Monday 4 April 2011

RAC Looooong Run

I did it!! 

60km!! 

My longest distance to date!

Alan fetched me at 3.45am for early arrival, parking and entry at Old Parks.  A few words (that I couldn’t hear) by Vreni and at 5am we were off.  I tried to take a picture at the start, only to get a ‘memory card write protected’ error which I couldn’t sort out.  I also saw Johann from RunTallWalkTall at the start, but didn’t get to chat to him or run with him.

The first hour was in the dark and just a little difficult, going down unfamiliar roads without marshalls and no lighting.  I was really excited to travel thru’ so many suburbs in Joburg and see how they are connected – I’m so used to getting on the freeway that I had no idea how to get thru’ the suburbs.

I happily ran on my own, chatting to a few familiar people, getting a few funny looks because I was running in sandals.  In fact, at one water point, a lady whispered to another lady “look at her shoes” and she bent down to peer at my feet from under the table.  At another table a lady said to another “Here comes that girl I told you about in the sandals”. My husband was helping her at that table and he promptly said “That’s my wife” and she kept quite until I had moved thru’ and then she chatted to him about my sandals.

My husband was at the last 8 water points, giving me Coke and ice and causing me to sit in the boot and chat and rest and refuel.  I really took it easy, had fun and enjoyed the experience.  My right leg got very sore at about 35km, I used a variety of rubs, used The Stick but still couldn’t run down the hills.  I did really well going up the hills but lost a lot of time by walking down.  I still had about 15km to go when my dad called me – he was finished the run and in his car ready to go home.  He just wanted to check that my husband was en-route with me.  10km later I called him to see if he had walked up the last big hill and he had bathed and was lying on his bed resting already.DSCN0014 resize

My overall time (7:25 hours moving time, 8:15 total time) wasn’t very important, the intention was to cover the distance and have lots of time on my legs. 

Objective achieved!! 

Bring on Comrades!!

And I got the T-shirt!!

7 comments:

Char said...

Amazing Staci! How are your legs feeling today? I think I would want a wheelchair for a week after an effort like that.

Karien P. said...

Well done!

Johann said...

Nice run Staci, well done! This is a very big step up for you and you handled it extremely well. That was a killer route they took us over. Certainly great Comrades training. I hope your leg recovers well.

Paul said...

Awesome! Got me beat 8). Doing first 50k this weekend and you still got me beat 8)

Weird about the downs. Probably need more downhill training. (The previous statement is always true.)

On to Comrades!

I am considering some barefoot/sandal running. (!) The next step in less-is-more. Just a teeny bit of running to start.

Kate Geisen said...

Way to go, Staci! I'm amazed by the miles you're putting in. Great t-shirt!

Shellyrm ~ just a country runner said...

Awesome job!

I hope your leg is recovering quickly for you.

Jill said...

YAY, you DID it! A big milestone for you, congratulations girl - so so soooo happy for you!