My brother Robert, ran the Comrades Ultra Marathon yesterday, and as his most avid supporter, I was very stressed out, hoping that he was alright the whole time, and worrying that he had collapsed somewhere along the side of the road, where I had no idea to find him. But, thankfully he didn’t, and made it to the end.
We left from home with Rob, to fetch Rob and Jason at about 3am, and got to Pietermaritzburg just before 4am, so the guys had time to eat breakfast before the 5:30am start. Unfortunately we (Paul and I) weren’t able to get to the start to watch them off, as only runners were allowed into the starting area. After they left the car, we went home, and climbed back into bed to get some shut eye before going to visit folks for Father’s Day. We watched the first man home smash (by 3 minutes) the down run record. Amazing really. Then we popped over to Paul’s mother’s house so we could wish Rob Happy Father’s Day. From there, we went to St John’s Avenue to see the Rob’s running through Pinetown. That is when the stress started for me. Thank goodness for SMS updates as they went through various points. Paul managed to work out time splits and they were right on queue when he said they would be. They were both sore and tired at the 20km to go mark.
After seeing them at Pinetown, we rushed down to Durban, popped in at my folks and wished my Dad Happy Father’s day, and had a bite to eat, and then it was off again to get to the finish to see the guys finish. Wow, talk about a buzz, and I must confess I was feeling very emotional watching these people who had run all the way from PMB finishing, some very broken from the effort. Amazingly enough there were some guys who were still able to sprint, and I mean sprint, to the end. Again I started stressing, worrying that the Rob’s wouldn’t make it to the end in time for the 12 hour cut off, and again, Paul said not to worry, they would be in with time to spare. Finally, watching for the white caps, and green vests, I saw them coming around the corner to the finishing straight. I almost cried with happiness. I managed to catch Boet’s attention, and we managed to get some photo’s of them finishing, and after the finish.
I just want to say to both, Boet and Rob, well done guys, you were amazing. I’m proud of you and well done for finishing. It took an amazing amount of spirit and guts to finish one of the hardest races in the world!
Pictures from the day
The SMS updates from the route
Lion Park at 7:19am. Birds are singing, legs are strong, life is good, nice day for a jog. 73kms to go.
Camperdown at 8:32am. Can’t hear birds above the pain, legs numb. Am I there yet?
Halfway at 10:49am. Damn birds must shut up now. Legs behaving erratically. 44km left? Really? Yikes…
Pinetown at 2:18pm. I could swear the birds are laughing at me. And at my poor legs. 20km to go.
Mayville at 4:08pm. Legs are still singing, birds hurting like hell. 7000kms to go. Who are you? Who am I? Why am I here?
The finish at 5:10pm. Those birds can laugh all they want, legs got me here. Finished the Comrades in 11:40:01.
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