Spar Ladies Race - in the bag

Yeehah, just got back from the Spar Ladies race in Bellville.

It was great!

I managed to get up at 6am, and was there in plenty of time to get to the loo and be right in the front a few meters from the starting line. Of course that meant I had to wait 45 minutes for the start and then needed the loo again... but I just 'knuiped' and tried to ignore it.

The first few kms were hard and I was again wondering WTF I was doing there anyway. Then there was a really steep hill at 4km which was killing me, but after that it was pretty much all down hill to the end. I managed to keep running again, and didn't stop to walk once. Not even while trying to chug the Powerade I got at a refreshment table and which I nearly inhaled! ;) I finished in 54:21mins, and this time it WAS actually a full 10kms (last week's race turned out to be 600m short).

For the first time I used (and was even able to use) the 'bus' concept. There are 'pace setters' who run with little flags on sticks. They run at a certain pace, which they keep track of and you can gauge your progress by them, and or try to stick with them 'catch the bus'.

At the start I was next to 2 'Sub 50' pace setters. I knew that would be ambitious for me, but I thought I would try to stay near them for the first bit. Well, when the starting gun went off they vanished up the hill in no time, leaving me in their dust, and I thought, 'Well, there goes that idea then'.

When I was plodding slowly up that evil hill at the 4km point the 'Sub 55' bus passed me. At that point I was just hoping to finish Sub 60, or heck even finish at all! But I managed to keep that Sub-55 bus within sight, about 100-200 meters ahead, from then onwards. By the time I got to the 9-km mark the sub-55 bus was just out of my reach about 100 meters ahead, and I thought 'Dammit I WILL catch them'. So I changed gear and tried to push a bit harder. They were very elusive but I managed to catch up to them right at the finish line. They went through at 54:19 WOOT! It was quite nice having that bus to focus on and something to egg me on to push that bit harder at the end. Thanks pace setters!

Me at 6:25am... On a Sunday morning. Dressed and SMILING!? Runners are mad!


After the race:

And back view:


Next year's race is in April... CT ladies (or men) you must come and do it, there is a 5km and 10km option and LOADS of people walk it. It is really fun and festive and the goodie bags are GREAT. This year we got: A t-shirt, washing power, detox foot-pads, 3 types of cereal satchets (muesli, Oatees and all bran flakes), magazines, 2x fruit bars, water, iced tea, flavoured water, 2 types of chewing gum, tampons(!), moisturiser, shortbread, tissue oil, 2-min noodles, 1 litre fruit juice, 250ml fruit juice etc.

There are no more races on the horizon for me, until the Landmark's 6km fun run in November...

The Spar Ladies was my very first 10km running event last year, and I did it in 58:12, on a slightly easier course. So I managed to shave a whole 4 mins off this year. I have now completed 5x 10km races.