Le week-end part 2

I didn't sleep very well on Saturday night, and kept dreaming I was late and very far away from the race and was racing to get there in time, but kept inadvertently getting further and further away - like ending up catching a bus across town, but it went the wrong way so I jumped off and found another ride, but I ended up going to the airport, and then I went to the International terminal etc etc. It was exhausting! I was so wound up that I was going to be late that I woke up and got up earlier than I needed to ;)

I had enough of time to dress, have coffee and even get breakfast for everyone. We were out of bread, so I improvised with a forgotten about frozen banana bread - the kids were thrilled. I arrived at the at the stadium with plenty of time, even after fitting in an unscheduled stop when I realised I was driving right past the hotel I park in every day, so I pulled in and used their fancy toilets so I wouldn't have to queue to use a stinky port-a-loo. Clever hey?

I was meant to be meeting Claire and Lindy there as we were all doing the 10km event, but I couldn't get hold of anyone, so I decided to follow the crowd and head inside. By 09:15 I still hadn't heard from anyone, so I started making my way towards the front - I hate being at the back. I ended up possibly 50m from the start line. The place was crowded and clearly this is a popular event - understandably since it is a charity event and being a walk it is easier than running so accessible to more people. At 09:30 the gun went off, the MP3 player went on, and off we went. It was a bit of a shuffling start as we all headed towards the exit and on to the road, but I managed to get up to a fairly brisk pace and was able to pass people pretty easilly. Being on my own I had no one to chat to, so I decided to try to walk as fast as I could. I would spot someone walking ahaead of me and would aim for them and try to catch up and then pass them. Then I'd select the next person and so on. I passed loads of people. I reckon at one point I was in the top 50 of the 10km walker pool. Eventually there were 3-4 women that stayed just out of reach, or I'd pass them, and then they'd pass me again after a few minutes. I had met my match! LOL That kept me entertained and focused, because otherwise 10km of walking is quite long and tedious - unless you are chatting.

It was another gorgeous day and looking out over the ocean and Lion's Head and the rest of the Sea Point promenade was lovely. I especially liked it when the breeze brought in some scents of the sea.

As I rounded the half way mark and started my journey back, I realised that getting back would not be as easy. Since the journey back is on the same route, and I now had to contend with the thousands and thousands of people who were still doing the first leg. Some of them were pretty rude and were taking up not only the whole pavement, but spiling into the road too, and wouldn't even attempt to move aside to make way for those of us heading back. The result was that I ended up walking right out into the road, which was both dangerous and probably rather annoying for the poor people trying to drive. I was determined not to get too annoyed though as I was enjoying the day, so I just tolerated it. But by about half way back I was getting frustrated and after being passed by other people running I decided I was going to run too. So I ran for about 1.5 km or so until there was a less crowded section and then walked the last bit back to the stadium. I finished in 1 hour 25 minutes. Which is not too bad, but I was hoping to have an average 7.5 km/h, but that would have required being able to walk full speed the whole way.

The stadium was still pretty quiet at this point as not many people had finished yet. I got my little medal, a coke and a free Week-end Argus, and went to read it in a shady spot under an umbrella. Lindy was still stuck in the mass en route at this point so we never got to see each other at all.

After about 30 mins I was nice and cooled down and relaxed when Richard and the boys arrived. By now the stadium was filling up and getting a bit loud, but it was quite feastive so we decided to stay on for a while. The kids played on the jumping castle etc, and I went to get lunch (from Woolies nearby, the food in the standium looked boring, and the queues were too long). We had a picnic on the grass, which was nice and lush after all the recent rain. Afer that we took a stroll around the flea market, looked at over priced African artifacts - decided to rather spend the money to go fetch something directly from the origin ourselves one day, and then we went home.

The afternoon was spent visiting a friend for coffee so all the kids could play, and then home to relax in a bath and wind down.

Today I am surprisingly stiff from the walk, I can definitely feel it in my hips and feet/ankles. I have bought my gym cothes to work and I am going to try the CBD gym (which is 50m from this building)'s kata box class this evening. Which will mean no traffic to get home, no rushing to change and get kids in car and get through more traffic to get to to Constantia by 18:15. This way I'll be done by 18:30 and should have an easy 10 minute drive home, in time to shower get dinner sorted and watch Grey's Anatomy properly. Sounds like a great plan. I just hope the instructor here is good.