Africa here we come (again)

In less than a week and after 1'300 km of training, Uli and I are off to South Africa to run the best Ultra Marathon on the planet with my blind running partner Francois Jacobs from Centurion, South Africa.

First of all I like to thank to all of you who generously supported our efforts by donation to The Fred Hollows Foundation. I transfered over $5'000 to the Foundation, over 200 people will be able to see again, thank you!

The Comrades Marathon is the World’s oldest and largest Ultra marathon, run over a distance of 89 km (56 miles) between Pietermaritzburg (capital of Kwazulu – Natal Provence) and the coastal city of Durban, South Africa (www.comrades.com). The direction of the race alternates each year between the “up run” starting from Durban and the “down run” starting from Pietermaritzburg.

This year 2010 is a “down run”. 24’000 runners will make their way over a strenuous course which encapsulates the “Big Five”, the five hills to be traversed on the run. There is a 12 hour time limit to cover the 89 km’s. The “down run” is (sadly) known to be the tougher of the two direction due to the damage done to toes, feet, quads and knees as a result of the unavoidable action of having to running down hill for extended periods of time www.comrades.com/images/routeprofilemap.jpg

This will be the first time Francois ever ran more than 50 km or me guiding a blind runner over such a distance, together it will be quite a challenge to finish this race in time. As you know we dedicate our running to the Fred Hollows Foundation, which helps needlessly blind people to see again.

You can be part of our race by following the live link on the Comrades website which should show you our progress. My race number is 42197 and Francois is 58567. The start of the race is Sunday, 30 May at 1.30pm AEST and it will last a good 11 to 12 hours for the two of us.

Don’t forget to come back and check my blog - I am sure I will have time to update these pages while sipping a cocktail during my cruise along the Zambezi River after the race

Happy feet

Markus

Ben

Finally, after 8 weeks of hard training, last Sunday was the big day for Ben Philips. When I started running with Ben, he was able to run one slow round in Centennial Park before being out of breath. Yesterday he finished his first 1/2 marathon in a stellar 131 min - prove again that hard work and determination pays off. Well done Ben!

It was a fresh but beautiful morning when we both lined up at the start next to St. Mary's Cathedral. Ben was understandably nervous, not sure if he is up to the distance and wondering if all the training was enough.
We waited a few minutes after the gun when off, to get a few of the 10'000 runners out of our way. Once we started running we soon found our pace and thanks to the help of Doug and Ellis, who helped us clearing the way in front of us, we started overtaking slower runners.
Ben started to enjoy the run and got more and more confident to a point were I had to slow him down a bit, knowing that the hard part is yet to come.

We finished the first of two rounds in 66 min, well under the 75 min cut-off time, a time which was a daunting task to run a few weeks ago.

During the last half of the second round, especially going up Hunter Street a second time, the hard going got tougher and it was the first time Ben had to walk a few meters - getting his breath back. But true to the saying, when it gets hard the tough get going, Ben headed into the last few km with his head down, struggling around Maquarie's chair, fighting hard to keep on his legs with every step, but never giving up.

The last 1000 meters were helped by the great support of all the spectators and in a final sprint we crossed that finish, exhilarated and happy.

I am very privileged to have been able to share this journey with Ben, it not only helped preparing me for the big race in 2 weeks time when I will be running 89 km with blind Francois but more importantly it started a friend ship which I hope will bring us many more days of fun and races to run.

Congratulations Ben to a job well done!

Happy feet and see you soon in South Africa
Markus

Good weekend for running

Not only myself in Canberra enjoyed a perfect race day resulting in a new PB but also my friend Francois in South Africa had a great race thanks to his guide Co van den Raad from the Irene Club running the Wally Hayward Marathon in a new PB, beating his old time by 11 minutes!
Well done, guys and thank Co for your help guiding Francois. The Wally Hayward Marathon is one of the bigger races in South Africa and well positioned for that last test race before the Comrades end of the month

Myself, Trent (Marathon Man) and Doug went down to Canberra to have our last big race test before heading to South Africa. The 50 km Ultra is an ideal race with great support and crew along the way. A cold, 3 degrees
awaited us at the start and light fog hovered over the lake when we started at 7am. Doug and I started at the end of the field and within 3 km I found my race rhythm and started heading off - a slow 57min for the first 10km around all the public buildings and capital hill before we head off over the bridge to the city. Slowly my fingers warmed up and I started to feel more comfortable. I ran with a new bum bag / bottle holder to test as I feel I need to have some back up for The Comrades, as those races notoriously run out of drinks before the last, slower runners pass through. As the course is an out and back course and 2 loops one always gets a good idea where one is in the race and I could see Marathon Man, who races of like stung by a bee, slowing down. I figured I will get him on the 2nd loop and sure enough at km 25 I overtook him. I felt good all the way to km 40 when the first time I started struggling a bit and I was glad the route came back into the leave area with big trees give much needed shade as the sun now became hot.

Running the first time into the Manuka Oval finishing the Marathon in 3.48hrs I had to continue around the oval and out again to add the missing 8km for the ultra distance. That was the hardest, leaving the finish again running out on a bike path full of walkers, strollers and cyclist - not too comfortable and also badly marked last stretch of the race. Nevertheless I return on my second wind and sprinted into the Oval a second time overtaking 2 more competitors on the last 20m to finish in a new PB of 4hrs33min for 50 km.


South Africa and the 89km of The Comrades do not look that bad anymore now......not!

Happy feet