Lactic-Haze

Between a 21km 1/2 marathon and a 42km marathon lies 30km…well…in my peanut brain it does. That’s my story and I’ll stick to it. So, as part of my IronMan 2010 training I decided to do the Bay to Bay 30km run on Sunday. 30km’s doesn’t seem that far. I’ve done a 21km and it’s only 9km further…hah! Problem is that Bay to Bay runs over Llundudno, down Suikerbossie, then back over Suikerbossie and down Llundudno before going back to Camps Bay. No problem!

Sunday, up at 4:30am, get dressed, eat, do my morning pre-race check before driving to the start. Arrive about 15mins before the time and find myself a spot after doing a few stretches. Greet some people from the office and wait for the gun. *bam!* and we’re off. I promised myself not to set off too fast, hoping that I could conserve some energy for the way back. In my mind I hoped to do a 3hr race, but I knew that was just a dream, and that 3h15m would be a more realistic time to aim for. My snazzy new Garmin 310XT kept my pace in check and I was feeling good. On Llundudno I started running with a girl from the office (Gabby) and she was part of a two person relay team. She was hoping for a 1h30m 15km, so every km I gave her a pace check and we managed to chat a bit.

Soon Llundudno was a thing of the past and we were running down Suikerbossie, myself guarding against going to fast and aggravating a ITB that sometimes reminds me that I was not built for running. At the 15km mark I said goodbye to Gabby as she turned in to the transition area and I kept going, feeling a little bit under strain now. I grabbed a water sachet and wolfed down one of my Gu’s before hitting the winding neighborhood climbs out of Hout Bay. Walk a little bit, then run again. In front of me a blonde lady twisted her foot and I asked if she was ok “I’m fine thanks!” came the reply, and a quick look at the Garmin said she was doing the same pace as me. We started running Suikerbossie together and chatted a bit, me grateful for the company.

Gabby (girl from the office) drove past and greeted us both, turns out I was now running with her relay partner doing the 15km’s back to Camps Bay. Talk about small world! On Suikerbossie, blonde lady even had the strength to quickly take a pic of me suffering up the hill. Bicycle or feet, that hill hurts!

At the top of Suikerbossie, with 21km’s done in just under 2hours, I told her to go and that I would pootle on at my own pace. Blonde lady would have none of it and told me to just hold her pace. I thought ‘ok, lets see how this goes’, and the downhill went at a decent speed. We were passing some people, and other fresh people would pass us, but we got to the 25km mark in another 20minutes or so, leaving me with 5km to do in 40 minutes. Now the human body vs spirit is sometimes a very interesting battle to witness. My legs were saying “woaaah tiger, easy there! we’re hurting!”, but my mind said “dude, 40minutes for 5km’s, you can pull this shit off!!”

At the 27.5km mark (a water stop) I finally stopped to walk and grab some water plus coke and let blonde lady go. The proverbial wheels were coming off. I ran to 28km mark, with 2km’s to go, and had a look at the Garmin. Lots of time to spare, so I walked for 100meters and then started running again, but now only doing 6m45s/km. Beep! Last 1km to go. Shuffle shuffle, keep going, see the line, walk a little, run more. Woop woop! Crossed the line in 2h53m43s. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would make it in 3hrs, much less beat that goal by another 6 minutes. Much thanks goes to Gabby from the office and her blonde lady friend for the company and pacing. Aaah runners, I must say, they’re a friendlier bunch than cyclists