 and then keep it there as long as possible, knowing my max pace should be around 7:08.  This was a big race so my first km ended up taking 7:46, there were wide enough roads to allow the field to spread out I soon got into a comfortable stride.By 6kms I was at 6:59 and feeling good, I was wary of going to too fast as I have done a few fastish 21s lately and did not want to overdo it, I was trying to walk within 10 secs of 7:00 /km, a feat which I achieved  until lap 23 which was fine but after lap 12 I never got below 7 until the final km...
There was a sub 5:00 bus which was led by Vlam  I was never more than about 500m ahead of them, I knew I could not allow the bus to overtake or I would be in trouble. At one stage around 35km the leading runners caught up with me as they started a walk cycle. I seriously got tired of hearing the singing and breathing instructions right behind me. The lack of longer walks was causing me the fear that maybe I was not going to make ...  ks 30- 34 were my slowest of the race, i slowed to 7:35 on two of those laps. It was around then that I knew i had to dig deep, a increase my speed a bit. I managed  a few 7:15 ks and kept the bus at bay. I really had to dig deep, but the thought of having to do another marathon for my qualifier was like a real kick in the backside. I know we need to do some ultras and was not sure of qualifying on a tough Ultra like Suirbos- where I am only hoping to average around 7:30 for some good time on my legs.  These thoughts spurred me on as I raced for the stadium. The bus was bearing down on me as we came in to the stadium, I could almost hear their feet landing behind me....        I held on beating the bus by a few seconds, 4:59:04 on my watch. My second fastest 42 on my watch, I did 4:58:59 at Kaapsehoop in 2011 and my third sub 5:00 after 4:59:30 at Elands Valley in 2010.

The day before the race I hydrated well , took some salt tabs, and carbo loaded with a Guinness.

How did I feel aftewards?
My left hamstring cramped as I stopped after crossing the finish line.
I felt much better after about 15 miuntes at the club tent after the race- this was a real blessing as I was not expecting a club tent. The muffins were great thanks so much to Kebu  for organising the eats.  I had about 2 L of energade  before leaving the  car park..
We stopped for Tonic water on the way home, a great after race drink, the chocolate milks were finished damn.
I drank more energade at home along with a rehydrate. I did have a few calf cramps but they were not as bad as after Tuks and Pirates back to back, the legs felt much better after drinking more.
This morning my hamstrings are a bit tight and my calves feel like I've done a 10k.
So hopefully the good recovery continues, I think the extra fluids after the race have helped with my recovery

I do not like marathons, but looking forward to Suikerbos 52 on the 21st March.