My UTD race, apologies for the length, but it was quite fun to type out...
We were greeted with snow and ice covered mountains when we arrived at the top of Sani Pass. This was staggeringly beautiful but obviously worrying at the same time. There was a lot of talk about how cold it would be that night up in the high peaks, it was also expected to rain or even snow later that day (we ended up being very lucky though). At the race start a new time cut-off was announced at 45kms because the team didn't want anyone going up Thabana Ntlenyana (this is the daddy - just under 3500m elevation, the highest peak south of Kili) too late into the night. This new cut-off bombed my wifes timing calc's so she ended up missing that by 15 mins I think. Given that shes run 200 km this year (no jokes) she wasn't expecting to finish but was happy to go for a nice mission through the mountains, but this cut was a bit shorter than she would have liked.
The first 40km of the race was probably my most comfortable running/hiking ever, everything just worked. There were bouts of thick mist and a pretty chilly wind at times but nothing untoward. Heading up Thabana though I can only assume it was altitude sickness because it ticked all the boxes - nausea, incredible fatigue, headache, dizziness, throwing up, which made my progress very slow. Luckily I wasn't cold at any stage but the ice-filled wind howling at the top of that peak was truly vicious.
Back down into Sani backpackers which is at the top of Sani Pass the nausea gone, throwing up mostly gone, but fatigue, headache and dizziness never left me for the remainder of the race. I was 2 hours ahead of cut-off and feeling pretty meh. Saw my wife up there, heard her story, and those of a bunch of other people and pro's whom had bombed on Thabana. Food and drink weren't going down but I plodded on. Sunrise while on 12 Apostles and Khanti Ridge must be one of the worlds most beautiful vistas. Its a simply astonishing place.
I'd fallen down some rocky section the previous day and landed on my knee, and by 80 odd kms this was really starting to slow me down on any slight downhill, stomach still not playing ball, and I reached that all too familiar space of just being over it (along with some catastrophic chafage). My pace had fallen below the average I needed to get through 130km cut-off and I was just moeg. I grabbed my phone and told my wife I was done. When I saw them much later at the 100km aid station I walked up to the timing person and told her to cut off my tracker box thing and cross out my name. (No jokes this is how it went, it sounds dumb now when I write it) My wife grabbed my pack and said come sit over here. Her and my parents handed me clean clothes, new food, drink, smiles, and total disregard for all my self pity and bad decisions. She said she would get changed and then pace me from a couple km's down the trail. Off I went.
She not only ran with me for 40kms but got me through the 130km station cut-off by 30 mins. We were really moving and the lack of food and drink was really really just disintegrating my legs. Its now the second night and by 140kms she had to leave me and I bashed on by myself. Sometime that night the sleep bug bit hard and I had a few times when I literally fell asleep on my feet, its only a quick stumble but jeepers it was tough to shake that unable-keep-your-eyes-open feeling. (also I never really hallucinated that night, maybe a little disappointing..) From the final aid station I had 3 hours to get through probably the most technical and slow 11kms of the whole route. I knew it was impossible as I probably needed 5 hours but I went out of there hammering. So much so I went down the incorrect trail, despite being marked with the same tags, but my watch confirmed a km or 2 later I was way off course. Then resigned to not making the 45 hour race cut-off I started backtracking. Halfway back I came across the sweepers and a couple 100km racers. They told me I could not go behind them to pick up the correct trail as they were certain that despite my watch disagreeing this was indeed the right direction. By then I was REALLY over it and just walked with them down where ever we were going. We did eventually connect with the proper trail, maybe 4 or 5 extra kms.
By now the sun was starting to come up, again. We came to a point where I recognised our lodge in the distance and I knew from having been down a certain trail when we were there in December, would get me out of this never-ending debacle. The sweep phoned his HQ but they said no I can't leave them and must just finish the gorge section but I needn't worry because I'll get an official finish anyway. Which was news to me. Fired up the rickety old legs and I marched down that trail, sweeps and a battling 100km guy in my wake.
Final couple kilometers I see photographers come bounding down the trail shouting my name, taking pics and trying to interview me. At some stage my wife phoned me and said a surprising amount of random people had been tracking me, wondering who this stupid oke is that refuses to die out there. Last hundred meters on the lawns of Premier Resort were like nothing else I will ever experience again. People were cheering from their hotel balconies, they came out of rooms and the restaurant, and had lined the finish chute. Everyone seemed to know my name and seemed so happy to see me back. It was the most magical moment of my life.
47:05, 169kms , stone dead last miler.
