WINELANDS

We woke before the partying youth would return home and with Dawn and the Puppies packed we headed out to Stellenbosch...

The rain had left a chill in the air, I hear there was snow on the mountains, and with most of the clouds lifted and very little wind it was ssetting up to be a great day for marathon running!

OK so we should really have left 10-15 min earlier to beat the masses and the traffic. I didn't need a real parking bay as Dawn was going to be following the race.

I left Dawn to feed the 'Children' and walked to the start joining a couple of friends on the front line!

It wasn't long before we set off, well I set off while half the field bolted off as if they had lined up for a 100m sprint!

Slow down, Slow Down a marathon is a long way and I can't run that fast... 

Finally I caught my friend Eddie and a couple of other guys, the pace felt good and we passed 1km in 4:08 perfect just want I wanted..

Now when it comes to running I am a bit of a control freek! and it was long before I was setting the pace with maybe 10 guys feeding of my energy! It was easy going to start with and while Eddie only stayed up front with me for a couple of km (he wasn't have a good day) I had plenty of over guys to chat too.

5km 20:37, next 5km 20:23, and the 5km to 15k 20:28... Now having arived at the start a little letter than planned ment one thing, no 2nd toilet stop! So while on any normal training run this isn't needed, there is something about a race (even if not racing)... I left the grown at 17.7km and rejoined the race 1min 20sec later and a kg lighter! 5km to 20k 22:22.

I was now on my own and full of running, so I set about chasing the sub 3 bus down... 20:20! OK let me tell you a little about the route now: While it's very flat till 15km then there is a hill to 20 and another to 25, and while I thought the weather was still great for running it was raining! (and I was ahead of the hail!) The bus I had kept together for the first 17km was in pieces I by 22km I was passing them. The wind now picked up a bit, but that was a good thing as it was time to turn and head back. I now had the last 2 guys from my bus in my sights and by 26 I caught them, it was a slight inclimb so I just went by dropping the Nedbank runner, but Seppie joined me. On the other side of the 'hill' Seppie picked up the pace, I told him to keep it easy as we still had a long way to go... I did think it was a little cheeky of me as he is a super star runner in his own right with a 62min half to his name! (but that was a long time ago and I do have more Marathon under my belt than him!)
We ran together 20:08 21:05 (up a little hill and on a gravel road) 20:32... That would take me to 40km, but Seppie who had struggle on the hill wasn't struggling any more and at 39km kicked... HA HA HA I wasn't going to race him it was about keeping the body moving smoothly and that's all I did... 2.2km to go 9:02.

OK have you done the maths? 2h54:57 and still running 4:05/km at the end... maybe there is a little fitness coming back!

Sorry no pictures today, while dawn was watching it was chilly and wet, so she was supporting from the car, and not jumping out to take pictures!