I got a huge surprise....from myself!!!

Isn't life just crazy sometimes?!  You know if you had told me six months ago that I would be bitten, and bitten hard, by the trail-running bug, I would've openly laughed out loud in your face!  Me!  Run! In the mountains!  Ai wena!!  No my friend...firstly, running is boring, secondly, I just can't run...I feel like I am dying after about 50 metres, and thirdly, I don't have that graceful stride when I attempt to run...I look more like a rhino!  So one day I'm going for a walk through the vineyards with friends and I'm thinking, mmmmm, this is so pretty, it wouldn't be bad to actually take a little jog through here and take in all the beauty that surrounds us.  Then a couple of months later I do a walk with a friend again and I realize that this trail running thing is calling me.  Trotting through all the amazing natural beauty we have around the Cape can only be wonderful.  So I'm convinced to enter the Spur Cape Winter Trail Series.  I go online and enter all four races in the series...the short ones of course which I was under the impression were no more than 5km each.  Well, turns out they were all just under 10km each - gasp!!  I also had in mind that the series started at the end of July but again I was wrong and see that they start 20 June!  That left me with about two weeks to train.  Another gasp!  Oh man I'm gonna die!!!  I get hold of one of my best friends, someone who has known and supported me in all my craziness for the best part of our lives!  I ask her if she is keen to enter and run with me... and she says yes!  Whoop whoop!  Us two old ducks are going to do this thang!!  

The two Old Ducks!!

Well, our first race was 9.15km long.  I had two goals - not to come in last, and not to injure myself.  I attained my goals!  I'm telling you it was the most amazing feeling to finish that race!  It was run at the Paul Cluver Estate in Elgin.  Such magnificent beauty and fairly even dirt road running.  Two killer uphills, but those we just plodded.  We ran where we could and walked where we had to.  It was muddy, and slippery, and awesome!  I felt like superwoman when I was done.  The people, the vibe, the beauty, the exercise, the endorphins, the joy of attaining a goal...just awesome, and the bug had bitten!  

I missed the second run of the series which was at the Tygerberg Nature Reserve.  Chatting to fellow runners at the third race, I was rather pleased I had been unable to run that one as they say it was very muddy, very slippery and the hills were super hectic!  

The third race in the series was held at the Taal Monument in Paarl.  That race was 7.8km long, but it was more technical than Paul Cluver Estate.  The race started with a long uphill climb then wound through some amazing paths, single track, big obstacles to climb over, and then a long downhill to the finish.  I surprised myself (again!) and ran the entire last 2km non stop, however, by the time I got to the finish my left knee was hurting so badly that I was limping like crazy.  Something to do with downhills that I am doing wrong.  The wonderful thing was that I improved on my time - even though it was shorter than the first race, as I said it was far more technical so I didn't think I would be able to improve my time!  Elation!

The fourth and last race was run in Kleinmond.  That was 8.44km long and took us along the coastline, over a stretch of killer beach sand and then onto the golf course, into the mountain and down and back to the finish again.  I had read some tips for newbies to trail running and one of them was on downhills, lean into the downhill, lengthen your stride and let the momentum pull you down!  I tried this and voila! no knee pain at all!  Again I improved my time!  This was a major surprise to me as I didn't feel strong on the day and there were several bottle-necks where the race came to a stand still. I was absolutely ecstatic to receive my series medal.  One had to run at least three of the four races in order to receive a medal and I had achieved this!  

So here I am on the other side of three trail runs, having survived, having loved every minute, having received my medal and having surprised the living daylights out of myself!  Life is short people...go out there and surprise yourselves!