Mart and Mike's Big Adventure: The Inaugural Mandela Day Marathon by Mike Sutton

When I heard Martin had entered this historic event I didn’t think much of it – he’s always doing crazy things, but when Jen highlighted the significance of the race I realised I just had to give it a go, and was lucky enough to grab one of the last entries, something I saw as an omen.

Marty put in some serious marathon training and unfortunately picked up an inevitable niggle or two in his final preparation, whilst I continued with my customary 40 – 50kms a week, with one nice 25 up to Kloof station with Martin, and a solo mountain climb up Town Hill as a “route-tester” (only to find out later we got the course wrong and it didn’t go up there, there are steeper hills in that area they used!).

Well the weekend dawned and the Saturday was an absolute scorcher (36°C in Maritzburg at 3.30pm!!), something that proved too much for our little Golfie, and we didn’t make it up Town Hill this time. Thanks to great strategizing by Jen and Mart, and some angels of mercy we eventually got to Martin’s farm some 4 or 5 beers behind my carbo-loading schedule, but happy to be able to put our feet up eventually and quench our thirst.

Sunday dawned blessedly cool and we kicked off after the national anthem in near ideal running conditions, only to be greeted by the first “little” hill around the first corner. Knowing what awaited us further down, no UP the road, I was amused to hear people complaining that the hill was sooo steep and long. Sorree for them! The road from the start in Imbali in Pmb to the finish at the Mandela capture site just outside Howick is said to incorporate 34kms of climbing, and I for one won’t dispute that! And included in this is about 9K of extreme hills – think Puke Hill for the duration!!

We caught up with Dean Wight after a while and were surprised to see him without his usual entourage of chicks – I suggested to him that they had possibly become too quick for him!

We meandered through Imbali for some 7kms, and it was lovely to see how house-proud most of the residents are, given their circumstances. The route was jollified by regular ANC rent-a-crowd ambush marketing (in blatant violation of IAAF and ASA regulations, but it was clearly a case of, hey, they (we) are paying…) and our club colours were very well received, with us receiving vociferous support, even at the spot where Martin proclaimed “Viva DA” at the top of his voice.

Then the real screaming started, up the aptly named “Struggle Hill”. Oddly enough I didn’t and had one of my best marathons ever, but clearly many of the runners who may have started a bit too quickly and under-estimated the first few Ks of the climb were. Whenever I chugged past someone I knew I told them I was saving a walk for the big hills!

Well thankfully the ridiculous climbs peaked in Hilton around the halfway mark, where we got to see our trusty super-second Jen for the second time. From there the race could still be categorised as tough, with the organisers managing to find every challenging hill in the area, and climbing out of Howick with 8Ks to go I was taking a bit of strain. Approaching Midmar I passed one of my rivals from cross country and pushed as hard as I could from there thinking I might be in the money, only to find I finished 22 minutes behind the 3^rd Master! The fantastic prize-money had clearly attracted the cream of the crop. Nonetheless I was pretty chuffed with my race having managed to keep running the whole way, something I haven’t done in a marathon for a while.

 

I finished in 3.41 with Martin just behind in around 4 hours, having also suffered a pinched sciatic nerve. All in all a great race, very well organised and definitely one for next year. Thanks to Jen for the great support and particularly for chauffeuring two smelly runners back to the farm for soaks!

Post by Mike