Almost Wordless Wednesday

When I try to sleep in...

Happy running everyone!

Facing Reality

Sometimes facing reality can be very hard. I see it, know it’s there, know the truth, but choose to ignore it and probably hope it will go away or change. It rarely works this way…

The reality I’m facing (but not looking at) right now is that the knee I fell on two weeks ago will not be able to do the distances required for me to go do the Comrades Marathon this year. I have to be smart about this.

The knee looks good now, but I can feel it is not 100%. I need it to be 100%. It is definitely still bruised on the inside. I was supposed to do a 60km training run this weekend and there is no way that I can do that now. So I have to make the decision now.

I really don’t want to have a “terrible battling through it” Comrades that leaves me sore and maybe even injured for the weeks afterwards. My main goals are all in the second half of the year. Comrades has never been a main goal for me. My plans for the next 3 to 5 years don’t include Comrades and that’s why I thought of throwing it in this year.

So I’m making the difficult decision now to withdraw from the Comrades and move my focus to the other challenges ahead.

My main goals for the year are:

• Num-Num Trail – 3 August
• Mont-Aux-Sources Challenge – 7 September
• Otter Trail Challenge – 23 & 24 September
• Brau Haus Trail Run – 12 October
• Skyrun Lite  - 16 November

I have one more road race on 5 May that I will do. It’s a 32km (20miler) that I entered long ago so I will still do it. After that my focus will move to the trails…yay!!!

Happy running my friends!

Rest In Peace and Recover Well - Thoughts for Running Friends

It's been such a sad week and the running world is still reeling after the Boston blasts. Unfortunately that was not the only very sad news from last weekend.

Here in Johannesburg four ladies of the Randmark Running Club in Randfontein were in a serious car accident on their way to the Slow Mag Marathon on Sunday morning.

Veronica Cronje, Beulah Botha, Stephanie Schneider and Ilona Meyer were all travelling together to run the marathon. Veronika and Beulah were seriously injured. Stephanie and Ilona both died in the accident.

Rest in peace dear runner friends. Condolences, prayers and thoughts go out to your family and friends. You will be missed.

Rest in peace Stephanie.

Rest in peace Ilona

Recover well Veronica

Recover well Beuhla

Please pray for these runners, their families and their friends.

A Sad Week Indeed

My week didn’t start too great as I had a DNF for my marathon on Sunday. My knee that I fell on last week became so sore I had to call it a day after 37km…5km from the finish. It started getting sore at about 28km and a while later I could not run downhill. I decided to rather be safe than sorry. I can’t afford a knee injury with all the great trail races I have lined up for the second half of the year.

Then Monday was Boston…

What can I say? I just don’t have the right words for this. So tragic, sad and unnecessary. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

I have taken three rest days and will test my knee tomorrow on an easy 5km. I will keep you up to date. I am willing to skip Comrades to make sure I’m ready for the trails later in the year. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

Peace and love to you all. Run strong my friends.

A fall, my toes and my shoes

Yesterday morning I had quite a nasty fall while out running. My left knee is bashed up but luckily it seems to be only on the outside. My left elbow and shoulder are both sore on the inside.

Bashed up knee.

Cut on thumb.

It looks worse than it is and I should be 100% ready for Sunday’s marathon. I am actually more worried about my toes than any injuries from this fall.

Remember Comrades 2011…? This is my toe afterwards.

I blamed this on the shoes I wore on the day and I am sure I was right to do so. Many years ago (somewhere in the 1990's) I had some toe problems as well. I switched from Nike Pegasus to Nike Air Max and the problems disappeared. Over time shoes have changed and I ended back in Nike Pegasus a few years ago. I need a shoe with mega toe space and front foot support.

My Nike Pegasus 29.Not enough toe space and front foot support for ultra road running.

I've been running in Pegasus for the last two years again when on the road, but my ultras and ultra training have been on the trails. It is only in the last few months that I've been doing those kind of distances on the road and my old toe nemesis is slowly coming back.

So I went shopping but there are very few shoes on the market that caters for my toe box needs. After the 2011 Comrades I ran in the Nike Citius 4 and they were great. This shoe worked extremely well for me.

My first Nike Citius 4 shoes…great!

That pair is now retired after more than 1000km of great service. Unfortunately I couldn't find another pair anywhere. But my fortunes changed last Friday when I went searching for a large toe box shoe and found two pairs in my number at a local running store. I bought both pairs immediately!

New Nike Citius 4...with a few blood splatters... :)

I am so relieved that I found these now and will certainly wear them for all long runs on the road. I will run Sunday’s marathon in them and have them just right for the Comrades.

I am busy with research as I don’t know if I’ll find another pair of the Citius. With my toe and foot requirements it seems I might join the Hoka team in the future. We will wait and see…

My future shoe…?

Happy running everyone!

Life is good!

Hi everyone! Life is busy at the moment and work is going a little crazy. Running is on track and I am happy! Life is good!

I am blessed with a great family and a great job. I work with graphs and stats all day, but hey, I love stats! Life is good!

My 10km a day or 70km per week plan is going great and training is good. Here's the latest update on the  challenge:

Weeks done: 43
Weeks to go: 09  Single figures!!! Life is good!
Km done: 3122
Km to go: 528
Ave per week done: 72.60
Ave per week required: 58.67

Week 1: 84                   Week 27: 81
Week 2: 80                   Week 28: 68
Week 3: 83                   Week 29: 66
Week 4: 69                   Week 30: 73
Week 5: 56                   Week 31: 51
Week 6: 54                   Week 32: 60
Week 7: 80                   Week 33: 72
Week 8: 71                   Week 34: 76
Week 9: 80                   Week 35: 76
Week 10: 86                  Week 36: 81
Week 11: 89                  Week 37: 85
Week 12: 70                  Week 38: 91
Week 13: 60                  Week 39: 87
Week 14: 55                  Week 40: 76
Week 15: 49                  Week 41: 69
Week 16: 76                  Week 42: 83
Week 17: 79                  Week 43: 87
Week 18: 87
Week 19: 81
Week 20: 63
Week 21: 84
Week 22: 29
Week 23: 80
Week 24: 43
Week 25: 78
Week 26: 74

Life is good!

At home life is good as well. Especially if you are from the K9 variety...

Have a super Friday and weekend everyone! Life is good!