Road runner beep-beep

This morning I ran my first road half marathon in about 18 months. Mmm... I think my last 21km was the Phalaborwa Half in January last year... I haven't done many road races for a few years; maybe only one or two a year. In the mid to late '90s I was often running races most weekends. I then didn't do many in the early 2000s and got back to road races in 2002, running one or two a month; sometimes more. And then for the last few years I haven't had much interest in road races, although I do most of my running training on road.

Yesterday I was having tea with Fred and his family. He mentioned that it looked like the field was getting set up for a race at Old Eds. Online checking confirmed the 10km and 21km distances... why not go for the 21 eh?

I seem to recall entering this race about two or three years ago. I woke up feeling not quite right but went anyway and by 5km I was really not feeling great. As this is a double-lap route, I ducked off at 10km... My last road race was the New Years 10km.

This morning I was feeling pretty great and if I'd ended the run at 10km I would have felt 'cheated' out of a good distance as many of my regular runs are 10km now (I've really focused over the past three months on re-building a solid running base - my favourite discipline - after too much distraction, like with paddling, and rather erratic running for a few years). We'd had a slow start, caught in the crowds, which was actually nice. We lost a lot of time, hitting 10km on 60 minutes. We made up a bit of time up to 15km, running good splits. From about 13km to 16km was quite a bit of uphill and the last four kays were pretty smooth.

One thing I do really enjoy about the road racing scene is the vibe, odd comments between runners here and there and being surrounded by a bunch of runners making our way through tree-lined neighbourhoods. The only thing that puts me off are the early mornings. This morning was an 8am start, nice and leisurely - it's the summer races that start at 06h30 that kill me. But hey, the summer Wednesday night races will start again in September; and these I enjoy.

So, I'm feeling really good after my half this morning. I will confess that these days I find road races quite daunting. I find it far easier to run 50km off-road than 21km on road... go figure. This spontaneous race was well timed with the new FISH RIVER CHALLENGE 100km coming up in TWO WEEKS. Yes, indeed, a race I've been looking forward to for almost a year is almost here. I fly to Namibia next week Thursday - the count-down begins. I've never been to the Fish River Canyon so it is going to be fabulous. My running camera is packed ;)

(Talking road running... this is the youtube video flying around; a scenario of what happens when Wile E. Coyote finally catches the Road Runner. No more beep-beep.)