To Hell and Back

Howdee guys

Sorry It's been a while but I have a good excuse. Ive either been driving, eating, running or sleeping!!

Friday evening - a quick 4 hour drive and we were in Prince Albert. Dinner: A pizza for starters, steak for mains, ice cream for desert and a beer to wash it all down - Gotta love Carbo loading.

Prince Albert, Gamkaskloof and "THE HELL" are just as awesome as I remember them from a few years back. It was great to be 4x4 in with Andrew and Linda Doke, just to see the expression on their faces as we drove down these huge downhills that we would have to run up later!! hahahaha - excellent.

The race start in the Hell valley which is encompassed by the Swartberg Mountains. The temp as we got out the car at about 8 was about 29 degrees but I think dropped to about 22ish at Midnight.

At 9 (at night) the race started Andrew , Linda and myself headed off at a good solid pace and before we knew it there were no other headlights in front of us. This couldnt be?? We were in the lead. At the 12km mark just before a huge climb I thought that the rest of the pack would catch us, as I thought it would be best to walk / run this section, It didnt happen instead Andrew Linda and I in fact increased our lead here. I think from our endurance that we have built up over all our big weekend runs and mountain work helped us up these hills at a strong pace.....and so the evening continued.

At 10km to go Linda made a break from me.... and showed me how to finish a race in style smashing the existing record! Awesome!

On the whole a great race. I was very happy as it is the best race finish that I have ever had - 2nd. Well done to Andy a top 10 (even although feeling sick at one point). Word out on the trails is that he came blitzing past on the last 10km.

I did pick up a tweak (Athletes use this word to make a problem less than it is) on the race, I hope its okay. It is a rest week and I have physio on Wednesday.

Chow for now

R