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

December 19th. It's amazing what a little R&R can do. I took a week off from anything gym-related and all things exercise and now I feel great. My calf muscle is just peachy and my right foot is peaches and cream. I've had to be fitted with orthotics as my right leg is shorter than my left leg by 1cm and that's what's causing all kinds of issues. I also saw a specialist who advised me that my right foot is operating on some weird motion - too long to describe here. So now I have to wait until after Christmas to begin running again - only on the treadmill, though, and no heroics, I've been told. Just run to get my body back to the rhythm of running and I must finish feeling like I could run for another hour. So no overdoing it! I can do that part. And I've also committed to continuing my strength training on the exercises Siy has shown me when we were doing two weeks of nonrunning-related training. Those were no picnic either. I've promised myself not to overindulge and pig out over the festive season. I've promised myself that I will do my workouts as planned. I've committed to watching my caloric intake. Yeah, right - that's all going out the window when Auntie Elsie's Christmas cake shows up on Thursday!

The only easy day was yesterday.

December 2, 2008 Well, I finally screwed up this time, big time. My calf muscle was still not properly healed, but I attempted to run on it anyway last week. So 1/4 of the way into the run, it starts burning like bejeebers and I just couldn't run on it. So I told Siyabonga this and we babied it and limped through the whole training. I felt like such an idiot. My doctor booked me off running for a week to get this puppy fixed. And then my deltoid in my right foot started acting up and long story short - I felt like walking on my hands because it was so uncomfortable. I met Siyabonga at the gym last Friday - Nov 28 and he put me thru a nonrunning workout that made my legs scream and made the 8.5 kays seem like cake. But it was great. So we've decided to focus for the next week on waking up those dormant muscles that need to get me up those hills and just strengthen my overall program. I love it. The new training schedule will consist of Mondays running, Tuesdays yoga, Wednesdays strength training, Thursdays yoga, Fridays running. That starts in January '09. For the rest of this year it's strength training and hopefully some recreational running if the calf muscle is okay. So I'm resting and rehabbing the calf muscle and it's feeling pretty okay. I don't want this to become a nightmare and lay in wait for the day of the race.

The only easy day was yesterday.

November 21, 2008.

The weather is just how I like it - hot and getting hotter. My calf muscle feels much better. No more limping around the house, but there's still an area of stiffness - no pain, though.

Paul, myself and Siyabonga start running and he runs us for 10 mins at a good clip and rests (walks) for about 1 or 2 mins, and then we tackle the first hill. "Not too bad", I think. I'm still huffing and puffing horribly. It's an improvement over the last few times and it's encouraging. I'm feeling a bit stronger. I'll take it.

We're running hills this morning as I really need to work on this. So we run some gradual hills and then about 35 mins into the run we get to Avenue Bordeaux. This is a monster hill - okay - maybe not monster monster, but I consider my driveway steep so Ave Bordeaux looks tough.

We set out and Siy is just cruising along with me - I'm fast walking this sucker - not even attempting to run it, but I don't quit. Paul's already waiting at the top of the hill for us. Siy is such a great coach and so encouraging. I just adore his quiet strength.

On the downhill my calf starts its swearing at me. Siyabonga tells me I need to strenghthen my calves. Even though I'm very flexible because of my yoga training, my strength is not there for the run. That's probably why I'm still huffing and puffing and still feeling like a sack of potatoes for most of the run. I want to get into that easy running rhythm Siy has. He makes it look so easy so I'm trying to mimic his stride but man, my labored breathing is just downright embarrassing. You could probably hear me three kays away. I wonder what Siy thinks when I'm carrying on like this. Note - he's 20 years younger than us. Not an excuse. I signed up for this. I will do this.

Today reminded me of the good days with autism. The days when my child is the sweetest little girl on the planet - no tantrumming, no perseveration, no crying, no demanding, very little stimming, eating everything I put in fron of her, brushing her teeth beautifully and just being mummy's angel. These are the days when autism wasn't even thought about. The days when life is just great.

Autism is always there and I have to deal with it, but hey, it's not always bad, not at all. If you constantly look for the downfalls of autism, you'll constantly fall down and stay down. If you constantly look for the positive side, you'll constantly be positive. Autism teaches me about myself everyday and for that I'm grateful. The strength that I have found within myself to deal with my child's autism is the strength that's going to get me through that half marathon. This strength will get me through those darn hills.

I finished the run. I got through it, albeit with some struggle, but we ended on success. Days like today are the ones that have kept me going and will keep me going. They exist. They are there for the having no matter what I'm doing.

The only easy day was yesterday.