I planned to run a comfortable 11h40 minutes in Comrades 2009 taking my good running friend Xola Skosana to a fairly safe first Comrades medal. We were in trouble half way as we were 27 minutes behind our planned time. During the first half we were using the H3O PRO isotonic drink from Herbalife and we avoided the Coke and Energade as this would spike the sugar level that could lead to major problems on the road (high energy and then suddenly no energy).
Xola suffered from what seemed like a stiffening of muscles in the face during this time - this impacted on his speech. I fed him handfulls of a mixture of mostly NRG mixed witha little bit of thermojectics green tea. This seem to have helped as these sensations disappeared about two or three hours later.
After 58 kilometers on the road with 31 still to go, there was still a slim chance of us making it. (Four angels gave us some boerewors and milk along the road here - our original planned eight minute stop turned into a hasty grab and eat - thanks Phil and Christine.) We had to run at about 7 kilometers an hour or just more than 8min 30 seconds per kilometer.
There was four hours and 20 minutes to go.
We put in a fierce downhill trot and managed to catch the 12 hour bus (a group of people running together with the aim of finishing below 12 hours). We had three hours and five minutes to go for 21 kilometres. It seemed easy...
It felt, however, if there was not enough energy left. There was no water at the refreshment tables for three or four tables. Luckily we did get some water next to the road. The 12 hour bus disappeared on the horizon in front of us. Our paced slowed down so we had 14 kilometers to go in one hour and 57 and a half minutes.
Enter nite works - at this stage I poured us each a nite works drink - it was a heavy drink (probably five small scoops each) that I have been carrying in a bottle in powder form for ten hours before I mixed it with water. My theory was that the muscles would need a bit more oxygen at the end and that this might just do the trick.
The next seven kilometers I covered in 59 minutes which left me with 58 minutes for the last seven. I took the rest of the nite works at this stage. With 3 kilometers to go I thought that I would not make it - the time seemed too short, but it was not. I finished with 1 min 36 seconds to spare. I ran the last 7 kilometers in a time of 56 minutes 29 seconds.
I released Xola to go in the last ten kilomters or so (I was afraid that we could miss the medal by three minutes and I felt tired) and he finished beating me by over 2 minutes. He ran the last section in 54 and a half minutes. He was proud to get his first medal. I was thankful to have finished in time.
This now confirms that the body (our bodies at least) could take H3O Pro for more than four hours. I can feel that I did have a long day on the road, but the body feels great in relation to previous down runs - no limping! The nite works, I believe saved the day at the end!
I did have three cokes for the day (I normally try to avoid these) and had to mix some of the H3O Pro with energade as there were no water at the tables - it did not taste too bad!
I enjoyed a fantastic Herbalife shake right after the race at the Herbalife club tent - thank you, Andrew Schulze (President's Team member) and all the Durban distributors who assisted and cheered us on. Herbalife President's team member Uys Nimb finished about eight minutes before us (11hours 50 minutes) and joined us at the tent. Well done, Uys!
Herbalife helped us to make it, but of course all thanks go to God who made this possible for us and who also inspired Mark Hughes and many others to bring us great products!
