We stayed right by the start, made logistics a pleasure. It still looked like the traffic was a bit of a balls up - there were Ultra runners still going over the start mat half an hour after the gun. It's just not realistic to get that many people down a single road. I also seriously do not understand why registration was not at the start finish like last year - not to mention no address was given - just Harties Running Club which doesn't even register on Google Maps. So apart from having to drive off to the other side of town, you also needed a little luck to find it. They also committed the cardinal sin of running out of water... it was super hot, but it generally always is, so it's not really an excuse. Some of the guys from our club didn't have water or 3-5 water points straight. That's asking for serious poo... especially when the temp on the road is in the high 30's I just ran the 21km... my physio warned me doing the Ultra would be suicide. So for once I listened and sadly had to kiss my OMTOM good bye. It was a good thing I downgraded though as I only just kept it together for the 21km, last 6 odd kms's was pretty rough as my whole right hip area was pretty determined to seize up, but I just made sure not to stop and give it a chance too. I would never have made the Ultra. Ran 2:02, it was a pretty tough route, it's just never flat around there. Was pretty cool to watch the winning Ultra guys come in... 5 Nedbank runners dominated the race, all coming home in under 3hrs for the 50km. Hoping to run the Run Zone Northern Chase 32km this Sunday, should be a good step up and hopefully put me in position to qualify for Comrades at Jackie Gibson. Lot's of work to do personally.
