1st up Lourensford Half So Saturday morning we were up before the sun and set off on the 45min drive to the start. We left in good time so as to miss the traffic!
I wasn't feeling strong, but I still hoped to be up there in the 40+ field. In fact this race was run on farm roads and had a lot of climbing so it was right up my ally.
And yes I started slow, but as we climb I started to 'eat' up the field!!! was lying 2nd 40+ man at 7km when I saw a dam... I just had to dive in for a swim!!! Some how I forgot I had glasses on??? ended up losing 30sec (+ the 15 sec for the detour and swim) looking for them. (the longest 30sec of the day).
I lost my 2nd place, but was back in the race and with one more hill I caught Seppie. The plan was now to fly down to the finish, but I was finished!!! The legs didn't want to race down to the end. Seppie left me for dead (which I was). I still had a big gap to 4th place, over 60 sec, but I wasn't running the fast km down the hill and was caught 1km for the end. Would have had that 3rd place without a swim, but the dam was shorting my name I had to dive in!!!
That evening I had a couple of friends round for a braai. Now here I want to say it was a quiet evening, and I always have quiet evening, but Sunday I had Family round, 15 of them and well it's never quiet with them!!! It had been the most perfect day, hot and no wind, so the pools was called into duty...
To give you an idea of how good a day it was, I took a couple of pictures on my run up the mountain in the morning:
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| The long road up... |
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| Me at the top of the mountain! |
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| The view to Kirstenbosch |
Have a GREAT bday weekend :D mine's on the 15th ;) december babies unite!
ReplyDeleteWow--that looks spectacular. Lucky you. And happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a great birthday weekend, racing, swimming, socializing, running a great trail up the mountain. What more could a man wish for? Belated birthday greetings young man!
ReplyDeleteI've never been swimming in a middle of a race - but then, I've never run a race where a dam's called my name either. Sounds like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteHappy bday - great pics as usual!
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday!! I'd love to run a race on my birthday weekend one year. Though it comes right in the middle of the summer, so I might be tempted to go swimming just like you did!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!! Cheers to many more.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful views! And happy birthday.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your comment, my last marathon was small; about 320 runners finished before the 5-hour cut-off (more people ran it but the organizers are strict about the time cut-off because they reopen roads and intersections). The half marathon and 5k were much larger.
Wow! Happy Birthday! What a great weekend! You look great!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, love the idea of feeling free enough ina race to be totally mental and jumping in a dam/pool, but it would never happen! Love your Mountain you are blessed, cheers
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