A 7:30pm dash to
Pietermaritzburg from Umhlanga on Saturday eve at the back of an Uber. 3 of us
sausaged in, buckled up, looping up and down the rolling hills of the jaunt
between the two towns.
The light of a phone screen bouncing off the dash. The flicker of the indicator. Silence pervades.
Pietermaritzburg is only ever seen in the dark of night, or the dirty hours of dusk.
As a blind human caressing walls, feeling materials to get a ‘sight’, so our Uber drive hugged the curves, embraced the downs, geared for the ups, coaster’d the hills and beat the bends. We could ‘read’ the book presented on race day, 29 May 2016
The hapless Uber driver confused by Google maps eventually delivers me. I reach my destination where i’ll barely get some shut eye. I eat aggressively by fuelling my body for the onslaught. I’m relaxed, I’m calm. I’ve seen. I’ve been through this before. I’m out there to enjoy it. And that’s all.
3:30 am Tolls. I bounce out of bed. I’m excited. I don my green kit, arm myself with chafe lubricant, nipple plasters, gums and goo’s, all for a great adventure. I punish two boiled eggs and an avocado pear. I am ready.
No moment I experience like the one stood standing at the start of the Ultimate Human Race-The Comrades Marathon. As Chariots of Fire plays, for those 2 minutes, the present world halts and my mind rushes a gushing storm drain. The thumping of the keys in the intro is a catalyst for my eyeballs to drain, and my emotion to rise. The past year of my life flips rapidly through my mind like an Ipod’s album cover shuffle. The glowing moments piquing my emotion-My time in Israel, my rapid marriage, the staccato life of marriage and it’s extra-ordinary ending, our time in Jerusalem, my career at a junction, the fling of my Copper product business, my running. As the tears cross down my face through the crevicing and valleys of my skin, dripping off the edge of my chin, free falling down the length of my body, plummeting to a splash, the red square digits rearrange from a 5:29:59 to an even 5:30, simultaneously the cock crows and the cannon thunders.
We’re out of our first gear and we’re off on the start of the 2016 Comrades Marathon.
The light of a phone screen bouncing off the dash. The flicker of the indicator. Silence pervades.
Pietermaritzburg is only ever seen in the dark of night, or the dirty hours of dusk.
As a blind human caressing walls, feeling materials to get a ‘sight’, so our Uber drive hugged the curves, embraced the downs, geared for the ups, coaster’d the hills and beat the bends. We could ‘read’ the book presented on race day, 29 May 2016
The hapless Uber driver confused by Google maps eventually delivers me. I reach my destination where i’ll barely get some shut eye. I eat aggressively by fuelling my body for the onslaught. I’m relaxed, I’m calm. I’ve seen. I’ve been through this before. I’m out there to enjoy it. And that’s all.
3:30 am Tolls. I bounce out of bed. I’m excited. I don my green kit, arm myself with chafe lubricant, nipple plasters, gums and goo’s, all for a great adventure. I punish two boiled eggs and an avocado pear. I am ready.
No moment I experience like the one stood standing at the start of the Ultimate Human Race-The Comrades Marathon. As Chariots of Fire plays, for those 2 minutes, the present world halts and my mind rushes a gushing storm drain. The thumping of the keys in the intro is a catalyst for my eyeballs to drain, and my emotion to rise. The past year of my life flips rapidly through my mind like an Ipod’s album cover shuffle. The glowing moments piquing my emotion-My time in Israel, my rapid marriage, the staccato life of marriage and it’s extra-ordinary ending, our time in Jerusalem, my career at a junction, the fling of my Copper product business, my running. As the tears cross down my face through the crevicing and valleys of my skin, dripping off the edge of my chin, free falling down the length of my body, plummeting to a splash, the red square digits rearrange from a 5:29:59 to an even 5:30, simultaneously the cock crows and the cannon thunders.
We’re out of our first gear and we’re off on the start of the 2016 Comrades Marathon.
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