D day

I considered another title for this post but that would mean you didn't have to read any further, so I'll try to build the suspense.

I slept very badly last night, obviously I was a lot more nervous than I'd first thought! I tossed and turned, got too hot and too cold, looked at my watch regularly, received late good luck sms's and finally it was 4:30 and time to get up. I hate getting up before the sun, it seems so unnatural. After an apple for breakfast we were driving to the start, picking up Melodie on the way. Next thing, we are bunched up amongst a thousand other runners waiting for the start... 20 minutes... 10 minutes ... 5 minutes... 1 minute... 10 seconds... the start gun goes off and nothing happens! Not for a good minute and then another minute to cross the start line!

Then it was a fast walk for the first 10 minutes, which didn't quite work because I had terrible shin splints, so I ran a bit anyway, but my knee wasn't bothering me at all. Had a Gu at the first refreshment station outside Wynberg Girls and found that the little, but rather steep uphill at Carr Hill hardly bothered me at all. About 2km down the road on Constantia road my knee started bothering me mildly, but go progressively worse, I don't know how, but I managed to keep running my intervals which were 55/65 seconds run and rest respectively. My heart behaved well and I had a lot of energy, it was just really a question of controlling my gait to prevent hurting my knee. I managed to continue up Southern Cross drive at about 8min/km but running downhill proved pretty difficult and I didn't pick up any time as I normally would.

We got to the 15km mark in just under 2 hours which was exactly what happened last weekend and my knee was probably in the same shape. Thereafter I could steadily feel my legs getting more and more stiff as my altered gait took it's toll. I was convinced they were going to cramp up. Once again the little hill onto the M3 felt fine, but the little uphill coming into UCT seemed to hurt more than any other hill yet. Managed to run most of the way to the finish, but even the crowds looking on couldn't keep me from taking a few meters walk down the home stretch.

In the end my time was just over 2hours 48 minutes, considering everything I think thats fantastic and I can hardly believe that I did it... all the hard work, the bitching and moaning on my part and the early mornings where I really would have prefered to continue sleeping. They all paid off and I finished!

Now whats next?