KOUGA KUS HALF MARATHON 20 MARCH 2010

KOUGA KUS HALF MARATHON

SATURDAY 20 MARCH 2010

PETER GIDDY
ACHILLES
PORT ELIZABETH


Saturday 20 March 2010
Gerald Scheepers and I had arranged to meet early this morning to run the Kouga Kus 21kay from Humansdorp to Jeffries Bay.

The previous evening I had been at Nippers Training, Ally went off to a Hip Hop show in Forest Hill and Mark stayed over at Kylie's house for the weekend.

I was awake early and met Gerald at his house at 05.00am. Pat and Ronel were off to meet up with Adrienne for the beach run. It was quite strange to see so much activity at a home at that time in the morning.

We had an easy drive to Jeffries Bay where we met up with Bruce and Paulette Mc Ewan. Bruce had arranged for Ancha's husband, Digby to drive the van back from Humasdorp. Bruce had faithfully brought the trailer to Jeffries. This is a huge responsibility that Bruce has taken upon himself and adds so much to the club spirit. In the van was Sidzumo (Silence); Percy; Wayne; Roger; Peter; Gerald and myself.

We registered at the school in Humansdorp and the race started at 7.00am. As the race started I met up with Ekard Schuman (Body Concept) and the two of us ran together for the first half of the race. We passed Graham and Kenny. The route takes a short detour in the wrong direction and then heads back to Jeffries on the old road. There is a short uphill at the start and then reasonable flats and down hills to the 10kay mark.

At the 11kay I asked Ekard what our time was: 1.03. We had been running at around 5.45 but slowed after the bridge. From the 10kay marker there is a 5kay uphill to the circle. The race takes the runner on the Left hand side of the road. This is with the traffic and is unusual. But it would be very difficult to keep runners to the right as the route is a gradual Left hand bend and Runners would tend to want to take the shortest line. This would mean runners crossing the road or running in the middle of the road.

At the circle I continued on the left hand side as this remains the shortest line. I saw other runners moving across to the right. Here I saw Dean who tells me that he is building a small business in Construction. Megan, Martin and Liezl passed me looking strong.

I was tiring but wanted to save something for the final few kays. I plodded on chatting to various people who were passing me: Michelle and Fred came past. Then there was the sharp down hill to the Main Jeffries Road. I dont handle down as strongly as others can and so let people pass me rather than trying to keep up with them.

As we hit the bottom we began to run with the Easterly Breeze. Up to this time we had been enjoying the cooling effect of the cloud cover and the East wind. But now we had 4kays of gradual uphill and the wind behind us. It may sound like the wind from behind would assist the runner. But in this case the East wind was not more than a gentle breeze and we lost the cooling effect.

This section of the route is purely "Vasbyt". It is not a difficult climb but, as it is at the end of the run, it becomes easy to walk and to slack off. I determined that I was not going to walk. Up to this stage I had managed to jog the whole way with short walks at Watering stations to sip a coke. But as always happens you are able to eat away at the Kilometer markers. Soon it was just a Kay to go. And Mike (MOF) Botha was ahead of me. I felt bad to pass him in the final stretch but I was hopng to get as close to 2 hours as possible and while I dont carry a watch I knew that I would be close.

At the end there was the short down to the finish and a cold drink for the weary runners. Bruce and his fast running friends were already showered and looking refreshed as they set up the drinks, chairs & umbrellas. Shortly after I had finished Gerald appeared looking quite relaxed. I was still dripping after the hard pull at the end.

Graham and Kenny arrived with the news that they had been partying the whole night before the race. I know that this must have hurt Graham as I have understood him to be a man of sober habits.
Some of the results:
Gerald S, Graham and Kenny were at 2.20 473 /550 finishers
Graham Nel was at 2.13
Michael Botha ended at 2.03
I managed a 2.02 position 330 and Ancha was just ahead of me.
Eckard Schumann was able to scrape in under 2.00
Peter P also managed to edge under 2 hours as did Megan, Leisel and Martin.
\The first Achillean was Michael Bester at position 16 with a 1.17. Stunning!





Both Gerald and I had a busy day ahead and we had to leave before the prize giving. We heard later that a tog bag had gone missing with car keys and cell phone. Most upsetting as we tend to trust those around us when we are at a sporting event like this.

Peter Giddy
21.03.2010