WARNING: The following is not suitable for novice runners to read, this not a recipe for success or suitable training information.
Those who know me will know the trails and tribulations I have been through with running and the one thing that has been my unicorn has been the standard marathon. My first ever was short lived at the half way cut off, I was a minute over and pulled off the road. The following two ended up with calf fibers torn and the other was a pulled hamstring both resulting in the dreaded and much hated �BAIL.�
So this went like this, I phoned my friend Des to wish her good luck for her first marathon, this was on the Wednesday 25 Feb. Des is a former student of mine who I trained for the Two Oceans Half. She is also the wife of the chairman of my social club, Queensburgh Harriers. She said to me, �Why don�t you come with, there is an open space in the bus� This is where sanity should prevail but of course it didn�t, in my dream book I have several races listed that I will do and yes this was one of them, The Old Mutual Buffalo Marathon. So of course I said yes, no training, just got back on the road after a very nasty accident with my back. Struggling to make sub 3 on the half possibly due to the extra weight I picked up after being off the road for like two months, but hey lets do the marathon !!!
We left Friday morning for East London and on the arrival at the Buffalo Club it sank in, I am doing a marathon the next day, HOLLY HELL !!!
02h00 the alarm went off, knowing my physical condition I doubted the successful completion of this race. So I opted for the slow runner start, this was a very clever move. The race starts at 05h30 however walkers and slow runners (defined by runners who would finish between 5-6 hours) may start at 04h30. Also bearing in mind that this marathon has no cut off at all, except for Two Oceans and Comrades qualifying which is the standard 5 hours.
The catch to the 04h30 start is you are self-sufficient until the main race starts, no problem that is why we have hydro packs. Arriving at the start at 04h00 I wondered again at my sanity, it was pitch black on a main road 3 km out of Macleantown. There was nothing just bush and road and us runners and walkers.
At 04h30 the start happened and on with the trail headlamp, I was one of a very few that had the lamp. My two friends Des and Corrie didn�t have lamps so I stayed with them for the first two kays doing race-walk. When two kay sounded on the GPS I bid them good luck and farewell, plugged in the MP3 player and off I went.
I was now running in the Buffs Marathon, I still could not believe I was here in this race, no training�what was I thinking?
Soon the light came and the darkness fell away revealing the beautiful countryside, for my unfitness I was not doing too bad at all, regular checks on the pace chart and GPS confirmed a possible sub 3 on the half, would that mean a sub 6 on the full ?
One hour and forty minutes later a whirlwind shot past me, which was the front runner, one after the other they came past mostly Nedbank AC, the other clubs were unknown to me.
I was feeling comfortable in my stride, I took regular walk breaks and there was really no problem, I started to relax and even felt my neck and shoulders ached as those muscles also relaxed.
I passed the half way mark sub 3 hours with a flippen smile on my face, bring on Two Oceans, typical here I am on one race thinking about another. I changed over my hydro pack with Amie from the Queensburgh Harriers seconds and continued my run.
All good things come to an end�yes they do. At 30 kays I experienced numbness in my lower back, which later turned into stabbing pains. My right hip and thigh was really sore and the right calf started talking. Hummm lack of training !!!!
By 33 kays I was still running and the dreaded wall did not happen, but I was tried and sore, my feet were fine, up to then I was pretty well self sufficient with my hydro pack BUT the clouds had parted the sun was now bearing down on us and the water in the hydro pack was getting rather warm. I started helping myself from the water tables and man was that great the water and coke sachets were ice cold.
By 35 kay I was not lekker and I had become a walker again. I was struggling, the heat and pain was getting a little too much, I thought to myself�.Self isn�t this supposed to be fun ?
Around 36 kay or so you get to a hill that is a �S� bend, a real nasty sting in the tail, I don�t think in that condition I was in I would of got up this hill. There were some angels just at the start of this malicious hill dressed in purple T-shirts, CURVES. These ladies were terrific, I stopped by their table, they had drums of cold water, sponges and Bar-ones. I cooled down with three sponges nogal, once my HRM got to 114 b/p/m I bid these ladies farewell and tackled the hill. Well this hill chowed away at me and I wondered just how many runners had actually run up this hill. Well I don�t know the road name but I remember the number �22� there was a lady with a table outside her house, she was armed with a hosepipe with a fine mist nozzle and took pleasure in hosing me down. That was just amazing, and you know all the way through the race the East London people were friendly and greeting you, the EP runners all greeted you when the ran passed, amazing people down there.
Well at 39 kay (not sure about the kay number as I was quite insane at the time) there was a water table with something that stopped me dead in my tracks, frozen orange juice, nectar of the Gods. It was so welcome and needed. After that table and about six sachets of frozen orange juice I was ready for the reaming kays. Between 30 and 40 kays I had walked quite a bit, no not race walked just walked, so I had lost quite a bit of time but I was not worried about that, I just needed to kill this unicorn called marathon.
Just before 41 kay I put my had under my race vest to rub the numbness in my lower back, when I brought my hand out again there was blood, this caused serious concern, what the hell is that from, worst of all it is numb there so what ever I have done I have obviously done it well.
I pulled of the hydro pack and carried it in one hand, I looked at the little hiccup ahead and said lets finish this thing. I jogged up the hill into the Buffalo Club and through the finish, I had made it and I finally can put the marathon to bed, done and dusted.
Well my intentional sub six hours didn�t quite work out and I managed a 6:37 not too shabby for no training and dragging extra weight around.
The blood ? Well pretty simple the bottom of the hyrdo pack chafed away at my lower back taking the skin off, nothing to serious that tea tree oil and a dose of profanity could not fix.
I seriously recommend this marathon to any one thinking about a marathon, it is brilliant well organized race that caters for all runners and walkers, slow, strong, fit and unfit. Well-done Buffs AC.
Thanks to Queensburgh Harriers and Dean and Des Wight for the chance to make two dreams come true, do a marathon and do the Buffs.
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You can't change the past but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future!!
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