After a busy day at work it was off to Heathrow to catch an evening flight to Johannesburg. Ironically the red eye provided the opportunity for the best nights sleep that I've had in a long time! After negotiating Johannesburg airport with all of my possessions and limbs in tact (a task that would seem practically impossible if you were to believe the British governments travel advice) we were picked up by a coach and driven the four hours to Entabeni, a private game reserve in the Limpopo region where the race was due to take place a couple of days later.
After throwing the rucksack in the room it was straight out in a jeep for the first of three game drives. Having not been on safari before I wasn't really sure what to expect so the first set of pictures are all either of very unimpressive animals or slightly more impressive animals from a long, long way away. That all changed pretty quickly when a herd of elephants appeared from the trees and seemed to be giving some serious thought to charging the jeep. Within 10 minutes later and another of the big five was ticked off as we came across some lions. After the initial excitement of seeing these amazing animals it didn't take long to remember that they were all wandering around on the marathon course!
Having an Elepha time in South Africa!
Over the course of the game drives, the route inspection and the marathon itself we were also lucky enough to see...deep breath...a gang or obstinancy of buffalo, herds of elephants, gnu (wilderbeast), impala, kudu and zebra, a tower of giraffe, a bloat of hippos, a cackly of hyenas, a pack of jackals, a leap of leopards (or was it cheetah?), a pride of lions, a barrel of monkeys, a crash of rhinos and a sounder of warthog....and breath!!!!! Who comes up with the names for groups of animals! Seriously! A shrewdness of apes? A prickle of porcupines? A lounge of lizards? What next!
After a nice dinner and a chance to get to know some of the other runners a little better it was off to bed as we had an early start the next day. Day 2 was a full route inspection which left everybody in no doubts that this was going to be a seriously tough run! Every section of the course was a challenge for a different reason. Starting on the plateaux or "upstairs" the first issue was going to be the altitude. 1,800 meters doesn't sound high but it makes a massive difference and is enough to make it very hard to catch your breath for the first four or five kilometres, most of which is uphill. The course then continues to climb to a rocky outlook before doubling back and down the Yellowwood. Running downhill is usually a benefit but the valley was so steep that you had to fight to keep your speed down for the full 2 kilometres. At the bottom with your quads torn to shreds by the hill you're into lion country and running in deep sand. Getting round the loop at the bottom without being eaten isn't much of a relief as you then need to head back up the Yellowwood. A 45 degree incline gives you two options 1) run in a zig zag, reducing the incline but adding extra distance or 2) crawl! Once upstairs again the altitude becomes a problem for a second time and the remainder of the route has some horrible long uphill drags and plenty of loose rocks to trip you up. A course that takes almost three hours to drive is NOT going to be easy to run!
A view of the hill we would have to run down and back up
Looking down the Yellowwood valley
Running in lion country
Tackling the Yellowwood
A wilderbeast stampede
The route was every bit as difficult as expected. What wasn't expected, and this is probably the only time that I'm ever going to be able to say this, was a route diversion due to Elephants :-) I managed to get round in just over 4 hours and 50 minutes which was good enough for 21st place. Not too bad considering I found out this week that I have been running with a stress fracture, tendinitis, shin splints and some sheared cartilage :-) In all honesty finishing the 10th marathon was a bit of an anti-climax. I think similar to the bike ride from Lands End to John O' Groats in 2010 with a challenge set over a long period of time you get used to the situation and know for quite a while before the end that you're going to be able to finish. Still I'm not one to pass up an excuse for a few beers :-)
It's all over!
The Yellowwood at sunset
Time to celebrate!
Any excuse for a good sing song!
The lovely people at Link were kind enough to arrange for me to visit some of the schools where they work in the region. Seeing the poverty in these ex-townships was one of the most humbling experiences of my life and really helped to put a lot of things in perspective! Living and working in London it's very easy to lose sight of what's really important in life and the experience has given me a lot to think about. The whole trip was an unbelievable experience and one that I will never forget. I feel very lucky to have been able to meet and share it with some amazing people!
So that's it for another year. One final MASSIVE thank you to everyone for their support over the last six months, I wouldn't have been able to do it without you! The Virgin Money Giving site will be up for another week or so if anyone would still like to make a donation to such a fantastic cause.http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/FrazerCampbell_10_in_10
The grand total now stands at £7,508.75. Thank you again for your generosity, having seen Links work first hand I can say hand on heart that it is helping to make a difference.
Watch this space for 2013's challenge....
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