Race Report

Sportsmans Warehouse 15km

East Rand Mall, Boksburg

I had a relatively late night on Saturday and I had been drinking Pimms cocktails in celebration of my birthday, so when I woke up on Sunday morning, I didn't exactly feel like running a 15km race.  I certainly didn't have a hangover, but I haven't run a race after drinking alcohol the night before so I wasn't sure what the effects would be.  I had arranged to get a lift to the race with Norman, and that turned out to be a good thing because I woke up tired and I'm not sure that I wouldn't have turned over and gone back to sleep if Norman wasn't collecting me.

The 30 minute drive gave me time to 'pull myself toward myself' and I was feeling almost okay when I registered.  I paid my R40 ($5.50)  and was given a black printed number with the 32km printing scratched out.  I am not generally a superstitious person but I didn't wanna be running a 15km with a 32km on my chest.  I apparently caused a bit of an upset in trying to get my black number changed to a red 15km number (I overheard somebody comment that it's a girl thing). A very kind gentleman who got a red number, swapped with me and I got my 15km red number :-)

We lined up, I took a couple of "FEET FOTOS" and I was still trying to get my head into the race and convince myself that I was capable of doing better than my previous 1:40 for a 15km when the gun started the race.

I started running along with all the others and the next thing I knew, I was feeling fine and my watched showed a fast warm up of 6.46 minutes  for the first km.

I continued to get faster as I warmed up and got more into the race.  I was focusing on the C-Shape and making sure my feet land below my column (Chi Running, Week 2). I really was in the zone and wasn't noticing much in my surroundings.  I slowed down thru' the watering points and was very concerned that there were no boxes to throw our empties into. It was a particularly windy day and the coke cups and empty water plastics were being blown all over the place. The first 3 water points had no advertising banners so I am not sure who they were and they didn't appear to be paying attention to clearing up.  I will be contacting The Boksburg Athletics Club to follow up on this.  The watering point at the 12km point did have boxes and there were people sweeping up and picking up - Thank You!  I really think that we need to re-look at the way we offer refreshments to the road runners because there are still alot of runners who don't pay attention to the litter that they create.

I loved the aeroplanes that were flying over to land at OR Tambo International.  The noise is so loud and they seem so close to the ground.  During the race I counted 12 planes landing and I am sure I missed some or got mixed up in my counting.  I was entertained with the thought that these people have been flying overnight from International destinations (planes from Qatar, Virgin, SAA etc) - some were returning home, some visiting for the first time, some on business etc.  It really made me smile.

Highway Views

There were also some really nice houses in the last half of the race as we ran thru' the suburbs. I saw some funky garden statues - a blue buck and a miniture Zulu Warrior, and some colourful birds in a cage and 4 black pug puppies. The thing was - do I stop to take pictures or do I carry on to get a PB?  I chose the latter, have no pictures to show but am proudly announcing another PB - 6 minutes faster than my best of 1:40 at the Colgate 15km in May. I finished feeling relaxed and comfortable.  I now have a cool bottle- opener-keyring to show for my moderate effort and great result.

Reward for moderate effort

Norman finished 20 minutes after me. He dropped me off at home and for the first time in a while, I didn't have to shower and rush off somewhere. Instead, my husband made me a delicious bacon, egg, fried tomato and toast breakfast - the best thing next to Chocolate Milk for recovery.

Norman on the finishing corner