"Can you please buy me a coffee..."

The Blue Train retired after about 1000 kilometers of pounding the pavement.

29 - Imbube King's Marathon, Mbabane Swaziland, 8 October 2017

One of my 100BEFORE40 secrets, at least until now, has been avoiding running the same marathons whenever I can. Permanent numbers (green, blue or whatever colour) do not really appeal to me. I have great respect for the permanent number tradition, but it is not my kind of thing. For me completing a particular marathon once is a privilege. Given a chance, I prefer moving on to a different marathon. However, I have my favorite marathons that I would not miss lightly. These are the Soweto Marathon and the Wally Hayward Marathon. I have told the story of the Soweto Marathon repeatedly, but for the benefit of those who do not know, it was my first ever marathon in November 2014. It has become synonymous with marathon, just like Colgate in synonymous with toothpaste or OMO is synonymous with washing powder in many households. Wally Hayward’s illustrious running career is every runner’s dream. It compels me to run the Wally Hayward Marathon every year in his honour.

When I saw that there was a race between Lobamba and Mbabane, Swaziland, I did not hesitate to list it on 17 Marathons for 2017 wish list. I listed the Imbube King’s Marathon on my 2017 wishlist list as part of my quest to run different marathons in as many countries as I can. I had been to Swaziland before, but like a witch, I had sneaked into Manzini in the middle of the night and sneaked out at the crack of dawn. Therefore, the Imbube King’s Marathon gave me reason for a trip to Swaziland. I was fortunate enough to met one gentleman from Swaziland at the Mandela Day Marathon. We ran together for a while and I got all the information about that I needed about the Imbube King's Marathon.

I got in touch with my mate Russel Timbe and told him about this seemingly good road trip. Russel was an easy customer. He had been looking for a race outside South Africa, and bought the idea of the Imbube King’s Marathon easily. He would run the half-marathon and I would run the marathon. We drove to Swaziland a day before the race. The trip was about five and half hours and was not without adventure. We took the N4 toll road, instead of the N17 toll road as originally planned. We the got lost on the N4 toll road. We only realized that we were lost about two kilometers after passing the Machadodorp Toll Plaza. We had to turn around and pay another R83.00 (eighty-three Rand) to pass the same toll gate. The toll fee sounds like a negligible amount, but for us “Johannesburgers”, it was a lot of money. We were reduced from “no to e-Tolls warriors” to softies that payed R83.00 toll fees twice in a space of 10 minutes. After re-configuring the route, we drove on a “back route” in rainy and misty conditions. This slowed us down a bit, but did not dampen our spirits.

After some two hours or so of driving in the atrocious weather conditions in the mountains, we arrived at the Oshoek Border Post. Crossing the border was very easy. It was nowhere close the drama that I encountered at the Beitbridge Border Post when I traveled for the Victoria Falls Marathon earlier in the year. The police did not bother checking our car, let alone the car documents. I somehow got to understand how a lot of cars stolen from South Africa end up in some of the neighboring countries.

The eligible Bachelors. Russel's left hand firmly in the pocket😜

On the Swaziland side of the border, very friendly female immigration and revenue services officers assisted us. I have no doubt that we looked like very eligible bachelors, constantly pocketing our left hands to keep the wedding rings out of sight😜😜😜The immigration officer was the second highlight of the road trip. She checked our passports, our purpose for the visit, stamped them and welcomed us to Swaziland. Just as we thought we were done, she openly said “Can you please buy me a coffee.” Russel looked at me in disbelief. I looked around to check if any of the other people in the queue had heard this. They appeared to have heard it, but were all minding their own business. Russel and I quizzed her why we had to buy her a coffee? She openly said, “it’s cold, I want to keep warm as I do my job.” We then asked if we would not be in trouble for paying an immigration officer to do her job and if this would not be construed as a bribe? She laughed and said there was no such thing. Having convinced ourselves that she was right, we took it as a “tip”. She had already checked our documents, satisfied herself that we qualified for entry into the Swazi Kingdom and allowed us entry. Therefore, there could not be any suggestion that the coffee was a bribe. It could only be some form of gratuity from happy travelers. We further asked her where we could get the coffee. She said we could just give her cash and she would go and get the coffee later. I cannot remember how much money we gave her. I think we gave R50.00 and thanked her for her services. 

From the border we headed straight to Lobamba to collect our race packs. The race pack collection was low key. It gave an impression that the race was very small. However, we comforted ourselves by believing that many local runners must have collected their race packs during the week. After collecting our race packs, we decided to grab something to eat. We chose Spur. We were in Swaziland and had no little kids with us. Consequently, we did not expect any drama there. We were wrong. The place was packed with families (a lot of kids around). There was this chap one table away from us. He was viewing pornography on his tablet, probably on the Spur WIFI connection too. He was later joined by a young woman and creepy old white man (the race is important for the context). They seemed to be in the pornography together. In fact, we concluded that the chap was just a “runner”. Not a runner like us, a runner in the deep dark streets of Lobamba picking up or pimping young girls and women to the creepy old chap and his associates.

By the time race day came, we had already had our fair share of adventure in Swaziland in less than 24 hours. The nice receptionist at our hotel had rattled us by creating confusion about where and when the race would start and finish. He was mistaken, but meant well and was just trying to help us. Russel had stocked up on Sibebe Premium Lager, just in case no booze was sold on Sunday. The dinner we had was not so great. I had used up my free WIFI bundle in a matter of hours and asked for a new one under the pretence that the other one was not working. We had an early morning on race day. We had to drive from Mbabane to Lobamba. The distance was just 20 kilometers, but we left the hotel early. We were not certain if the main road between Mbabane and Lobamba would be closed and at what time. We beat the traffic, if there was any later, and arrived at the Somhlolo National Stadium very early. 

the 40km signature jump.

After a string of very dramatic warm ups by various teams and clubs and race formalities, the marathon runners were off at 5:30 am. Russel and the rest of the half marathon runners started 30 minutes later. The first half of the race was all about climbing. We ran through a few villages before joining the main road to Mbabane. The section on the main road was a bit lonely even though there were many cars passing and hooting. It was different to the villages section where the villagers happily welcomed and cheered us. This made the long climb into Mbabane very hard. However, once we got to the top, getting into Mbabane, the views were breath-taking. After a short run through Mbabane city center, it was time for a long downhill back to Lobamba. I sped for most of the downhill even though my legs had taken enough punishment climbing into Mbabane. I managed to make up for some lost time, but finally lost the battle around the 32^nd kilometer. There was nothing new here. The 32^nd kilometer is where I hit the proverbial “wall” all the time. From there it was a matter of hanging in there, with the bigger picture (17 Marathons for 2017) in mind. I crossed the finish line just after 4h25. I, however, managed to do negative splits, 2h15 for the first half and 2h10 for the second half. I met up with Russel by the car. He had long finished his race and was on the verge of finishing all his beers. 

The drive out of Swaziland was much better than the drive into Swaziland. It was a sunny all the way to the border gate and we enjoyed the magnificent mountain views. The border crossing was a bit chaotic though. It was a Sunday afternoon and many people were going back to work, in South Africa. It must have taken us a good one and half to two hours to complete the immigration formalities on both sides of the border. Once we completed the formalities on the South African side, mission had been accomplished, The Imbube King’s Marathon, marathon 13/17 Marathons for 2017, had fallen and I ticked Swaziland off my list.

As you, or should, know by now, if it is not on Facebook, it did not happen. I documented the adventure on Facebook as follows:

#100BEFORE40 Marathon 13/17 Marathons for 2017, Imbube King’s Marathon, done and dusted. The uphill killed me. The downhill buried me. I am a ghostwriter as I post this. Apart from the killer uphill and downhill, all was good. Good tour of Lobamba and Mbabane on foot and I am happy with my 4:25:21 finish. The reunion with Russel at the finish was lit. Lastly, my loyal servant, the Blue Train has called it a day. It retired today after carrying me for a 1000kms. Next stop, 14/17 Marathons for 2017, The Athens Classic Marathon