Comrades 2010

Wow, we made it!!! I will give a quick race report and look forward to Darl's report to come...

So, we started our adventure in Petermeritzburg and stayed at a wacky, but wonderful guesthouse that was about 1 mile away from the start line. Our new friends Rex and Mark Andre from Ottawa came with us and we had a great trip telling race stories and met up with them again to pick up our race kits on Saturday.

Our hosts at the guesthouse were very friendly but we are pretty sure they were wasted the whole time we were visiting!! There was a nice family also living in our guesthouse and the Indian lady kept on insisting that we eat her amazing smelling curries and "poykie" but we had to say no to prevent any stomach mishaps on race day. But we did agree to come back to Meritzburg in the near future (after we hike in the Drakensburg mountains) to have a proper feast with them. We also stayed with some people from South Carolina and they were also wonderful.

Unfortunately the day before the race something went really wrong with our stomachs yet again. At first I thought it was just nerves but after the 8th time to the washroom we were pretty sure we had food poisoning AGAIN. So, you would think this would have made us upset but as we lied in bed getting ready to go to sleep, we just started laughing. What else can you do in that situation?? So at least we went to sleep in good spirits despite how our stomachs were feeling.

During the race I knew early on (about 15km into it) that I was not feeling right at all. My legs felt like lead and I think the dehydration had already gotten to me. Luckily I brought 5 gels with me, and forced myself to down as much energade sachets and water and coke and salted potatoes and jube jubes as I could stomach to keep myself nourished. I was disappointed early on as well because I couldn't find any nice running buddies to talk with and help distract me from the pain. After 30km the downhills REALLY started to hurt. I now understand why everyone says an up year is easier. I was looking forward to the hills we had to climb because they were so much easier than going down!!

The crowds are what really got me through the race. They were amazing!! I had women singing me songs in Zulu and dancing, people drinking beers and offering me some as well, and just genuine looks right in my eye and telling me I could do it.

Crap, I will write more asap!! I am out of time online!!

Link to Comrades Article about us!!

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=41204

We are famous!!

So yesterday we were getting ready for Colin to just show up (as he often does on Sunday mornings) and he came like usual at 11am. But instead of going to his place, he told us to suit up in our team Nedbank gear and he was taking us to be interviewed by a local paper! So we had to sit with this hardcore Comrades guy for the next two hours while he peaced together the running adventure we have been on since arriving in Senegal in Jan. He even got a media pass into the world cup stadium so we could get our photos taken! So now we have all these awesome pictures to show you all when we return. Also we will post a link to the newspaper article as soon as we find it. The guy expected it would be out on Wednesday.

Other than that, life has been good lately. We even rented a car last week and Darl drove standard on the opposite side of the road, changing gears with his left hand, up the huge crazy hills in this town. It was very impressive! And we got to escape the city and head to some beautiful beaches and a nature reserve north of town. We also did a walking tour in the city last week and learned lots about the history of Durban. We went to the train station where Ghandi was kicked off of a first class coach, which apparently triggered his early ideas about passive resistance. AND we saw the roof of the train station that was mistakenly built here instead of in Toronto so it can withstand several feet of snow if that were ever to happen!

This week we will be heading to the expo to get our race kits, meeting up with some Canadian runners for drinks, and then heading to Petermeritzburg for a couple of nights before the race. Then we run ALL the way from Petermeritzburg to Durban! Then we get to get back to living like we are on vacation again and seeing sites and making our way to Mozambique for the next leg of our adventure to begin.

Feeling at home in Durban

Three weeks has passed and we are still here in Durban counting down the days until Comrades. Life here is pretty simple... we chill by our pool in the mornings, take a "taxi" (which is a cheap mini-bus full of people) downtown or to the beach or a museum, then we run, eat, and and do it again. We have met some great people and spend a lot of time with our roommates from Norway. The girls took me out for a night of drinking to help calm down my nerves and allow me to forget about running for a little while! It was good times indeed.
Also our running friend Colin has begun a ritual of inviting us for Sunday lunch where we get to eat his wife's amazing cooking and chill by the pool with some beers and his family. His wife is even going to teach me some of her African recipes like steam bread and briyani- I am very excited!!

Biryani and more miles

Hello!!

We now have some idea about the Comrades course. On Saturday we ran 68km of the route with our new team, team Nedbank. One of our team mates kept telling me I was a "strong lady" in Zulu, so that made me feel very confident and excited about the race coming up! The day went really well, another running group was on the course also so we got to reap the benefits of their awesome aid stations. Darl got forced to eat Indian Biryani with mutton, we also got offered cake, chelsey buns, beer, water, coke, etc. to help us make it through the 6 and half hours of running! Man, we are meant to live here in Durban!

All out of time but I will write more soon!!