The 3 Amigos - I was ready, ready and ready

How did we end up here? 

I have often said my 100BEFORE40 story is about the journey, not the destination. Therefore, I always try to find interesting, exciting, or challenging pit stops along this journey. Some are fun, some are challenging, and some are outright brutal. The 3 Amigos was challenging.

 

What is “The 3 Amigos”

 

“Three Amigos” is actually a Western comedy that was released in 1986. However, this is not what we are on about here. It is a different three amigos. Here we are talking about “The 3 Amigos”

 

I first heard of ”The 3 Amigos” a few years ago from mis amigos, Julian “The Legend” Karp and Don “The Pink Tutu Runner” Rukanda. I intended to run “The 3 Amigos” with them in 2020. However, an injury kept me off the road towards the end of 2019 and I could not make it to “The 3 Amigos” in 2020. The years 2020 and 2021 were “wasted two years” for me. I ran only 3 marathons in 2020, just before the Covid-19 induced lockdown. I ran 1 marathon in 2021. Things improved in 2022. I started enjoying my running again. I revisited “The 3 Amigos” project towards the end of 2022. Besides, I did not have much choice. I only have less than a year to complete the 100BEFORE40 journey and it is a matter of ‘now or never’ for these exciting and challenging pit stops.

 

Phillip is here

 

For the longest part of January 2023, The Pink Tutu Runner kept asking me a silly question. He would greet me and say, “are you ready, or are you ready, ready, ready?” “I am ready, but we will have to see how it goes”, I retorted each time. A few days later he would ask the same thing. Frankly speaking, at some point I got annoyed by the question. I did not understand why, he repeated the “ready” 3 times. It only dawned on me after running “The 3 Amigos” that he was trying to tell me that Phillip is here (feel it, it is here). While I focused on a single race weekend, The Pink Tutu Runner was trying to remind me that I was required to be physically and mentally ready for each race. I was supposed to be ready, ready, ready! These were three different races after all.

 

Wonderpark Akasia Marathon - breaking the ice

 

My last race in 2022 was on 3 December and my first marathon in 2023 was the Wonderpark Akasia Marathon on 28 January 2023. This was almost 10 weeks apart. It was the longest period I did not run a marathon since 4 September 2022. To give you a good understanding of how long this was, during the 13-week period from 4 September to 3 December I ran 11 marathons. Therefore, a 10-week break felt like retirement.

 

Running my first marathon after such a long break was effectively starting again. It was breaking the ice. I did not know what to expect. I was excited, but nervous at the same time. In my excitement, I failed to properly check the race details. I arrived at the race venue at 05h30. I was convinced that I was very early for the 06h00 race start. I only realised that the race had started at 05h30 around 05h35 as I was casually strolling in the mall to collect my race number. A lady came flying and screaming towards the race number collections desk. She said she was looking for a “Temporary Licence” and she was late for the marathon which had already started.

 

Oops, it was going to be a long day and I had already started on the wrong footing. By the time I finished fastening my race number to my shirt, I was about 10 minutes late. To make matters worse, I started running right by the entrance of the Mall, instead of the actual race starting point. These extra hundreds of meters would hurt later in the day.

 

I had to play catch up throughout the race. I was worried that my partner(s) in crime would finish a good 40 minutes to an hour ahead. Keeping them waiting worried me a lot. The temptation to speed up and catch up was real and it was very difficult to contain myself. I had to constantly remind myself that “speed kills”. I had long day ahead and I had to be very disciplined.

 

Although I was playing catch-up, the first half flew by quickly. It must have been the adrenaline and the excitement that “The 3 Amigos” was here. The twists and turns on the race course also made the race a pleasure to run. I did the first half in about 2h20. For the first time, I was “lapped” by the leading runner. Around the 20^th km, the leader – Steven Mokoka – came flying past. He made my efforts look like kindergarten stuff.

 

By the time I started the second lap, the sun was properly up, and baking the earth and us. There were a few casualties as well. I saw three people who collapsed and required medical attention. The one lady who collapsed around the 41^st kilometre, looked like she was completely out. She was not responding to the medics.

 

I crossed the finish line after 4h58 on my watch and 5h08 on the official race clock. The Pink Tutu Runner had finished showering and was halfway through his breakfast by that time. He invited me for brunch, but I declined the offer. I generally do not eat immediately after a marathon. I was also worried that we were late and had to get moving. I took solace in the fact that I had a watermelon (food and drink) and some other light snacks in the car that would keep me going as we drove.

 

Ottosdal Draf en trap Marathon - even my stomach ran

 

The Pink Tutu Runner drove first as I enjoyed my water melon and a leg massage in the back seat. The water melon feast turned out to be a huge mistake that I paid for later.

 

We arrived in Ottosdal around 15h45. We quickly collected our race numbers and looked for a snack. It was too late for me to eat anything solid and heavy. We settled for a wors roll. Truth be told, it was horrible. It had too much sauce. I ended up eating the wors and throwing away half of the bread roll. Having settled down, we did a quick stock take of the day up to that point to kill time. We did multiple takes of the Wonderpark race review. Before we knew it, it was time to line up for the race.

 

Things seemed well for me until about the 14^th kilometre. The excessive indulgence in the water melon (and the horrible wors) caught up with me. Although my legs were up for the challenge that lay ahead, my stomach had other ideas. The longer and faster I ran, the faster the stomach got into the running mode. This forced me to run slowly and walk mainly. I must have walked 5.5km of the 7kms to the turnaround point.

 

By the time I got to the turnaround point, I had given up on a 5-hour finish. I was now racing against time. Even a 5h30 finish became a struggle. My stomach issues persisted. I made about 5 toilet breaks. Luckily, we were running in the bush, and it was dark. At some point I was right at the back. I had watched people who had been far behind me pass me as I was on a toilet break or as I walked to avoid irritating my stomach even more.

 

Between the 28^th and 36^th kilometres I wrote maths exams several times. I did all sorts of calculations in my head. I was slowly losing hope of making the 5h30 cut off time. I told myself that if I did not make the 5h30 cut off time, I would go home instead of driving to Benoni for the Johnson Crane Marathon. No point would have been served by running the 3^rd race after failing to finish the second one.

 

Around the 35^th kilometre as I was pushing hard to recover some lost ground and time, I started feeling lightheaded. I could feel that I was kind of veering off the road. I started thinking about the folks that had collapsed at Wonderpark. I worried that the same could happen to me. I worried that if I collapsed, I would probably fall into the bushes, and no one would notice until after the race cut off time. My only hope was The Pink Tutu Runner who would no doubt report me missing. I thought about what my wife would say to the kids if I collapsed and did not make it. Would I be hailed as a chap who pursued his interests to the end or a reckless chap who did not know when to stop? I was properly hallucinating at that stage.

 

I caught up with one old chap who had passed me earlier. Too embarrassed to be the last one at the back, I told him about my stomach issues and the fact that this was my second marathon on the day. He asked me the usual question “are you trying to kill yourself or what?” He then told me something that made me realise that my stomach issues were just a minor hump / bump to climb. He said he had completed I think 7 or 8 Comrades Marathon races, and two or three (I cannot remember very well) of those with a “stent” in his heart. He had heart complications a few years ago and has been taking it easy since then. He was not sure if he would complete the Comrades Marathon again. Knowing how much avid Comrades Marathon runners feel about the “Green Number”, I really felt his pain. He only has 2 or 3 more Big C races to complete to get his Green Number, but he may not make it. We ran together for 1.5 to 2km before we started a “yo-yo”. He would pass me as I took a walking break, and I would pass him as he took a walking break. After a while I left him behind and passed a couple that had not been too far ahead of us.

 

I always look forward to the last 5 kilometres. After all, it is just a “parkrun”. The last 5 kilometres were no different. I sped up a bit during this part. I managed to catch up with a few more runners including a “bus”. I do not think the bus made it before the cut off. However, I remained worried about the cut-off time until about 40 kilometres mark. The difference between my watch and the official race distance markers made it worse. My watch was about 200 metres ahead, despite having tried to sync / calibrate the laps twice earlier in the race. However, at 40 kilometres I realised that I could go at about 8minutes per kilometre and make it just before the cut off. There was also a long downhill coming in the last 1.5km or so. This all gave me hope. After taking the last right turn towards the stadium, I kept going fast, about 6:30 per kilometre. As I made the final right turn into the stadium, I knew that I had made it.

 

The stadium was deserted when I finished. Barring a few race officials and one or two runners waiting for their mates, there was no one in the stadium. The chaps sitting about 300 meters from the finish told me that I had less than a minute to finish. This made me sprint instead of enjoying that last bit. I sat close to the finish line after crossing the line. I watched the officials prepare the “gun” for the final “gunshot”. I also watched them remove the timing mate after the final gun. A few people did not make the cut off time.

 

I was re-united with The Pink Tutu Runner. We took a very erratic cold shower before leaving the stadium. If I am not mistaken, we were the last car (or second last car) to leave the stadium. We left at about 23h52 and embarked on the 4-hour trip to Benoni. By that time, I had been awake for about 20 hours.

 

Welcome back to the Johnson Crane Marathon

 

Our trip from Ottosdal was uneventful. It was pitch black out there. The Pink Tutu Runner drove for the first part again. We chatted about the race and my suffering for the longest part. However, at some point I started dosing off. It was a combination of many things. I was tired, had not slept and had not eaten a proper meal for the whole day. We stopped at a service station to get some coffee to keep us awake. We stopped at the very first service station that we saw. I got a double expresso. It tasted horrible, but it did the job. By the time my turn to drive came, I was wide awake.

 

We only got into bed around 03h20 (I had been awake for 24 hours by that time). Just as we were getting into a deep slumber around 4am, other runners in the hotel were up and already making noise. So, we had no choice but to get up and get ready for the last leg of “The 3 Amigos”. My stomach had really understood that it was a running weekend. It was still running when I got up.

 

The race start was delayed by about 10 minutes (damn, I do not know why they did not forecast this earlier and send an SMS to all runners saying take your time we are running late. I could have done with an extra 10 minutes of sleep).

 

The Johnson Crane was nothing much to write home about for me. I was tired and I just wanted it to be done. I met a few acquaintances though. I ran with someone for a while (between the 4^th kilometre the 8^th kilometre and later for another 2 kilometres or so. Those kilometres kind of flew by quickly.

 

The second half was a real struggle for me. The heat towards the end of the race was unbearable. Whoever arranged the water stations has a very dark sense of humour. They put the AVBOB water table at the top of a long hill around the 36^th kilometre. As if it was not enough that the hill would kill you, they wanted you buried by AVBOB who were patiently waiting for you at the top of the hill.

 

I had read somewhere that the cut off time was 6 hours. However, I was still traumatised by the Ottosdal 5h30 cut off. I asked the marshals about the cut off time twice. The first one did not know what the cut off time was. The second one said the cut off time was between 5h30 and 6h00. This just made me more anxious. Between 5h30 and 6h00? What kind of a cut-off time was that. I was not going to take chances. In the last 5km I focused on a 5h30min finishing time. I managed a 5h30min34sec finish. The 34 seconds was largely to me stopping just before the final timing mat to take a picture and video of my third and final finish line.

 

That was it. I had done it. I had conquered The 3 Amigos within 30 hours, about 600km drive and with only an hour of sleep.

 

Was it worth it?

 

My biggest regret was not accepting The Pink Tutu Runner’s invitation to eat something after Wonderpark. That led me into eating too much watermelon and the rest is history. Looking back, the running itself was not too bad. Ottosdal was the most beautiful race of the three. The running stomach spoiled it for me though. I was very tired at Johnson Crane, but the familiar faces and roadside support kept me going. I am glad I took the challenge on and ticked another 100BEFORE40 milestone despite still having ITB issues at the time.

 

Would I do it again? I do not know hey. Part of me is still wondering how I would perform without any ITB issues or a running stomach. Maybe, just maybe, one day I will go back without any injury or stomach issues – just to see something for a friend. 

P.S – If you would like to know more about the race (not my experience) please check out Stuart Mann’s blog here.