Comrades Marathon...

So there is this really big marathon here, but it isn't just marathon. It goes from the city i live, Pietermaritzburg to Durban and it is a total of 89 km, which is 56 miles, which is 2 marathons plus a 5k, which is insane.

Well anyway, everyone went down this morning to the start of the race in town (at 5am) and there were 13,000 runners. 13,000 people want to do this crazy thing. It is advertised by South Africa that everyone should do Comrades Marathon it least once in your life (maybe that is why they don't have obese people here), they make it seem very attainable. Anyway, people lines the streets of ton like there was going to be a parade. I decided, rather than watch i wanted to be a part of it, and i needed a long run of the day because i just started training for a regular marathon of my own. So after watching the start i decided to jump in and run with them and join the atmosphere.

Once i determined that people weren't elite anymore (it took over 10 minutes of people running by to get with a group that was slow enough) i jumped in and ran 9km with them, and then turned around and ran 7k back to my dorm. While running i even ran into the guy that gave me the surf lesson two days before, he was crazy. Can you believe that i can run into someone i know running a marathon in South Africa. I told you to remember him! I figured it out to be around 10ish miles. I wasn't really trained enough for it, but the atmosphere was awesome.

The people were so fresh and it a great mood since it was the beginning, and on my way back everyone was laughing at me. When i got back to my dorm, a bunch of the girls were watching it on TV came up to me and said they saw me on TV! It was really exciting. I took a shower and nap and then woke up and went to the TV room to see the first people came in (well actually i missed the first, and saw the fourth) they finished around 5 hours and 23 minutes for over a double marathon! I was glued to the TV for the next couple hours as they showed the first women finish, twins from Russia, and then they started showing normal people and their stories.

I had never watched TV in the TV room before, but it is kind of fun. Since there are 11 official languages in South Africa they rotate through them but mostly English or English subtitles. It is really funny.

Well, maybe one day i will do the whole thing, but 17k was definitely enough for me this morning. I am sooo sore!

Time to write my research paper...