20 September 2015 – “I ran a marathon” – these are words I
never thought would be uttered from my lips.
A year ago I had only ever run one half marathon (Two Oceans), and had
thought to myself that I should maybe look at doing two this year (2015). That
was until I started chatting to David Wheeler at Karen Hartley’s birthday party
last year October. After a glass of red wine and clearly some ‘Dutch courage’, agreed
to do Landmarks half marathon early in November with him. I had been quite
daunted to get over doing another half marathon after that initial one. That’s
when the slippery slide of longer races started. Realising that a half marathon
was not quite as hectic as I had thought, the next big challenge I set myself
was the Bay to Bay (30 kms) at the beginning of the year. I did for quite some
time say to myself that was that, I wouldn’t run anything further than 30kms.
Famous last words…
Not too sure when exactly in the year it happened, something
short-circuited in my mind and I thought, “mmm…a marathon…, why not?” even though
the side kick had a dim view and said that I was not quite ready to tackle it,
I think this spurred me on even more to enter Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. My main thing was to tick it off the list to
say that I’d done it, as well as proving to myself that I could.
After downloading the Asics App to help with a training
program, more or less sticking to it; running at least three times a week and
having Graham’s guidance and company through the longer runs we were pretty
much as ready as we could be. My main aim, besides finishing was to finish
within five and a half hours. This seemed quite possible with a seven hour cut
off time. It is so weird how 21, even 24km runs become training runs. My
favourite training run is still running from Hout Bay to Camps Bay, the run
back is tough, however we get to run the ‘home stretch’ down Suikerbossie.
The morning of the race slowly crept up on us, and before we
knew it, it was race day. Umpteen Gu’s in hand, a sturdy breakfast of health
bread with honey and a cup of coffee I set off. Thérèse, Matthews, Admire and
Noma all drove together. Parking was not too bad, we parked along the main road
just past Mouille Point – a bit of a
walk to the start. On the way met up
with quite a nervous 10km running lady who could not stop talking. Arrived at
the pen area, loo stop and headed to the start. Graham had given a lift to the
other runners, so we did not start together. Saw him in the sea of faces behind
us, unfortunately he did not see me. My strategy was then to wait for him at
the first watering point and run together from here; we couldn’t have trained
so long for the marathon and not end up running together. Fortunately he caught
up with us quite soon.
The weather could not have been more perfect; a bit chilly
and overcast – no wind. It warmed up quite a bit later in the day. It was incredible to have Table Mountain as
the backdrop at the start. What I love about races is that it takes you on
routes and paths that you would never get to see or run at any other time. One
of the paths was along the MyCiti bus route.
We started the walk / run strategy fairly soon (run for 9
minutes, walk for a minute)– for the life of me I can’t remember exactly where,
whether it was around the 20km mark or perhaps much sooner. It was as we passed
the Grand Parade area. It felt quite silly to start walking; was feeling quite
strong at that stage. Graham did advise that it was in preparation for the
later kms that awaited. I must admit that it was great. We followed the same
strategy for John Korasie (30kms) and we only started it quite late into the
race (we wanted to run Red Hill as long as possible before stopping – which was
great) I was gagging for that minute each time; having started the walk/run
strategy sooner, made it a lot easier throughout. It really was quite a
surprise that the kms passed quite quickly.
What was wonderful, was to see Noma along the route! So
special to have her cheering us on!
The Rotary Club of Newlands helped with the marshalling;
sadly I did not see too many. Saw Tony van der Lith on the back of a
motorcycle; Jana at the Sunflower Fund watering station along the Rondebosch
Common. Terry at the Sahara Park – where he cheered us along with his vuvuzela!
Saw Jenna at about the 38/39km mark and Graham Lowdon in the beer tent
afterwards.
It was quite something to reach the 30km mark and to know
that it was the furthest I had ever
gone, and then again at the 40km mark.
As we made it onto the field, it felt quite surrealistic to
think that we had made it. What a
feeling! I won’t lie, felt quite shattered and a bit dizzy. Luckily other
wonderful team supporter – Darren brought us some water.
Time: 05:42, so not quite the 05:30 I had hoped for, am
still SO impressed and proud of this achievement and grateful to my body and
mind to have seen it through.
Before retiring to the beer garden for an ice cold Coke (a
beer was tempting, however didn’t want to take a chance with a weary body and
still having to drive home) – I took off my shoes and I had the biggest blister on my big toe ever! Clearly
had not ‘Vaselined’ as well as I thought I had in the morning.
Strangely I was not so hungry as I normally am after a run;
a km from the end at John Korasie, I could eat a cow and couldn’t get the
Boerewors roll into my system quickly enough. Took me some time to get my
appetite back; may be all the Gu’s and Coke along the way.
I’m not put off doing another one, in fact I would love to
do the New York marathon in 2017. Now to get back to the drawing board to see
how I can improve on my 10km times. [At this stage, Ultra and Comrades are not
on the cards at all – I’ve learnt to not say never, so I am rather saying -
chances are slim – and fortunately
didn’t make the cut-off time for qualifying.]
Very proud to say that I am now a marathon runner.
