I have completed the Soweto Marathon, a major south African race. The result I have a lot of training still left to do.
It started really nicely, I completed the 21 in about 2:15, so my time was in line for me to qualify for the big ultras. Sadly there was no water between kms 21 and 33, dehydration was experienced quite forcibly. It was terrible but at least I completed, time 5:20, and I know the pain and effort required to complete races of this magnitude.
Next race I hope to qualify with is the Pretoria marathon, I hope I can succeed.
The thing is that after such a bad race, my motivation has been knocked abit, and lovely wife tries her best to support me, but I have high demands of myself, so inevitably I feel abit depressed.
Next step I will need to train much harder, punish ourselves so that we can punish the race.
join a club, people with like minded goals can definitely help. Invest in water bladder so I have water during my training. Investigate the effect of gu and other carbohydrate gels on my energy levels.
If my Zak was not there to comfort me and drive me back home I could have been in worse off condition than the way I finished. She took really good care of me, and organised me ice cream and mochachoes, yeah :)
With her at my side I know I will be successful. What a great support structure I have.
My former training partner has pulled out of the challenge of completing the 2 oceans and comrades. He gave up because he did not want to get seriously injured. good luck to him and I hope he does eventually attempt a big race.
On another note Next year I am coming with a vengeance for the Soweto marathon, BEWARE!
Just a side note, I completed a marathon 1 yr and 7 months since I got knocked by a car. Yes you guessed it knocked by a car and I was on crutches for 3 months. I might ellaborate in the future.
