Captain Courageous and The Child Bride

In a previous post,The Child Bride runs Two Oceans I chronicled Joans Two Oceans Marathon run. In this posting we turn our attention to the big one, The Comrades.

This years Comrades Marathon was an up-run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg over a distance of just on 87km. We flew up from P.E. with the Knysna Marathon Club on Friday, with the first beers cracked at about 11:00am. From then on it was all downhill. Man, those runners can party !!

The rooming arrangements were most favourable to young Synaptoman, and I found myself sharing a room with not one, not two, but THREE hot female runners, who I duly renamed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Once settled in, we immediately made our way to Joe Cools on the beachfront. From 14 degrees in Knysna to a hot and sticky 28 degrees in Durban. Wow, it was just like Summer all over again.

Here is Jo (Sunday), Dirk and the Child Bride (Friday) carbo loading.

Saturday was just spent chilling and trying not to get injured or sick. ie sitting around and drinking some more to get hydrated, but first they had to register. Being The Child Brides first Comrades, this was a rather daunting task.

Here she is getting her race number.

The big day dawned and my three nervous room-mates set off for the start.

From the left, Jo (Sunday), Joan (Friday) and Lisl (Saturday) before the start.

Another scorching 28 degree day dawned and I drove the course, stopping at various points to cheer these mad girls on. Mike (Captain Courageous) took The Child Bride under his wing and held her back from running like a mad thing and not making it, and they finished in a very credible 10 hrs and 50 minutes (just ahead of Dave Edge of Sedgefield Striders) to secure an easy Bronze Medal.

Here is the jubilant pair at the finish basking in their success.

* This is a VERY rare photograph of Mike with something other than a beer in his hand. *

And then they partied.

We were eventually kicked out of the hotel bar and told to continue the party in one of the rooms, which we duly did.

Here is an interesting shot of what happens when everyone decides to buy a round when “last round” is called.

The Child Bride decided that her reward for finishing the Comrades was going to be sushi and champagne.

Here she is tucking in.

Now here’s the deal. Our rooming arrangements proved to be so successful that we (Synaptoman, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) have decided to offer a handful of generous corporate sponsors an opportunity of a lifetime. What we need next year is a private jet to Durban, a sea-facing mansion with all of the little luxuries, enough champagne to lubricate the weekend and in return we offer all the branding rights to our stay including interviews, photographs and videos. Whether my girls will get around to running is debatable, but hang, you’ll certainly get plenty of mileage.

Synaptoman with Saturday, Friday and Sunday.

Very tired.

Synaptoman