Storms River Mouth

It's still dark at 4:30am, but I can see the horizon starting to lit up and the clouds clearing up while I'm enjoying some Pronutro in the back of my car.

I started with a couple of loops on the tar road through the camp waiting for the sun to come up before I head into the forest.  5:30am and it's light enough for me to take on the forest.  I head towards the suspension bridge via the boardwalk. The boardwalk is wet, but made from some kinda plastic I still find excellent grip.  There is no one on the trail (obviously, it's 5:30 on a Sunday morning) and it's absolute bliss!

Crossing the suspension bridge is a bit trick while running.  You think your foot is still going down then the bridge comes up and jerks your leg back.  The trick? Quick small steps! Great training for increasing your cadence these suspension bridges.  Now the real work starts! An almost vertical climb up the cliffs left me breathless, in all forms of the word.  The climb is awarded with an excellent view over the mouth and suspension bridges.  From here it's a little single track traversing the cliff, don't slip! 

After returning to camp I headed up the various tracks above the camp.  All indigenous forest and it's beautiful.  There is no easy flat sections and you need to focus to not step on the slippery roots.

Then came the Otter! Well, only the start really.  I planned on running to the waterfall which forms part of day 1 of the Otter.  Halfway in and you start scrambling over coastal rocks. This slowed my pace down and I didn't see the benefit on proceeding over the rocks.  I will certainly be back to do the Otter and to hike to the waterfall, it just wasn't ideal terrain at that moment.

I quickly filled my water bottle at camp, the humidity is crazy even though it was only 8:00am.  I ran through the forest again on my way to the shop to buy some more water.  Finished the run with a gentle run on the camp roads back to my tent.

Storms river mouth is a super special place and every one should go for a visit.  You can go on a snorkel trail, scuba, kayak up the river mouth, take a boat and view the Khoi cave, go down the river on a tube, tan on the beach, swim in the pool or just enjoy a couple of beers in the restaurant!

The Restaurant- They serve locally produced Mitchell Draught..yumyum

The upgraded suspension bridges

Celebrating a great run with a beer and making a potjie! best recovery food EVER!

Running For The Fear Of It

When I started trail running some 3 years ago I wasn't a runner. I went to gym 3 times a week and that was it.  One day I picked up the Mens Health Magazine and read an article about the Old Fishermans Trail Challenge. This looked like fun. The next day I was out the door and started to train.  I had 5 months to train for a 22km trail run and didn't know the slightest thing about running.

My main motivation was the fear of not finishing. The fear of having to miss the cut off or just being physically unable to go any further.  I was never planning on running again after the OFTC. But! The bug bit me and I kept on running. 

2009 rolled around and I decided to take part in the Three Peaks Challenge.  Never having run more than 22km's the 50km pain fest was a huge step.  Again, the fear of not finishing forced me out of bed on dark icy winter mornings into the mountains.  I accomplished the task at hand and had an empty feeling for weeks after the event.  I got rid of that feeling by entering the Addo 85km trail run in May 2010.  It was a frantic, fear filled couple of months leading up to the event.  I finished 5th and was ultimately hooked on ultra running and the challenge of the unknown!

2011 has come around and I have no real BIG plans to conquer.  And this is leaving me with very little motivation to get out the door and put in the hard sessions.  There is no fear of the unknown, fear of the challenge, fear of disappointing people. What is present is the fear of failing one self, letting the fitness drift and throwing away all the hours of training. The fear of having missed hours with loved ones for nothing.

It is at this junction that respect for the challenge and for one self, respect for the support system around us must be feared. Because without a cause and without support we are NOTHING!

Things Are A Changing

It was one of those windy hot summer Sundays in The Friendly City and I decided to test out the new trail just outside town.  Struggling with a bit of a tight hamstring it was a nice surprise to find out the 20km trail is as flat as a pancake.  I don't think you can even run 20km in the city as flat as this.

A few kays in and my heart rate was much higher than what it was suppose to be, but anything slower and I will run backwards.  I finished one loop and continued on to make up 28km's.  But those last 8km's were at a much lower heart rate than before. Awesome! Last time this happened to me was during the Addo 50miler in 2010. After a certain distance your heart rate just drops a couple of beats and you actually have to work quite a bit to get it higher.  This is the sign of a well trained heart (good boy!) when your body suddenly realizes whats going on and kind of just starts to relax.

The strange thing is that since Sunday my heart rate has been lower during all my training sessions, from the start. And this during a week where the humidity was extremely high.

So with 49 days and 19 hours to go til the start of the Addo all seems good in running land!