Category: Running experiences

  • Comrades Training Bonus

    Running riches The thing about all the running for Comrades is that it’s not just about the hard work; not just about the medal at the end. Being out in the full of the last of the night-refracted sunlight is part of the richness And we are thriving in bonus warm, late summer days. All…

  • Number Stories

    What stories do the log-book numbers tell? Distance 77 km in the Two Oceans week, 33 easy the next, then 56 and 65 km building to 80+ km longest week. It’s not a lot by the hero runner standards by it is more than the minimum and just a tiny bit less than what I…

  • Running ages-10

    The 10 year-old in me enjoys my running antics. His cheers are loud. He finds my name in the results; not worrying I don’t make the headlines. He loves the peeling naartjie smell, how his mouth sucks at its taste-burst after a run. The taste is as fresh as that of the ones he used…

  • Boys in the rain

    On the past weekend’s little trail runs I remembered (a long ago running partner) Rick Shaeffer’s comment: When I was little. my mom shouted “Come out of the rain, stop jumping in puddles, you’ll get wet and dirty.” Now I run in the rain, jump in the puddles and take photos of mud-splats all over…

  • For the last gasp

    Back in the city-grime on its hard roads. Long weekend treat in a nature reserve: what of those riverside trails in the earliest light, mist on the water; hands-in-sleeves cold, grass wet, leaves drip, grin stretched up to the snow-topped mountains? Well they’re etched deep enough to last past my last gasp.

  • A running week

    Friday cold wind howling, rest day Saturday, just feel tired, cold wind howling, wimp the run Sunday, still tired, cold wind howling, not normally a running day Monday, I understand that my recovery from Comrades is not yet complete, though my legs are getting perky. Wind cold still howling. Tuesday, no wind and a perfect…

  • Recovery blues

    The only problem about recovering from Comrades; from a big near 12-hour challenge, also from monnths of training almost as hard as I can. I can’t run. Otherwise its great. Lazy easy runs, time to enjoy them. Feeling strength return. Run-health fizzing through me. Good memories on my pillow, medal under it. Why not? But…

  • Moon running

    Hunted a pic this morning. A near-full moon hung perfectly, low in the Nek between Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, where first I ran the mystic. No good shot from my streetlight lit street. I’ll make do a picture-perfect running memory instead.  

  • Recovery Re-discovery

    Jogged this weird-warm winter morning; a shirtless ode to summer Eyes filled with stars. Legs a little stiff. Saturday’s morning’s 13 k: Too much fast, too much fun. No training burden, you see. Just running playfully.   

  • Co-incidence

    Moon high, Venus bright in a clear sky, city still; mountain quiet under its cloud; silence of a crisp morning before the first bird. Three joys of winter. Focus: car backs from garage at me padding the middle road, bright headlights rush at us. Three beings at the same place and time. Eyes brighten, breathing…