i often talk about the fact that on a run that long, there are so many things that can go wrong. little did i know how right i would be on this one ...

my bike crew consisting of sweetie mooi and my usual running partner michi, who decided he will rather ride his bike this time. we left the house at noon. I pictured being on the road for 8 to 9 hours so there was no way to really avoid the bright sun and heat of 30C+ - at least that way it would be cooler when i would start to hurt badly lateron. I settled into my long-distance shuffle, found a good rhythm quickly and went into this with my spirits up, high, bouncing along, meeting up with my crew every 3-5K for some drinks, some GU, some electrolyte caps. It was hot and i ended up pouring way more water over my head than i actually ended up drinking. the first 2 hours flew by, the very scenic bike trail follows the river for long sections, then it winds through fields and woods and i made nice progress, at 25K we got to the picknick spot where mooi and i had turned around on a recent 50K - the longest distance i had ever run so far. i must have passed them somewhere while they searched for a place to refill the bottles. i still made good progress but the sun and the heat were slowly starting to take a toll. despite the sun block, my skin was beginning to burn and i was getting very hot especially on sections without sheltering trees. mooi and michi again caught up with me but they were surprised that i had gone that far in the meantime :-) up to 29K the dirt path follows a damn, then it turns off and it meanders through uninteresting houses, there is lots of asphalt, and a shortage of nature. I was seriously beginning to hurt and at the turnaround we found a birding blind on the river, just so i could get out of the sun for a while. i drank, GUed, electrolyted, and kicked up my feet for a bit. 20 minutes later i got up, lightheaded, a burning sensation on my shoulders, back and calves, a splitting head ache and all woozey. the next 10k were a struggle and i failed every humor check that mooi or michi threw my way - another 27k to go, you gotta be kiddin' - at the comrades i wouldn't even be at the halfway point yet. but -this was a training not a race, so i did not feel bad about adding a lot of walking at that point. it was slowly getting cooler as the wind picked up a bit and clouds began to paint impressive sculptures onto the horizon, ever so slowly we moved closer to them and we could hear some distant thunder. with 20k left the sky suddenly got dark, the wind began to howl, and within a few minutes we met the mother of all downpours. mooi and michi began giggling first and then laughing out loud about me, us, the world, the sloshing and squishing, the splishing and the splashing - i could not help but fall in with them and things got better all of a sudden, it was comfortably cool now, running was easier, i was running through little rivers of mud that had formed across the road, puddles deeper than my ankles, yellow slush, brown mud, grey sand splashed up on me and were washed down again a few seconds later - i had collected funny looks for most of the run from bikers whom we had seen several times aleady, often many hours earlier, and in some respect in a different part of the state - but now all three of us were collecting calls ranging from big surprise to ridicule from people huddled under shelters, into gardens, under roofs - oh, these dorks definitely were right, we must have provided a picture to behold, don quixote must have looked plain and boring compared to us, and we kept giggling and laughing all the way, 15 minutes later the rain stopped and the rivers on the road disappeared. it had cooled down a lot and in my singlet i was beginning to feel on the chilly side now. 10K left and i knew that i can get home even though my steam was rapidly fading. a series of lightnings made us perk up, they were definitely close, something must have been struck in the vicinity, sirens started howling, fire engines were on the move, and no place to hide. going through open fields on bikes was not a good idea - so we threw the bikes into the gras and tried to find the lowest point in the vicinity - a muddy ditch. while we were huddled there, the next down pour started, this time it was not funny, we had been cold already and our t-shirts and singlets which had been close to dry by then were soaked to the bone again within seconds. lightning was still all around. a few seconds later our shivering muscles developed uncontrollable lurches and twiches, we had to abandon ship - at 60K and 7:00, we locked the bikes and made it back to a house nearby. we rang, a lady appeared but no words came out of our mouths, there were just some guttaral sounds interupted by twiches that shook our whole bodies, she was really sweet and took us in, we wanted to call a taxi but electricity and telephone had been knocked out by the storm, she finally managed to get through from a neighbour and a taxi arrived and brought us home, only a hot shower made the shivering stop - but the day was not yet over :-) i better not tell you what happened to the noodle sieve on the stove, the coals in the braai, the chicken that we finally tried to make in the microwave, lets just say, we had problems ... i crashed and this morning i can now again laugh at everything ...

isn't there a saying about dress rehearsals where everything goes wrong? ... :=]

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