South Africa-3rd Continent

Knysna Forest Marathon, South Africa

South Africa-Third Continent!!
My quest to run a marathon on each continent was chugging along nicely, my Australian and Asian ones were done and dusted and because I didn’t put any time limit on this goal (however, I told me self I don’t want to be running marathons in my fifties), and then there was the usual budget constraints!..I thought this could take me a few more years..at least.

I was happily training for the Gold Coast Half with a lot of my Lazy Runners and of course as usual down on my training Kms. When David emailed from England to say he would be working in South Africa in July for two weeks, and guess what, he found a marathon I could do whilst he was there! Oh joy! I wasn’t trained up, I wasn’t ready, and how could I get time off? Etc, to which he said “start training”.

So my July half marathon training program turned into a marathon training program with less than four weeks to go!

My training for the half was on track, but as we all know a marathon requires so much extra. It had been 8 months since I had run Bangkok. The furtherest I had run before David’s email was 20km! So I kicked it up to 32km on a long, long run with the Lazy Runners on the 22nd June and it felt pretty good.

Now normally I would insist on doing another 30km plus run before a marathon, but I knew I was running out of time, and my other running during the week was way down in km’s due to work. 

A marathon usually requires 50plus kilometres a week, I was battling to get past 30km weekly. I had a week off before the Gold Coast Half (two weeks before the marathon) and I was travelling to Sydney, the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains, so I thought I’m just going to run as much as I can over those days. I did a twenty kilometre run through the Hunter Valley vineyards, it was beautiful but tough , very hilly and pretty cold, the Knysna marathon looked hilly so I thought that good training. I must say that the only reason it turned into a 20km run was because I got lost and couldn’t find my way back! Then I ran 15km in Sydney… my favourite run under the bridge and around the opera house and around Bennelong. On the second day I did the same course in Sydney but took 15 mins off so I think it was about 12km. I did a huge walk with lots of stairs through the Blue Mountains.

Then I gave myself a rest day , travelled back up to the Gold Coast and ran the Half Marathon on the Sunday. It was one of the best halfs I’ve ever run and I hadn’t run a half in over two years so I wasn’t sure how I would go. It wasn’t my fastest (1:41) but I felt so strong and good all the way through, so it made me feel a bit more confident about the marathon which was now 6 days away.

It worked out that I had run 68km over the week and I thought that will have to do me, I hadn’t run more than 30km a week (which isn’t ideal preparation for a marathon), I know you can cram for exams, I wonder if the same applies to marathons, I would just have to cross my fingers and wait and see.

I had three days of full on work and organisation, then a 28 hour flight, then a five hour drive from Cape Town to Knysna and then one nights sleep and up at 5am to run the marathon...not the ideal preparation...and definitely no room for jetlag!

I survived my South African marathon and there wasn’t a baboon in sight, apparently it’s the wild pigs you have to worry about!!

It was an amazing run, but very hard, whoever did the Rattler, multiply that by two and put in some bigger hills!!

When we arrived by mini taxi at 5.30am at the start , 8 of us were dumped out in the pitch black in the middle of a forest and that’s when I thought, “I wanna go home!” Luckily one of the runners had a light on her head and we all just crowded around her and walked further up this dark bush track not knowing where the hell we were going, that’s when visions of wild baboons, were entering my already unstable mind, next minute we heard loud dance music so we just followed where it was coming from, we entered a clearing in the forest, where there were fires, tents, music an MC greeting everyone, he even interviewed me in front of the growing crowd (six thousand runners had entered). We were offered hot tea and coffee, an array of breakfast; it was like one big breakfast party for the first hour. I was having a lovely time drinking coffee, eating muesli bars and I didn’t listen too carefully when they were warning us to add 30 minutes on to our last road marathon time, to allow for the tough course.
Of course like all good parties, it came to an end when they told the marathoners to line up at the start, the start was just two rows of trees leading into darkness, I could see nothing, it was pitch black and we were told to run in there..for the second time that morning, I wanted to go home, but of course I just ran and ran, trying not to stumble in the dark and the air was so cold and still.

The first 10kms were a nightmare for me, I couldn't see for the first half hour so I had to be careful of falling, it was so incredibly cold that everytime a sucked in some air it hurt my chest and I couldn't feel my lower legs and hands. I checked my clock at the 10km mark and it said 59mins, I nearly cried. I like to set my marathon time on the first 10km, which I would prefer to run under 50mins to get a good start..oh dear I was already 9 mins behind and I still had 32km to go! I was in big trouble..so I had to give myself the biggest mental butt kick ever..I told myself I had three 10km races to go and I would worry about the last 2.2 when I got to them!! Those three races had to be run under an hour each, no exceptions..hills, ice like conditions, man eating lions..no exceptions. I straightened myself up physically, I mentally lifted myself up and off I went, as Steve Monaghetti would say, I wasn't going to write myself my own excuse for running poorly before I'd even run the bloody thing.

The first 30kms were through a forest with the highlights being the stunning scenery, at one point I had my head down and bum up crawling up this huge hill, mentally whinging, and then at the top I lifted my head to encounter a view that would have taken my breath away if I had any left! There was mountain range after mountain range, with snow capped mountains and forest everywhere, I can’t tell if I had a tear in my eye, cos it was so bloody cold that my nose and eyes never stopped dripping from the start, but my heart certainly swelled, I was told this was the highest point above the sea level…now let me tell you about the lowest!! 

That last hill on the map was every bit the horror it looked, going down took all you could do was try to stay upright, it was so steep and then once at the bottom, you were surrounded by the tallest mountains, I honestly felt like I was at the bottom of the world, it was very eerie. When I looked up I saw some tiny ants moving near the top and I thought "please God, don’t tell me that’s the runners", it was of course, the South African guy I was running with and I just exchanged a quick glance that said it all “Oh F@!#”. I don’t know how we got to the top, but we did, he claimed it was the spuds he ate at the last drink station! However, once at the top the view was once again stunning and I knew then I was heading home, 10km to go!

Another highlight were the drinks stations; I couldn’t help but compare them to the Gold Coast ones the week before...every drink station was manned by black South Africans, and it was like a party every time you came across one at each 5km mark, in fact the partying became more raucous and the drink stations grew along the way that by the time you got to the 30 and 35km ones it was like a carnival and a Sizzler all you can eat salad bar rolled into one. There were new foods and drinks added to each station so by 35km I was being offered platters of cut up fruit, bowls of boiled potatoes!! Coca cola, Gatorade and water, and everyone wanted you to take something from them, they were so eager to help and support you. It was amazing in the middle of this cold dark forest, the drink stations were like rays of sunshine, you would hear them before you saw them, cheering, chanting or singing, but mostly all them trying to give you something when you ran through.

The last drink station, was an unofficial one at the 40km mark, held by the locals, it was offering sambuca shots and they were very keen for me to partake, however I was feeling pretty bad and I thought it could make or break me, so I refused politely. (I'm sure something I will live to regret)

A lowlight was that I got lost at the turn off to the finish, or the marker person must have thought I needed to keep running a bit further! I realised in my tired stupor, that I had run too far, so I had to turn back!! Then run in and do a lap of the oval, so my 42.2, turned into 42.5, and boy the legs didn’t appreciate the extra 300metres.

When I ran through the finish it was party time and the helpers at the end couldn’t give you enough bottles of Gatorade, I was so loaded up with armfuls of them.

All of this cost me $17 and yes we still got a medal and a long sleeved top and a bag of goodies, it was the best catered for marathon I’ve ever had the pleasure of being involved in, and the most entertaining..but oh dear, that course...however, there was something magical about the people and the place.

I ran it in 4:02:45, 5 mins slower than my last road marathon!

There were 2,000 starters and only 500 finishers!
I was 23rd female home, 4th in my category and 194 place

I've always said that if it took me more than four hours to run a marathon, I would give marathon running away, however, I think I will make an exception in this case. It was a very tough course and by most marathon standards pretty slow, even though it was toughest race I've ever run, I loved it..it was an amazing experience