Back to Back medal for a purpose

After getting my 1st Comrades medal in 2018, I had sworn that I will never ever subject my body to such trauma. I said it so loud that friend and fellow club mate Lieve heard me; she smiled and said that’s too early, calfie give it a few months. As we were making our way to airport check-in (with my “friend in crime”, Nozuko) in our vests and medals hanging tightly around our necks, people greeted us with respect and admiration. The feeling was awesome and I immediately knew I would be back. I whispered in Nozuko’s ear to say we are back come 2019 … “What!!!” Said Nozuko, “ANDIZI”, nodding her head saying “you are alone on this one thyini nxaa.”

Following the Comrades Marathon euphoria, Nozuko was the first to call for me to register for the 2018 Uniwisp Kaapsehoop Marathon in November.

My journey without a doubt has been the toughest and most rewarding thing I have done in my life! It still blows my mind knowing I have ran 1 385 km in training this year in preparation for an 88km ultra marathon. I have put my heart and soul into this. Despite the high mileage and all the preparation I was really nervous and scared going into this year’s race. To dampen our anxiety we needed to strategise:

1. Firstly we consulted our very own Lieve (multiple Comrades medal holder) , who was kind enough to talk us through the route and create a pacing chart for us.
2. We did few dry-runs mimicking race day e.g. run/walk, counting, pit stops, etc.
3. Run for a purpose – #Run4Gomo – we worked on our look e.g. hair, attire and created Gomo’s poster (We were fortunate to be spotted by eNCA who gave us airtime on the day to spread awareness about Cerebral Palsy, a condition that my daughter lives with.

Day of the race: 09th June 2019
We woke up at 02H45; first things first, as Christians we prayed – we do not take the grace of our running ability for granted. We quickly prepared and we lined up at 04H00. I was in the H seeding pen. What was weird was that Nozuko was in the G seeding pen and we had that plastic tape separating us. We had a pep talk to say … we can do this, we trained hard, Gomo is waiting at the finish line (we gave our banner to club member, Dorcus to hand it over to us a few meters before the finishing line).

Before the race started my toes went cold, I felt I was about to faint. The gun went off at 5H30 and our day journey from Durban to Pietermaritzburg started. We held hands looking for camera moments and finally crossed the start.

As we were about to get into our rhythm there was a bus in front of us, and they decided to start walking … what an interruption. We had to find a way to pass them. Our plan was to start walking at 10km; however, at 5km I needed a walk and that is where we started with the walk. At 6km there was a water point but it was too congested to grab anything. (Advice: start walking earlier before you are forced to walk). We started hydrating at around 12km.

We climbed Cowie’s Hills, Pinetown, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill still running and walking, counting /landmarks. Every 15km we would stop and squat 5x (we carried our own muscle spray and we sprayed after doing the squadt). We prayed after passing each cut off point.

Between Cowie’s Hill and Pinetown my tummy started rumbling. I knew I needed to stop but this is not easy when you are running with someone and thinking they might leave you. I had to signal to Nozuko before I jumped the road barrier and hid behind some tall bushes to relieve myself. When I returned onto the road I was disorientated thinking she is gone. As per plan she needed to run on the left hand side of the road and slow down … I ran for about 1.8 km not seeing her; my anxiety started building up. I was sticking my head out to look for her but it proved difficult to spot her. I spotted a tall man walking in front of me. I greeted him, still out of breath and about to cry; words could not even come out of my mouth. He just saw me pointing at my hair … I wanted to ask if he had seen a lady with green hair running past him. He looked at me and shook his head … I pointed again as my last hope. He grabbed my hand and started running with me, I was thankful but our strides were not matching. A few meters later he seemed to have spotted a lady with green hair and started pointing in her direction. All I heard was “green” and he let go of my hand – In my state of excitement and relief, I almost kissed him. I kept my cool as I didn’t want to run out of fuel. A few meters later I started shouting Nozuko’s name to grab her attention and she finally stopped for me and allowed me to catch my breath.

It was fun meeting our team members on the road, with big smiles and ready to assists, as well as hearing our names called from the side of the road. The next moment we hit Drummond; hallelujah!!! I was okay until Cato Ridge where I started feeling my small left toe swelling and I asked Nozuko to have shorter runs. When we approached Umlaas Road I felt a sharp pain on the same toe; it was so painful that I screamed and stopped. I thought my toe was torn. Fortunately Nozuko had a spray and decided to start spraying while I still had my tekkie on (hahaha). I then took off my tekkie and sock and there I was bleeding. We both screamed … I do not know about her but I was in pain and thinking of my race. I quickly splashed some water on my left foot and put my tekkie back on without a sock and started limping. Ohhh boy, I was in pain and as if that was not enough, at Little Pollys I started feeling dizzy and nauseous; the cramps started to set in due to poor posture. As soon as we were on Little Pollys, clever Nozuko reassured me not to stress; I started feeling better after a few kilometers. When we got to Polly Shorts it was my turn to keep us moving. I tried to get Nozu to push but she was finito and so we walked the entire hill.

After Polly Shorts we started moving down slowly, but I was not feeling that great and 1 km felt like a marathon, nursing my partner. At the last cut off I had to declare that the speed was way too slow and we would not make it to the finish line in time. I saw her tying her hair, drinking Mageu, eating a piece of orange, apple, everything ... the next thing she grabbed my hand and we were just rolling down, counting faster than before (the toe was well behaved due to heat). Towards the end, people were screaming, drinking and playing loud music. It felt like I had wings. However, Gomo’s banner was not where we had agreed it would be; tears started rolling down my eyes. I asked Nozuko where the banner was and she did not answer; eish, this woman!.

As we entered the gates to the Scottsville Racecourse lost hope that we would get the banner. We started accelerating, but it felt like the road was never ending, with that artificial green mat pulling me back. The next thing I heard someone from JRAC screaming “Gale! Nozuko!” As I looked up at the race timer it read 11H43. Yessssssss … go get your Vic Clapham and back-to-back medals.

The Up run is slower, the road is open with less crowding, all the climbing sucks the life out your body, and the hills never seem to end; it is brutal. The second half is slightly easier if you run sensibly early on but cramps start to creep in. Recovery is quicker.

I enjoyed the down run in 2018; you get a mix of ups and downs and you enjoy a steady descent after 70km, you need to run carefully to manage the pain/cramps etc. The only problem is after the run you pay the prize, you walk like a crab and your entire body is sore.