Yoh... what a damm race. Considering this was our first and training was completely derailed with my itb (which was a resting blessing in disguise), we were always just targeting finishing. We used a 11:30 with 5% fade pacing as strategy and doing 11:30 would always have been absolutely 1st price. So we started off as cautiously as we knew we had to on the up run. At 15kms we already felt a bad patch, I guess due to the continuously up and up. I felt my ITB at 7 already and by 20kms it was so so buggered.... We managed our run walk strategy with using the walks on the most steep parts. The guy that got us into this Comrades into the first place (he got his green number last year) had stomach troubles the whole way and dropped back twice having to visit the bushes and he pulled out at Drummond. The 4th member of our group also had a terrible day and suffered the whole time as well, he dropped back on Fields. So there went all our support and expertise and me and the Mrs carried on. The 4th guy managed it and caught us at Drummond whilst we quickly had something to eat from our support, so from there the 3 of us went again, but he was struggling. We waited for him and I made some calculations, showing him that we will make the 12 hours even with a lot of walks, because we walked extremely fast. On all the hills where the 11:30 bus, that we caught just after halfway, still ran, we speed walked behind and stayed with them. Something we implement rather than run when the effort of running outweighs the speed that you actually do on hills. He said that made him realize that he will make it, but he saw that we were stronger at that stage and on purpose hide from us at a water stop so that we would carry on without him. Our target was 5:40 for Drummond and we rolled in there on 5:39:45. We just simply continued with running as much as we can at a good pace and managing the hills with walks. It was hot, especially with us training in the mornings in the dark, but we just kept on keeping us wet, hydrated and eating the whole times. The bad patches came and went, but we just ignored it. I was so close to cramping all over as well a lot of times. Omtom was a very good learning school on how to handle patches where you want to die. My wife normally gets patches where she just cannot do anything, including walk, and I was waiting for when and how many of them would come, but they just never came. She was absolutely amazing. Untill we reached Pmb that is.... 4Kms to go, people cheering, I starting to move like a train seeing that we are going to actually do a 11:30, she eventually hit that patch. She could'nt run, I could'nt walk with my ITB so painful was it. Everytime I had to walk and start up again it was so terribly painful, but after going for a while it actually became less painful. So I got her packet of chips from supporters (salt chips sorts her out). And there we were walking kms 4 to go until less than 1 to go, with a large packet of Simba mexican chilli chips in her hands and her mouth on fire. Got going again and came in, with our family in the corner of the homestretch cheering us on, 11:39. The other guy just kept going and got legs again, coming in in 11:42, just shows.... All in all we could not have asked for a better race, really chuffed.... The supporter in this race is out of this world. There was a few water stations where they were out of water, which is bad. And then there was obviously a lot of stations that was just energade, where we just wanted water. Then there was those long stretches where the water stations was far from each other, or perhaps it just feld like that. That hill under the bridge in the stadium was going to be a serious obstacle for guys close to the cut off time. After yesterdays drive home we were sooooooo sore last night, I could barely move and then I woke up this morning feeling like someone swopped out my legs during the night. I can't believe how good I feel, walking normally again. Obviously still sore and bending down is terrible, but atleast I can walk. My knee is still sore, so I don't know what I'm going to do with this damm ITB, especially since we got two wild card entries to the Rhodes Trail run in a months' time Two toes buggered and the Mrs can almost not put weight on her one foot since yesterday. She remember twisting it somewhere in the race as well. Will we be doing it again? Well, definitely the back to back yes. The problem then is the Centenary one and the 100th one and then you might as well continue for your green number.... But it takes serious commitment (3AM alarms in our case) and time and with our kids going to grade 3 and 1 next year, their school commitments that we need to be a part of will be becoming more and more. So I'm not sure if we will continue after next years', or perhaps just stick to Omtom being the big one and more and other races inbetween. Time will tell. Serious congrats for every one that made it, no matter what the time. And congrats for everyone that just started this race, it's a huge achievement. Even more congrats for you guys with the ridiculous times, I don't know how you do that!!! And now I am almost as exhausted as I was on Sunday eve... Yeah, very lucky to be some of the few that was shown on tv . When we crossed the finish line and I stopped the Garmin live tracking to my phone, the Whatsapp messages of the tv screenshots was already on my phone, very cool. SABC is pathetic, why can't they show a split screen the whole time. In the beginning when the men finish, they can show them on the one and the ladies on the other. Later they can show the people approaching the stadium and the finish line on the other. Why de heck do they show interviews with people whilst bunches of people finish and their families would love to see them make it. They switch over to a 2 min advertisement break, 4 minutes before the cut-off..
