 |
|
At exactly 6am the gun went off and we were off. From the
start we were right on target and ran at around 3:57 for the
first 15 odd km. At this time both myself and Frank was trying
to hold Yolandi back a bit, but she was like a racehorse rearing
to go. At the 12km mark we were running with the main 'bus'
of athletes that always surround the first ladies. Our 15km
split was 0:59:00 which was well ahead of our anticipated
split time of 1 hour. By the time we got to 21km 1:22:44 Yolandi
was about 100m ahead of Frank and myself. We started revising
our race strategy, because we didn't think Yolandi was going
to be doing this well. We decided to tell her to go for it!!
She was running at a steady 4min/km and was looking great.
I caught up with her while Frank stayed behind. Yolandi and
myself had a little chat and I warned her not to run too hard
up Ou Kaapse Weg and to take it easy on the downhill. Both
Frank and myself were anticipating that we could catch her
on the big hill and then at least we could help her through
the rest of the race. I wished her good luck and dropped off
the pace to wait for Frank. The two of us went up Ou Kaaps
at a steady 5 min/km but Yolandi was nowhere to be seen. Down
the other side we still ran according to schedule and did
4 min/km. At the bottom of Ou Kaapse Weg, 36km into the race,
we were still on target for a sub 4 hour time and an easy
silver.
From then on in Frank started to battle. Our km splits started
falling away and we were doing 4:20-4:30 per km. At the marathon
mark our split time was 2:57:36 which meant that we had 1hr
and 2 minutes to run the last 14km. This would be relatively
easy, however we still had to contend with Southern Cross
Drive. Unfortunately Frank was feeling sluggish and battled
to keep up the pace. On the first kilometre up Southern Cross
we did a 5:16k, and I had to make a decision. Either I would
stick with Frank and see if he can run through this bad patch
or I would leave him behind and get my silver. I chose to
go for my silver. With 9km to go and only 43 minutes in hand
I left Frank. I still had 2km of climbing left up Southern
Cross and put in a few fast kilometres just to make sure that
I wouldn't end up being 20 seconds short.
The last 5km, I ran with another running friend of mine from
Irene Club, and we were doing 4:10/km. I finished in a time
of 3:57:55. ANOTHER SILVER!!!!!!
It was a really easy run for me. Yolandi was the star of
the day and ran a 3:47. In doing so she got 5th position and
a nice R10 000 cheque for her efforts. That is not to mention
the incentives that she will be getting from Mr. Price her
sponsor. Unfortunately Frank didn't make the silver cut-off
and ran a 4:06. He was disappointed, but still had a good
run and he is well on his way to yet another silver Comrades.
Two Oceans 2003 was yet again the highlight in my running
year and I will definitely be back next year to collect my
4th Silver.
For those interested here are my split times :
|
