Tough One: An aptly named beast

At 02:53 on Sunday morning Thor slammed his hammer down on his fabled anvil and opened the heaven’s on Johannesburg. Being ripped from sleep by a crack of thunder that sounded like it was in our bedroom may not have been the ideal way to wake up before a race, but it certainly did the trick. I followed my usual breakfast of toast and honey routine, donned by Jeppe kit and picked up the bag I had prepared the night before, complete with GUs, a pre-race 32GI Endure and a post-race SuperM. Becs very kindly dragged herself from the bed to take me to Jeppe to meet up with Shan, Taryn and Bridgit.

We got to Old Parks at about 05:00, parked and headed off to find the Jeppe tent. As the time to the start of our biggest race to date grew shorter and shorter the nerves began to mount, and by the time we reached Jan Smuts avenue for the start, I was a jittering mess. The gun went off just on 06:00 and we were off (although not very quickly given the number of people around us). We worked well up the first 2 hills, which were fairly easy – Pete ranked them a 2/10 on the Big Boys Scale. As we rounded the corner on to Malibongwe Drive we were all chatting animatedly and enjoying our run.

Murray met me halfway up Malibongwe to tell me I was on pace and doing well, I felt good and we were sticking very much to the plan that Murray had given me. The long slog up Malibongwe was not as horrific as I expected it to be and we turned down onto Witkoppen feeling pretty good, I couldn’t believe that, at that point, we’d done about 8kms. Coasting down the hill on Witkoppen it was easy to break our pace and end up going too quickly, so I kept a pretty close watch on our speed, reigning us in when necessary.

Murray met me at the bottom of the hill again to tell me that the work was going to be starting soon, a few big hills and to keep it up. Each time I spoke to him I meant to ask him how Jeanine was doing (no doubt a good 15 minutes ahead of me), but I kept forgetting. He probably would’ve told me to focus on my own race and stop worrying about Jeanine anyway, but still, I was curious to see how she was going. I was worried about her going in to this race, I felt she wasn’t giving it enough respect. Sure she was nervous and she was scared of it, but respect… I’m not sure – it’s like how most of us are scared of cops but very few of us actually respect them. Somewhere along the line Jeanine is going to meet a race (or a training run) that will (almost) beat her, and as much as I don’t want her to have to go through that, she will and I just hope it doesn’t happen on one of her big runs. I had a horrible feeling it was going to happen today and I was worried for her.

Anyway, we carried on well, by 12kms I was starting to feel my legs and my left foot – the one that’s been niggling for a week or two – was starting to pretty seriously ache. I just tried to ignore it. By 16kms – the halfway mark – I desperately needed the loo and I snuck off at the water point to relieve myself behind a car. When I got back on the road I searched for the rest of the bus and could see them about 50m ahead of me, but on that uphill, I just couldn’t catch them. I caught sight of them every couple of hundred metres, each time a little further away and a little bit more unattainable.

By the time I went through 18kms, I couldn’t see them anymore and I knew I was going to have to finish this thing on my own. I tried to remember Murray’s plan, I watched my watch and checked my pace regularly, trying to get myself up to the 6:30/km that I was meant to be doing on this section, but I was struggling to keep myself on 7:30/km. I walked each water point and with monumental effort, forced myself back into a shuffle again. I just kept telling myself Just chip away at it, just keep chipping, you’ll get there.

Going through 24kms, my foot was hurting so much that I was crying and audibly yelping occasionally, when I landed awkwardly. I saw Greg on the side of the road around this point, he encouragingly told me there were 2kms of nice downhills coming. But it didn’t help, because the downhills were hurting my foot more than the uphills. At one stage, I realised that I was favouring my left foot and as a consequence my right knee was starting to throb, I had to force myself to run evenly or risk damaging something else.

When I saw Murray again, at about 26kms I was really struggling, but I knew there was no flipping ways I was giving up. Luckily, at the 27km water point I bumped in the Anthea, from school and shortly thereafter into Marcus, from the PR agency we’re working with. The three of us were all running alone and were all struggling, and our unlikely band of misfits joined forces to carry each other the remaining 5kms to the finish line. It also helped that Happy came out to meet me and did the last half a kilometre or so with me, catching me up on how everyone had done. I could hardly walk when I finished and the thought of running next to someone else in the pouring rain as they finished their race would have crushed my soul completely.

Murray asked me afterwards if I could’ve done another 10kms, and I categorically (with some colourful language) said no, but I think if the whole route had been like the first 12kms, I would’ve managed. What broke me was losing the bus, it’s harder on your own, but in a way I’m glad I ended up doing it largely on my own because now I know I can.

Jeanine did a 2:58:59, the bus rocked a 3:29:27 and I finished, which was more than I’d planned on doing 3 weeks ago, when I wasn’t even going to enter. The best part is that I never have to do that again, unless I choose to. What a wonderful thought.

I forgot my watch today, so I’ll have to update all the splits and stuff tomorrow. Oh, and Hilary is apparently coming back to running this week, she was there at the finish line to welcome me in (in the pouring rain).