Strides for Stubby

Hi everyone!!!

So we finished our first ultra and lived to tell the tale!! On Sunday we ran the Chatsworth Freedom 52km and did quite impressively, considering the morning lead-up and the MILLIONS of hills right up to the finish. Darl, toeless but still strong, ran a solid 3:37, placing 35th out of over 5000 runners, and I ran 4:30, placing 5th for the ladies. Not bad, considering we both had several bathroom breaks in the bushes during the race (because we were stupid enough to eat curry the day before the race), then we missed the start because we were sorting our bibs. AND to top it off, I did a massive tumble with 200m to the finish, with everyone staring at me! Quite embarrasing. But we still managed to have a GREAT time in the race! We both made a bunch of new best friends and Darl now has a training partner that came 12th last year in Comrades!! Our other new friend, a coach named Colin, drove us to and from the race, budged through the huge pre-race line-ups to get us registered, and took us site-seeing after the race! Colin was third in the Comrades previously and ran a 5:45!!! So pretty much, we are hanging with the rockstars of ultras here in Durban!!

We also have moved into our new beautiful home for the month. We have a room in an old colonial house, with a brick oven, a pool with palm trees, a million rooms including a bar, a piano room, kitchen with an OVEN!!!, and a great old dog named Bonnie. All for only $700 for the month!!! And we have great new roommates, a bunch of germans, that are all moving out at the end of the month, leaving us with the place to ourselves!!! Doesn't get much better than this!!!

Life is good, and things aren't that scary in South Africa afterall. So don't worry, Mom and Dad!!!

Love you all!!!

Wine and Sorbet- A Great Combo!!

So this morning at 10am we were sipping wine and sorbet and nursing our aching muscles on a beautiful winery in a small town called Stollenbosch, 20 minutes drive from Capetown. We ran a great race of 18km through the vineyards and Darl, back to his old self, won the race!! He even beat the ringer they brought out to challenge him from Pretoria, who has an impressive race history.

What haven't we done in Capetown??? Yesterday we hiked up Table Mountain, and then all the way back down, totally about 19km of hiking to top off our hardcore week of training for Comrades! We are up to nearly 100 miles this week and our legs are feeling it!! Thank god there is so much wine for cheap around here to sooth our aching muscles!!

We also biked around Cape Point, saw mini penguins (that were absolutely adorable, especially when they try to jump!!), wine tasting, botanical gardens, and this Monday we are going shark cage diving! Apparently someone was eaten whole by a great white the other day in Capetown... with people on the shore to witness it! So hopefully we don't die...

Then off to Durban on Tuesday, but first stopping along the coast for some rest. Should be a long haul, about 22 hrs in total by bus. Then a 52km race this weekend... good times!!

Love you all, you all need to come to Capetown immediately!!

Krystal and Darl

Capetown- prettiest city on earth!!

Hi!!

Wow, Capetown seriously kicks ass!!

Oh man, you all would absolutely LOVE this city!! Its beautiful! Huge mountains basically right in the city, super clean, perfect weather of 25 degrees, REAL coffee, white sand beaches, seals at the harbour, and little mini penguins!! I could live here!! Of course there is apparently lots of crime which is a downfall but we haven't seen that yet. But everywhere has bars on the doors and you can tell people are nervous about it.

We have been doing some pretty beautiful runs up the mountains and almost dying everytime; but it is sooo worth it for these views!! Oh and we found a local running group to do track workouts with starting tomorrow. I am scared!!

Oh, and of course, minor detail... I ended up in the hospital... they gave me IV and said i had a pretty bad bladder infection but I am doing much better now!! Oh and this crappy dietitian is low in iron!! That explains the slower running these days and sleeping so much. Damn west african food!! I guess its to be expected considering I haven't eaten many green vegetables or iron-fortified foods in months!!

We have lots of plans for this city but for now we have just been relaxing in our awesome apartment with a kitchen!! We have been cooking up a storm and haven't lost our skills in the kitchen at all in three months. In a few days we are attempting cage diving to see giant sharks, should be interesting...

Love you all!!

Africas Greatness

hey Everyone

Well tonight we leave for South Africas Cape Town but what an experience we have had so far.

Leaving Busua was the hardest thing we have had to do since arriving in Africa, the beaches, people were amazing. Some of the most amazing parts have been our drinks with the local farmers with fresh coconuts cut from the tree, our tombrown lady who deliveredd this delicious porridge to our door step each day at 6:30 AM. Even our crazy lady who it looked like blessed the road each time we ran by made this experience so much richer. We learned to boogie board through the amazing waves and came back with some pretty nice burns. My new nick name is very cool Sports Man.

Ill write more in South Africa but so much to say

Darl

No marriage yet!!

Don't worry, that was just a little April fools stunt that Darl decided to pull on facebook...

So we finally left Busua, our little piece of paradise in South West Ghana in a small fishing village. It was amazing to have two weeks of relaxation time, it was very hard to leave.

So things that happened since our last blog... hmmm... well my bad luck continues. I got chafed soooo bad after a very humid long run. Then I was smart enough to jump in the salt water ocean! Oh the pain. Luckily, our friends recommended that we go buy Vaseline in town. That saved my life! We are so pampered at home with our fancy anti-chafing remedies we completely forgot about good old Vaseline! Also, to continue my bad luck, I found the one jelly fish on our beach and got a wicked sting on my tummy. good times!

Another interesting experience was going to a local church. It was called Assemblies of God and was very uncomfortable for me. Everyone was all dancing around in a trance like state saying hallelujas like crazy and lots of amens. We tried to act like we knew what we were doing and in the end we had a million new friends in Busua!

Next we attempted another long run and got ourselves good and lost trying to find this small village. Luckily, on our way back when we were extremely dehydrated, these nice men in the rainforest offered us fresh coconut milk and coconut! It was just what we needed to get through the end of the run.

Ooh! And the best thing to happen lately, I discovered soybean skewers!!! My first veggie meat in three months! It was truly heaven.

Ok, I am out of time but we will write more soon!

Love you all!!