Two Oceans Ultra Part 2: Race Review

It’s a week since running the Two Oceans Ultra and it still feels like a life-defining moment. I’m already looking forward to next year’s marathon, although my foot is still protesting. I figured I’d offer a few concise lines about particular aspects of the race:

Signing up:

For me, the process went so smoothly. I thought the interface was user-friendly and easy; but I do know that some people had big problems with signing up. The entries do fly, so for future reference, waiting is probably not the best idea. Especially if you’d rather enter for the half-marathon – those entries fly like hot-cakes!

Marketing:

The marketing team did such a great job of hyping everyone up and keeping one up to date. The OMTOM Magazine was superb and the social media pages well-maintained. The biggest flaw was a lack of interaction on social media with people who had complaints.

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A Key To Disillusionment In Work And Play

The phenomenon of disillusionment is well-discussed in the world of medicine. Roundabout third year of medical school, students begin to realise that the medical world simply does not live up to what they envisioned.

It is easy to say, “Just don’t have such high expectations,” but in reality a doctor without vision becomes a mindless drone. Disillusionment is discussed so widely because even though by definition it seems simple, its origins and characteristics are complex.

Funnily enough, I began to really understand disillusionment when I started club-running. Don’t be mistaken: joining a club was the best decision I could have made. It introduced me to many like-minded people and provided ample opportunity to amp my mileage.

I joined a club because I felt that I loved running enough to do so, but not long after joining I started experiencing an emotion I recognised from the medical world. I was feeling disillusioned.

You guys! I ran a marathon!

In September 2015, after reading Tom Foreman’s My Year of Running Dangerously, I got it in my head to run the Two Ocean’s Marathon. For some reason I didn’t click that it was actually an ultra at 56km, and that I would need to run a qualifying marathon first. What can I say, sometimes I’m a little inattentive.

ANYWAY. Today I ran my qualifying marathon, the 43rd Buffs Marathon in East London (South Africa) – and my first marathon ever.

What an experience.

Help Me Survive My Bad Life Choice

So a while ago, in the heat of a post-run “I can do anything” high, I signed up for the Two Oceans Marathon.

If you don’t know me well: I started running in 2013 because it was the only sport I could do that didn’t require a huge financial investment.

It kind of grew on me a little. This past year was a good year for running. A while ago I just kept running and accidentally did a 21 km (half-marathon).

Anyway. The Two Oceans Marathon is an ultra at 56 km. It is on 26 March 2016.

I haven’t even run the qualifying marathon yet. I’ll do that in February.

It’s just that running has been really hard for me ever since I signed up.

Especially getting those long runs in… It’s just that considering I have at least one 24+ hour call a week, that means I’m out of action two days a week… leaving me five days to do four runs.

It’s hard. I’ve always just run for the sake of running, the only person I had anything to prove to being myself.

Suddenly I doubt myself every step of the way.

I feel like the Blerch is following me around wherever I run.

I need advice, running world!

 

HELP: I Think I Hate Spinning (and some running updates)

Last week I ran a 15 km road race in our town and I was really happy with my result. I was aiming for 01:45 because I’m training for the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town next year (whoop whoop!) and RunKeeper keeps telling me I need to pace myself. But my time was 01:37:49, so I was ecstatic, not least because I felt so good at the end that I kept running (okay fine, also because my RunKeeper plan said I should run 16,1 km).

Being On Call Is Like Running A Marathon

… and none of that pseudo-philosophical “you have to pace yourself” bullshit.

I mean, I’ve never even run a marathon. But I’m training for one. My training plan was too ambitious though so I think I have shin splints (why does medical school not teach us about shin splints? Am I imaging them?) so combined with my grueling call of last night, I’ve had to forfeit my long run for this weekend.

Being on-call is like running a marathon (or a long run, or any run; depending on how fit I’m feeling) because:

Amazing digital portraits done by DanSun. Click image to be taken to his website. His portraits raise awareness of PTSD in first-responders and I think they are AMAZING.

Running Dangerously with Tom Foreman [Book Review]

Via Foreman’s Twitter Feed @TomForemanCNN

I am nervous about reading running memoirs. I don’t want to read about some super-athlete’s running diaries, because I am not a super-athlete, and I doubt I will ever be. Also, I’ve never really hero-worshiped an athlete so reading someone’s memoirs based on a sport they are good at, does not appeal to me.

Tom Foreman’s My Year of Running Dangerously appealed to me because his running journey is described as “from half-hearted couch potato to ultra-marathon runner”; and also because he ran after being prompted by his college-aged daughter. Family for the win!

Running Update (See What I Did There?)

What started as a pretty amazing year of running tapered down quickly.

Getting that IOD in March spelled disaster for my running. The nausea and constant myalgia pretty much put me out of it for four weeks straight. Winter was a shock to my system and it took me a while to get back into running when the cold set in; and not long after THAT I got a really bad bout of flu that essentially had me indoors for the month of August.

Excuses aside, my motivation to run WAS pretty low, too.

I recently read Tom Foreman’s My Year of Running Dangerously (review coming soon!) and that certainly upped my motivation in a big way. In fact, while I have always maintained that I had no desire to run a marathon… I now think I kinda sorta might want to do that.

The little trip to New York also, strangely, really helped my running. The Boy’s sister is big into trail running and we went running in Central Park every morning. It was fantastic! I find that when you run in a foreign country you don’t seem quite so foreign. Nobody tries to sell you crap while you’re running, for instance.

Central Park!

Alice in Wonderland, Central Park!

After the Peace Run, Cape Town!

Bookish (and not so Bookish) Thoughts #8

Link up with Christine here.

1. I’m listening to the audio of The Martian by Andy Weir and I actually really like it. I got it for my dad as a gift and he LOVED it. I can understand the problems that some people have with it but for me, it works great. Also, the narrator is so good. My favourite line so far: “Hell yeah I’m a botanist!”2. Signups for Ninja Bookswap are now open! I participated in the Spring swap at the beginning of the year and the mini swap recently; and both were absolutely wonderful! This time around there is a regular swap but also a penpal swap. Check it out here.

Why I Run

I run because once upon a time I was told that there were two kinds of people: people with brains and people with brawn and that I was the former and that it precluded me from physical activity of worth. I run because although it was meant to be a good thing – brains – it made me feel restricted, faulty, half-human.

I run because I reject the dichotomy. I run because when I am working long shifts and saving lives and keeping the economy afloat (I like to flatter myself) it is not just my brain, but also my body doing it.