3 hours 2 minutes

3 hours 2 minutes from start to finish. And what a finish that was. I was up at 3:30am Saturday morning to psyched to sleep. Out the door with a kiss from the hubby at 5:00am. All the way to Newlands the place is buzzing like a carnival at that time of the morning! People are everywhere getting ready. I've got my radio cranked loud to get me even more psyched out in the car. The parking lots are all full I've heard by 4:30am! Guess I'm not the only one who's pumped about the race. So after stressing for 25 minutes I just park the car down a side street, make a note of the name of the street I'm in and join the throng heading for the starting line. The starting area is like a rock concert at 5:45am in the morning! It's rocking and rolling. What a great atmosphere. The mayor is there cheering us on. Shosholoza is playing and feet are getting antsy wanting to go. The gun goes off at 6am and it's hell for leather! I only cross the starting line at about 6:07am because of the 11,000 strong racing along Newlands Main Road. This is so great about running in the street when it's dark! Exactly what your mother warned you not to do. But it's hard to get a running rhythym because there are so many people. And thanks to the two guys from the Rhondebosch Running club for being the comedians/cheerleaders that time of the morning. It was absolutely magical coming onto Constantia Main Road as the sun was peeking through. Southern Cross was the mother of all hills. By this time I'd been run/walking for an hour plus, and it was beginning to feel like it. Slogging it up never-ending Southern Cross is a test of mental strength because the body is packing up, but the mind is what keeps me going. Now I know why they say it's the "World's most beautiful marathon." It really is. Sunrise on Rhodes Drive is magical and wondrous and it distracts me from how tired I'm beginning to feel. My dreaded calf muscle started taking it's revenge on me by the 16th kilometre so the last 5 kays were no fun. So I babied it and just jolly jogged and walked the whole way. Turning onto the finish line stretch at UCT the crowd was cheering us on like no tomorrow because we were so close to the 3-hour cut-off. I put ego aside and walked because by now the calf muscle was burning and I didn't feel like going for the glory and ending up with a strain, pull or worse yet, chronic injury. So I didn't get their medal, but what I got was a lot worth more than anything I could hang on my neck. I did it for the cause and for the kids and I finished it. The whole time in those last 5 kays I was saying "that's it. I've now done this thing and I can check it off my to-do list. Never again. This sucks, I'm in pain and I'm tired. What was I thinking." And as soon as I crossed the finish line and the reality of my accomplishment sunk in, I said, "of course I'm doing this again. I must make a note in my diary to sign up for it this year for next year." Swollen ankles, dehydration, overwhelming fatigue, burning calf muscle, legs that felt like granite filled wooden poles - it was all worth it. Now I know why people do this for years in a row. I'll be looking out for more running buddies next year. We can do it. Thanks to all of you who supported me. Thanks to all the children who inspire me every day by showing me what they can do and how this accomplishment puts all their hard work into perspective. Thank you to my husband for who he is. And thank you to Siyabonga, my trainer, for coaching more mentally than physically. You're all superstars. I'll pick this blog up again next Spring when training starts again.

April 9, 2009

It's here folks! April 11, 2009 is two days away. I'm off to get my legs massaged, my back adjusted and it's up at 4:15am on Saturday morning. Race time start is 6:00am. I'm about as ready as I'll ever be. I'll be blogging in next week about the experience.
The only easy day was yesterday.

April 11 is approaching fast.

It's staring me hard in the face and it's not blinking. There's no getting away from it now. My race number is 50697. Look for it and try not to laugh if I'm hobbling my way down the street. I ran with Siya this morning and he's confident that I'm going to be fine. He was telling me about all the food there will be on race day, and that's enough to motivate me. Because I'm at the stage now where I don't want to be "toughing" it out for nothing any more. I want it to be comfortable. I want there to be food, water, drinks, and enough toilets. I have "safe toilet syndrome" - you know us types. We won't potty in any toilet we don't know, so this is going to be interesting! Ja, I know I'm showing my age, 44, and I'm proud of it. It's taken a lot to get me to this age, so I've nothing to hide. I'll never tell you how much I weigh, so don't even think about it. And nogal, I'm in the veteran's category. How'd they figure that out? I've never run a 21 Kay before, so it must be the age. Jawellnofine. We did a great run this morning and Siya told me he can see that I've improved. I've only taken two weeks off (not in succession) - one because I had some personal issues to deal with and then last week when we had training with Dr. Liso from Johns Hopkins. Now the pressure is on. Now the word is out and everyone wants to know if I'm still going to run. Well I have to, don't I? I am the face of Autism Action. I must continue to raise awareness for Autism. I'm going to run with our new t-shirt on - so look for me. I'm training my mind that I'm going to run 30 kays because I read somewhere that if you tell your brain you're going to run "X" kays, then your brain starts shutting down around 1 hour before to conserve energy. So I can't do that. I have to start training to run 30kays, so at 21 kays I'll finish with some energy left. Ja right, tell that to my legs around the time I hit Southern Cross Drive. Have you seen that monster? It's about 2.2 kays uphill. So I'm back on track and looking forward to this challenge. The only easy day was yesterday.

Yipee!!! Got my orthotics and running again, albeit on the treadmill, feels just fantastic. I guess my body just got used to running with me being out of alignment and got used to the pain and discomfort. I didn't know how bad it was until it's not here any more. So one more week of running on the treadmill and then it's me and Siy hitting the streets again. Man, April 11 is just around the corner and staring me hard in the face, so no more excuses - just hard work and pain :-) I ran a 5K on the treadmill this morning and it felt good. Talk to me once Siy gets his hands on me again and it's going to be a whole different story. Paul and I have been driving up Southern Cross road and it's about 2 point something kays UP to Rhodes drive. So we drive this one every week so I can imprint it in my brain and just get over the fact that it's part of the course and I'm going to have to do it. We're going to attempt to do run Southern Cross drive as soon as the kids go back to school and I have some more free time. Until then, it's treadmill running and road running is going to be a shock to the system, I just know it!

The only easy day was yesterday