If I found Aladdin's Lamp...

...or a bottle containing a genie, a wish I'd make is to experience running even just 10 kilometres as fast as the runners I watched during today's Olympic Marathon. The genie doesn't have to make it that I run like that all the time but I'd really like to know what it feels like and to be able to run 10km at a 3:00 pace.

Beautiful. Just so wonderful to watch these runners.

In fact, this also applies to the 5,000 metre and 10,000 metre track runners that I have so enjoyed watching on telly. Truly remarkable and inspiring.

Image of the Gold (centre), Silver (right) and Bronze (left) runners during today's Olympic Marathon. First time in yonks that Uganda has won Marathon gold.

I've got a fun running game that I've played with my club mates in years past - 'Crazy Kay'. I may just revive this in the spirit of these phenomenal runners with better genetic potential, ability and commitment to gut-busting training and racing than I could ever hope to have. And I have a new road stretch in mind for this. Will let you know when I do plan it again.

Snow day

Snow is a thing of great excitement in Jo'burg. Today we had two decent snowfalls, covering the ground in white. It didn't last long though - snow all gone within 30 minutes each time. But great excitement nonetheless.

My daisies were not impressed.

Ngoje 45km trail run, Eshowe

On Saturday I ran (well, ran and walked) the 45km Ngoje Trail Run, which is organised by Gavin Bazley and starts from a primary school in Eshowe.

Fred and I drove down together, meeting up with buddies Tony, Steven and Andrew at the race. Lo and behold I bumped into other old AR friends Kevern and Dave there too - always a treat. Kev and I raced together at Zirk's 250km in the Knysna area in mid-2000 and I first met Dave and Zirk's Cederberg 500 in late 1999! I've seen both guys in recent years so nice to see them again and to catch up.

On the way down Fred and I did a bit of touristy stuff. We stopped at the 'Spirit of Emakhosini' monument. It's a striking memorial with seven large metal horns (each from a different animal) surrounding a huge metal beer pot. Each of the horns represents one of the seven Zulu kings burried in the valley (Valley of the Kings) that is viewed from this look-out hill on which the memorial stands. Great view!

Fred knows this area really well - he held an adventure race in this area years ago. Very brown and dry now in winter but still quite stunning.

Standing next to one of the huge horns at the monument.
It's not so much that I'm short but rather that Fred is a tall dude!

We headed through to Eshowe to find the school where we would need to later go for race briefing and, early the next morning, for the start.

We stopped to visit Eshowe's Dlinza Forest - another location that Fred used in his race. Oh wow! There's an aerial boardwalk that winds beneath the forest canopy where we were dwarfed by tall trees. A viewing deck ascends 20 metres up to take you to the height of the canopy - absolutely striking (Fred had used this platform for an abseil in his race). The trees are magnificent! Then we walked one of the forest trails, reading tree labels (I'm really, really bad with trees - and birds!). We settles on the massive Wild Plum and Ironplum trees as our forest favourites.

While on the trail we heard some rustling and saw two blue duiker. They were totally unconcerned about us. We sat still and they kept coming closer, nibbling as they moved. This forests is very definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.

We went to a nice, short race briefing in the area where Gavin showed the types of route markers from orange tags and chalk arrows to spray-painted orange dots. All bases covered. There we hooked up with Tony, Steven and Andrew and chatted to other friends like Bruce Arnett, who would aim to better his previous race time.

I was planning to visit my friend Paula on Sunday and on the phone that evening discovered that her partner, Daryl, would be running the 22km course in the morning; I'd keep an eye out for him.

So, bright and early we were at the school for the start. Some time to mingle and lovely surprises to see Kev and Dave. I found Daryl and got a pre-start photo.

Me, Fred and Daryl. And that's Dave with #125 - I hadn't yet seen him. And that's his son Josh, next to him, who is 17 and is developing into a good multi-discipline athlete and very keen on AR.

Dave in downhill flight

Just before the start I spotted Dave and so we got chatting. You think I can talk... Dave is worse and the two of us together is fabulous craziness. We've run Mnweni together - twice. Great to catch up on Dave's news. Two weeks ago a car drove over him! He's unbelievably accident prone - how he's made it to the ripe old age of approaching 50 is anyone's bet. He was knocked off his bike and went under the car's rear wheel! It drove over his shoulder and knee and he says he could see the wheel nuts as it went over him! Luckily he's fine and x-rays were clear although his knee isn't quite right yet - but it still works good enough for running.

Running with us was Dave's friend Eugene. Dave split off from us at the 10km mark to do the 22km course; Eugene and I continued on the 45km course and ended up running the whole way together.

The course starts off on roads between sugar-cane fields - some dirt, most grassy. There are a few steep ups and downs and then the routes split.

The first steep down (and up the other side). Probably around 7km - run by both courses.

The 45km course takes a lovely trail along a river and it is very pretty. I was into having a nice, easy run so I trip-trapped along the trail enjoying the route. The trail crosses a few streams and is shaded for much of the distance.

Eugene running ahead on the pretty, shaded trail.

It must be from about 20km to 24km that the trail gets quite tricky. You've got to keep an eye open for the markers (the route is VERY well marked) and to watch your footing. It is deceivingly harder going than expected. There are some great sights, especially the rocks.

Eugene at a river crossing before we started climbing up on the tricky trail. There's a waterfall in the background, in the sunlight - can't see it in the pic.

Then another fun section - The Crack. Steep, steep down. I almost made it all the way down on my feet. The photographer positioned there had been about to tell me that I was the only one he'd seen make it down without sliding when I landed on my bottom as I turned around as I took out my camera to snap a photo of Eugene. Hahahaha.

At the top of The Crack. It drops down behind me.

Eugene at the bottom of The Crack. That's a photographer in the background.

The trail winds up and out of the valley on to open ground again and it leads on to a long road that just climbs and climbs and climbs. This is the BIG hill of the race.

Eugene and I were slogging uphill when I spotted a chap lounging on the roadside - from a distance it looked like my buddy Fred. He'd been instructed (by me!) not to run with me but to run and enjoy and give the course a good go. I haven't been feeling so great so I knew I would be in for an easier run. He'd been feeling fabulous and had been running so well and then the hill bit him - badly. He'd been chilling and eating snacks for about 10 mins when we got to him. He wasn't looking so great but made a good decision to rest for a while and then continue slowly and steadily. Eugene and I left him after a while finally topping out to enjoy a bit of running and a not-up gradient. This must have been around 25km.

At 30km-ish we made the water point which came at just the right time because I'd finished my water at the top of the hill, about 1.5km earlier. I'd been conservative with my water so I was really looking forward to a long drink and filling up again. Two friendly ladies were manning this station. We refilled and headed off again.

The last 15km of the route are way easier than the 15km before and we made good time, really enjoying the slight downhill runs on shaded, grassy tracks. At the river crossings we splashed water on our faces and wet our caps - totally refreshing. We ran alongside new forests, orange orchards and cane fields with a lot of variety underfoot. All good.

The last few kilometres climb up at a decent gradient (not too steep) towards the school. These dirt roads between cane fields are exposed to the heat of day, which would be unbearable in summer but was nicely warm for the race.

At the finish we came in during prize giving, having completed the run in about 6h45. Bruce beat Hylton by a minute and took 17 minutes off his previous time to set a new record of 4h09. I bet he didn't get as many nice photos as I did *grin* Erica (not sure of surname) won ladies. I think her time was around 5h20-ish. She passed Steven a few kilometres before the end and he said she was chirpy and fresh as she breezed past him. Fred came in a while after us. He took it easy and made the finish looking better than when we'd seen him.

This was my first time running Ngoje, a race that has been around for four years now. There are 10km, 22km and 45km courses. There were about 70 runners on the 45km, which was really nice because there are no bottlenecks and you don't see many runners out there once you've settled in. I think there were about 100 runners on the 22km and a bit more on the 10km.

I especially like that this is a small, friendly, rustic race with a good vibe. The course has variety and everything in balance. Bit of easy, bit of difficult. Bit of up, bit of down. Bit of single track, bit of jeep track, bit of dirt road. Importantly, the route is well marked and it is evident that Gavin and his team have put a lot of time into clearing the trails and putting out markers. They're looking at turning this race route into a hiking trail, which will help to keep it open - less vegetation trimming come race time - and a lovely route to enjoy at a leisurely pace with an overnight stop or two.

And, it is just as lovely devoured in a single day. A good weekend in Eshowe and a most enjoyable event.

O goodness - it's been a while

On Sunday morning I ran in my first orienteering event in a while. My club, Adventure Racing Club, were the event organisers and I was tasked with setting up registration and the finish area and then being a start official. When we (poor mom was roped into help with registration) arrived at Hennops at 07h00 my car read the temperature as -2C! By the time I got to run at 10h30 it was short-sleeve weather.

After the run when we were packing up Cobus says to me, "How did you find orienteering?". Looking puzzled he adds, "It's been a while". Indeed. I can't really remember which O event was my last one. Anyhoo...

I ran the Brown course  the longest and most technical course. The terrain out at Hennops is typical highveld with rocks and grass and rough areas with scattered trees. Some of the property has burned recently, which was really nice because I could run without tripping over rocks -  a problem when rocks are hidden by long, dry grasses. I was surprised to see that there were so few people on the Brown course, especially as this was our annual 'Long O' event. Only about six of us and me as the only girl. I was the last starter of the day.

This course had a good mix of the things I like: long and short legs mixed together, direction changes, controls not visible on approach (you've got to be on top of them to see them), a bonus control or two that were visible on approach and some runnable terrain.

Control #1 boo-boo

I set off from the start and messed up my first control! The control description said the control flag would be placed at the base of a cliff. I looked at my map, took a bearing and looked toward a big rock feature where the control was located. It looked too big for what was represented on the map. I thought that it couldn't possibly be correct. I deviated towards the cliffs marked on the map and thought that one of the nearby rocky features was more of an option for the control location. Keep in mind that I could see the big rocky feature the whole time but had, for some or other reason, totally dismissed it for being too big a feature. I got myself back to the rocky ground and then decided to give the big feature a try, walking straight on to the control. Doh! That was a silly seven-odd minutes. Should have taken me less than three. Anyhooo...

From #11 to #12
Zig zagging from #11 and into the valley was a 4x4 track that wasn't on the map. I took it for a bit (easier than running over grass and rocks) and then cut across the dry river and up the other side where the 4x4 track continued on to the spur.

As I'd followed the road for a bit I thought that I'd popped out on to the spur too much to the North but in fact I was actually just below the control. I followed the track and turned North off it before realising that there were powerlines ahead (not on the map) and that I was maybe too far down the spur. I turned around and saw the control.

That was really it for navigation bloopses. I was pretty chuffed having been out of it for a few months and even longer if I look back on when my last colour-coded run was... I took the course easy, running where I could, but paying attention to the map and the features - getting my eye back in to it.

ANOTHER ONE? From #3 to #5?
I wrote the first part of this blog and then drew my track in on the map and guess what I found? I seem to think that I went straight from #3 to #5, missing #4. I have absolutely no recollection of Control #4. I'm sure I just didn't see it on the map (the way I had my map folded?) and instead went directly to #5!

There should be an alert on the results when my EMIT card is checked in - I've just sent a note to the organisers to check because I really don't remember Control #4, and I'm usually good at post-O route recall. (I left my map on the table at the event so Garry emailed me the jpeg today so I could draw in my track - and I remember everything else except #4!). Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! This is a first. I've done loads of stupid things over the years but I've never completely skipped a control. (Tania, on reading this, will have a flash back to Control 9 or 10 at Harrismith a few years back!)

UPDATE: Stijn submitted a comment below to say that the map I received from Garry was the pre-final version and that #4 was removed from the final course. Phew! So, indeed, I run correctly.

I'm missing out on the rogaine this weekend (probably a good thing considering the above!) as I'm running the Njoge 45km trail run in the Eshowe area.

Next O is at Mohale's North (GREAT AREA!) on Sun, 19 August.

UPDATE: O event is at Pelindaba now, not Mohale's. Still a great area. Wear leg protection. Grasses and dry bushes are scratchy around this time of year. Event Sheet is >>> here.