42 Days of Running - done

This year, my annual pre-birthday game of running every-day-for-the-consecutive-number-of-days-of the-age-that-I'm-turning, passed quickly and in a bit of a blur. This past Monday marked my 42nd birthday.

It was definitely less 'impactful' than in previous years. With Rusty in my life I have achieved more of a balance that what I had in my late 30s and in the first year of my move to Parys. Come sun, rain or hail, I take Rusty out every day for a run or long walk or combination thereof (depending on what we did the day before). It's good for her and has been very good for me. I find it easier to commit to going good for someone else rather than for myself...

I did do a few more longer runs over the past 42 days than I had been doing. My body has always loved distance and I should 'feed' it more often.

Right now I'm down with a nasty cough and cold. Timing is never good for any cold but I'm a bit peeved because Rusty and I have been running so well. This week I've been reduced to long walks as my body fights the infection.

Walking on the nearby golf estate. This bridge is lovely but the metal grid is not at all dog friendly. I'm carrying 21kg of love. Must say, I do delight in carrying her because it is the only chance I get to give her a full-body cuddle.

That's the end of this year's birthday game. Until next year's '43 Days of Running'.

Hazel is running Ten10 again

On Sunday afternoon I enjoyed the special opportunity to run bit less than 20km with Hazel on Day 3 of her Ten10 challenge.

This is Hazel's 5th year of running 10 x Comrades distances (90km/day) from JHB to Maritzburg, with the 10th being Comrades itself. She started running on Friday and yesterday, Day 3, ran to Parys. Karen and I went out to meet her on the road, running with her to the day's finish.

Hazel, Karen and me. Photo taken while running!

Also running this year is Cornel. This is her first Ten10 and she is running incredibly well. She seems to have a natural knack for distance.

Hazel has been involved with animal shelters, having rescued a good many dogs while out on runs. She has provided homes for some, found homes for others, rushed to vets and raised funds for sterilisation programmes and to assist shelters with food.

While we were running yesterday she told me about a runner that she met recently who, while he was out on a run, saw a puppy being chased and stoned. The puppy appeared to have deformed front legs and it was being abused by a group of men. He rescued the puppy and has adopted it. As it turns out, the issue with its legs were purely due to malnutrition, which corrected within two weeks. When he saw the puppy being abused, the guy asked himself, "What would Hazel do?". He has named the puppy Hazel.

And then last week she got a call from a running friend to say that children were abusing kittens that had been born to a feral cat near a block of flats. Hazel dropped her girls off at school and got there about 45 minutes later. Apparently a 10 year old boy has smashed in the face of one kitten and was in the process of skinning it when he was stopped. Other children were looking on. Another kitten had been hung by its scruff on a barbed wire fence. Hazel says fortunately she did not see the state of the first kitten - the police had been called to intervene. When she is done with this challenge she will address this issue with the children's school and work with them to teach children about animal welfare.

Hazel is one of the bravest, strongest and most capable women I know.

You can donate to the shelters that Hazel has nominated through the Ten10 website. Or you can do your own thing by donating to your local shelter or by dropping off dog/cat food for the animals that they protect.

And, if you have the capacity, consider being a forever home to a shelter animal.

And, sterilise your animals. Neither you nor they need to have puppies or kittens. Shelters are overflowing.

Follow Hazel and Cornel on their journey and if you're in the area where they are, catch them on the road and give them a cheer or run a few kilometres with them. You can follow their movements on live tracking at trackrace.tk/ten10_2018

First running of Not Forest Run

With my time overloaded and consumed with work, I made the call earlier in the year not to hold my Forest Run event. Presenting a race is not just the on-the-day commitment, but also the months of coordinating land permissions, volunteers, entry admin and a full week pre-race to cut, trim and mark the trails. I just could not do it this year and so cancelling the event was a relief. I came up with another plan instead...

Not Forest Run.

We have dirt roads all around Parys. You can mountain bike and run for kilometres - and it is all good scenery. I decided to replace Forest Run with a route that I had been wanting to do; something that would not need any organisation nor permissions and that I could also do. Not Forest Run, which we ran yesterday, is a loop route that starts and finishes at the Parys airfield. We ran on the open gravel of the Vaal Eden road, running past farms and venues and with views of the Vaal River and Vredefort Dome.

My morning started as Run Director at our local parkrun. I left early to get to the airfield so my friend and fellow RD Karen collected the equipment and processed the results. The morning was milder than I expected although the cooling wind picked up.

At the airfield I was surprised to see so many people. I was only expecting about six or seven but as Not Forest Run did not require any RSVP, I didn't know who to expect.

It is always a treat to have friends coming through. Allison and Tracey came through from JHB and Pretoria respectively, Amelia from JHB and Hazel also from JHB. Locals Bertrand and Michelle joined us. Ferdi, a local parkrunner, came along too. Then there were about five runners from Potch, recruited by Marilette. And another two or three, including Rachel and Angie, from JHB (recruited, I think, by Hazel). And a few that I recognised, but can't quite place, probably from JHB/PTA. Ruben and Celliers joined us on their bikes.

The idea with Not Forest Run is that you just have to rock up. This one started at 09h30. You run at your own pace. You are responsible for your own water and munchies. If you need to be rescued, you need to phone your own driver to come fetch you. Non running friends / partners were welcome to join on their bicycles.

I didn't mark the route but Celliers did ride ahead at the only real junction on the route where we need to turn left. He made a big arrow on the ground using some mielie meal.

Off we went, under a blue sky dotted with puffy clouds. We took the route anti-clockwise, straight into a headwind.

I hooked up with Hazel from the start - she met us on the road (which is why she isn't in the start photo). She had been dropped near the N1 highway and ran on the back roads to meet us (the thought it would be about 10km and ended up with a 20km 'warm-up'. We haven't seen each other for a while and, needless to say, we both have a capacity for conversation. If there had been any donkeys around they would have been legless by the end of our run.

The route begins with a long climb at a gentle gradient. This makes for harder work in the beginning and then a number of kilometres of flat and down thereafter. I really enjoy the section after the left-hand turn as the road winds a bit more.

Ruben on his bike.

I haven't run 27km straight for too long but the kilometres literally flew past. We did some walkies on uphills and gobbled up the flats and downs.

Selfie with Hazel.

Another guy was the only other runner near us and we enjoyed playing tag as he would catch us on the ups and we'd catch him on the flats and downs.

Hazel striding out.

Wildebeest just hanging.

Hazel strikes a pose

Ruben and Celliers caught up to us a few kilometres from the end. Both very chipper - they enjoyed their outing and were good at keeping an eye on the runners.

Ruben and Celliers.

Back at the airfield we enjoyed chats, hellos and goodbyes as runners came in and headed off back home or to enjoy the festivities of Parys. Before we left, Celliers went out in his bakkie to check on the last two runners. They were only 3km from the finish and both had supporters waiting for them at the finish.

This was a really superb Not Forest Run and one that we agreed could be enjoyed more regularly. I suggested seasonal (spring, summer, autumn and winter) runnings of the route to appreciate the changes in the scenery and to commit to myself to get out there a few times a year. Good idea.

Thank you to all the runners who came through to enjoy this run with me and to Celliers and Ruben for being my crew.

Zingela two-day trail run

My Valentine's gift this year from Celliers was an entry to the two-day Zingela Trail Run (he booked himself in for the mountain bike option). Weeks passed and last weekend we headed down to Zingela, a remote spot on the Tugela River, near the small town of Colenso.

Celliers knows this place from paddling the Tugela from upstream to Zingela. He says the stretch of river has high-grade rapids. He loves Zingela and has been wanting to take me there for some time - the race was a perfect excuse to go there.

We left on Friday late morning and made it to the Zingela camp just before dark. Dropping into the Tugela valley - on a dirt road fit only for 4x4 high-clearance vehicles - was a treat. The surrounding hills and vegetation changes kept me captivated and looking ahead for a glimpse of the river.

After checking in we went to find our accommodation named 'Badlands'. There are two 'units' at this spot. They have 1/3-height mud walls with thick curtains 1/2 the way around the elongated-rondavel shape that make up the rest of the 'wall' and a thatch roof. The 'wall' behind the bed seems to have been thatch with a section of mud wall on either side.

The best feature of our place was the donkey-fired outside shower. I totally love outside showers and this one ranks as one of my all-time favourites.

The stars! The Milkyway! Jupiter still so bright in the sky! Too spectacular!

I was just done showering when I shouted to Celliers that I really should have checked  the Heavens-Above website for timings of satellite sightings. Not a minute later, still gazing up at the stars, I saw two satellites cruising across the sky - one after the other - like stars sliding down the surface of a marble.

I also appreciated the biodegradable body wash and shampoo provided, which I enjoyed using.

Zingela does a lot well but one big thing is catering. They make the most amazing food. The race entry fee includes accommodation - a number of options from camping with your own tent to camping in their tent (bedding provided) to comfortable to luxury chalets, all meals and your race entry. We had such superb meals. Their salads, perfectly braai'd chicken and homebaked bread (an incredible wholewheat bread and a too-amazing steamed bread) stand out.

Most of the people at this event hail from KZN - many repeat participants - so we didn't know anyone.We sat at the Friday night dinner table with Theresa and Vernon, Vanessa and Andrew, Nina and Peter - making new friends that we enjoyed seeing and chatting to over the course of the weekend.

We didn't hang around too long on Friday night. Having to be up at 5am for the 6am start, Celliers and I needed an early night to be able to wake up in the morning.

The day dawned clear and magnificent with mist coming off the river. I was in for the 32km run so I started before Celliers' 45km bike ride. There were only about 14 of us on the start line for this longer distance run. I was pretty near the back at the start, taking it easy and warming up over the first few kilometres along the river. Chalk markings on the dirt road were dotted regularly to reassure us that we were on the right track. I ran on my own pretty much from the beginning.

I make two errors on this first day. Maybe two kilometres from the start I missed a turning. It must have been at this point - where a big-ass arrow was drawn on the ground! - that I was looking at the river. I was thinking about the braided channels and rocks and wondering whether to take a photos and deciding not too because of all the shadows... I maybe ran 300m too far and thought it was odd that I hadn't seen any more blobs of chalk so I turned around and retraced my steps, seeing the big-ass arrow on the ground. This early error made me even more cautious and I kept a close eye on markings.

Checking out the terrain on the way into the valley, I had been expecting gnarly, rocky, technical trails. Instead, the trails are all very, very runnable. They have clearly put in a lot of work over a number of years to create trails that are pleasant to run on.

I took a fall on a wide-open dirt road, grazing my left knee and getting raised 'eggies' on both knees. The sole of my right shoe is coming off a bit at the front and it must have hooked on something - there certainly were not any big rocks around to trip over!

A minor graze at home with many other scars on my knee.

We'd be warned at the start about the uphill that would go on and on until about 14km. Although I was running on the trails and seeing regular markings, I certainly wasn't climbing, climbing, climbing. The route took me into a T-junction and there was a small marker board to the left reading '16km'. Nothing for the 32km route. I first went right and was scanning the ground for any footprints going that direction. They all looked to be going into the 16km direction. Logically I didn't think that they would have walkers, runners and bikers (bike tracks too) going bi-directional so I took the 16km direction and ended up back at camp.

The marshals for the river crossing were heading out so I caught a lift with them to get back on route. I would end up skipping a section though as they were not sure where I'd gone wrong (I should have gone right, running 'against' the flow). The guys dropped me off before their point, directing me on a non-course track up the side of the hill. There I rejoined the route but for fun, as I'd buggered up anyway, I ran back along the route, enjoying a steep climb that the mountain bikers would ride down (death defying!) the next day. I got to the top but then thinking that it may only be a mtb route and not a run route that that I'd missed something, I went back down. I scouted down at the bottom for any other possible tracks that I'd missed and finding none I got back on to the proper route and made my way to the river crossing.

There I paddled across and enjoyed a super 9km run - on the route - to the finish. I probably did more than 16km but definitely less than 32km. I'd maybe say 22-24km. Nonetheless, I had a most lovely time out there, I loved the trails and the scenery and had a good day.

I hung around at the finish to see if any bikers were coming in. I ducked off for a shower and returned to the finish to wait for Celliers. No sign of him. After a while I headed back to our chalet to read and nap. Not long later he arrived. Toast! He says it was the toughest 45km ride he has ever done, especially as his gears wouldn't go into the small ring. He was fried. I got him a big plate of lunch, which definitely restored his spirits.

A leisurely afternoon was followed by a gathering in the main area where the people from Wildlife Act told us about their vulture conservation project, which extends into this area. Fascinating - and sad. Vultures are seriously under threat. While I've known this, the numbers are even lower than I expected with only 1 to 5 breeding pairs of some species in KZN.

A delicious dinner followed and then it was off to bed.

For Day 2, I was in for 21km run. Celliers had considered the 12km walk but as he woke with a cracker of a headache, he made the good choice to instead eat breakfast, nap for an hour and then wake up feeling much better.

Again I had a lovely, leisurely run. Varied terrain, a pretty kloof, old elephant trails and interesting scenery.

Scramble up a 'waterfall'. Magnificent rock!

The Baboon Scramble took us from the top of the waterfall to a lovely contour path that used to be an old elephant track - back in the day when there were ellies in the area.

Celliers had seen the giraffe the day before and I hoped to see a few on the run. I got even better than this with a sighting of the herd near me.

I'd guess at 15-20 individuals. I like the sound of giraffe hooves as they lollop. I tried a selfie.

I look like a clown but the giraffe are cool. The lady I was running with was no more than a minute or so behind me. I was trying not to disturb the 'raffe so that she could see them too.

I ran with another lady for the last few kilometres - a vet from Creighton. Lovely run, perfect weather and a great start to the day.

Friendly Wildlife Act people manned the water table.

A last shower in the fabulous outside shower, bags packed and we were ready for the delicious lunch.

With goodbyes to the people we'd met, we were on the road for the five-hour trip back to Parys.

This Zingela event ticks all the boxes for me with small participation numbers, great location, lovely routes, phenomenal catering and a variety of accommodation options.

They run two events a year - in May and in September. Of course, Zingela offers river trips and safaris too as their usual course of business. Check out their Facebook page or their website.

If you like remote, small, personal, friendly and hospitable - with chilled running and great scenery thrown in - then you'll love this one too.

A fabulous Valentine's Day gift - thank you Celliers xxx