Blog posts from May, 2013

Morning dawns, buffet breakfast gets polished off and a long discussion ensues with the owner of the place, Corlien,  over what we can do today and where she can get a driver to take us. Maarten has a potential job in Joburg - rather him than me I think on balance - and he'd vanished in a suit already for an interview.  My Cape Town flight was due to leave at 3:30pm so by the time the eggs had a…

So finally, 9 months after being talked into running this race and ticking it off the bucket list by my friend Helen who's here too, it's time to pack the bags and head out to South Africa.I cannot think of any race I've done, and I have entered a lot since I went for my first London Marathon in 2000, where the anticipation has reached anything like this pitch.  I guess that first London would be…

Despite taking this one easy as I'd run 38 miles 2 days before and that the scenery was at least as good as the Oxon 40, I failed to bring my phone so all photos herein are stolen.  I've pinched a couple from the race web site and I hope to blag one or two more from @mikew30 who was far better organised than me. This race rounded off a fabulous bank holiday weekend of running.  Not one I'd heard…

I decided on the Oxon 40 as the lastlong training run for the Comrades. It's local being just past and around Henley and compared to the alternatives available on the same day it was incredibly cheap at just £12. The sort of price you might expect to hear from your Grandparents in the context of 'eee I remember when races were just £12, and bread was 3d and we all had to live in a shoebox'. …

One last curry and a couple of pints of the local Windsor and Eton Brewery's finest polished off.I've had my pre-race massage and go-faster haircut which did it's usual trick. It looks great until precisely 3 minutes after leaving the barbers whereupon it forms into a ghastly widow's peak type of arrangement and needs several litres of wax to stop it looking like I'm about to protest about somethi…

Tomorrow I'll be on a plane bound for Johannesburg, fretting I've brought the wrong shoes and whether I'll make the cigarette-paper thin connecting window in Paris.I've been thinking about this race since I entered it last September but right now I can think of nothing else; it has completely taken over my life.  Despite all this thought I've still no clear idea how to tackle it.I've run many ove…