100BEFORE40

26 - Mandela Day Marathon, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, 27 August 2017 By the time the Mandela Day Marathon came, the 17 Marathons for 2017 project was well underway. Nine marathons had come and gone. Mandela Day heralded the double-digit phase. It was number 10 out of 17 for the year. The 2015 edition had dealt with me properly. It humbled me and sent me back to the drawing board. And it took me a good two years to come up with a proper plan. My plan was to give the race a taste of its own medicine. I wanted to improve my time by at least 25 minutes. This would give me a sub 4 hours 30 minutes finish. It was not going to be easy, by it was possible. I planned to rest as much as possible in the week leading up to the race. I was supposed to get enough sleep, stay off my feet and carbo-load as much as possible. However, the nature of these things is such that you can never have perfect plan. Something is bound to happen. I hardly slept for most of the week due to work