Surfers Marathon 2011 3 Days and counting...

In a little less than 3 days (72 hours, or 4320 minutes), The 2011 Surfers Marathon will be nothing but a memory.

For some competitors it will be a great memory, for others, it will be a time for self-loathing.

For me, should I (a) Complete the Surfers Marathon, or (b) not complete the Surfers, it will be a time of celebration. Before the loathing hatred tendencies surface in an attempt to mask my innate masochism.

So okay, now I'm also confused. The bottom line here is that no matter how I finish the Surfers Marathon on Saturday, on foot, on a stretcher, or in the back of a hearse, I will at least have started the race.

By no means am I an athlete. I don't even really enjoy athletics, and my sole contribution to promoting any kind of athletic feat was to try and wake up early enough to watch the start of the Comrades Marathon. I lost interest in that shortly after confusing Shaun Meiklejohn and Bruce Fordyce. Sheer embarrassment kept me from the TV.

When I arrived in East London I was told in no uncertain fashion that until I had done the Surfers at least once, I would not have 'arrived'. So I did the Surfers in 2008.

Just to arrive.

DUH!

What I wasn't told is that the Surfers Marathon is in actual fact a VIRUS! It infiltrates your system, and you cannot get rid of it. So. I'm doing it again. Against my better judgement I'm doing it again.

Training for The Event has been shoddy, consisting of a few laps around a school field, and an occasional crawl/walk/stumble around a 3km track in the middle of the veld. And then as a trial race we did the Tomato Trot 5km Fun Run.

I'm trying to keep psyched up, but that first section of the Surfers has got me beat before I even start. Loose sand, my grossly overweight frame and small feet are a sure recipe for disaster. And then of course seeing the ground beneath my feet is impossible because of the gut! I am hoping to at least shuffle through Gonubie in a semblance of running, mostly so that I won't embarrass any of my clients that may be there.

I do hereby undertake to return all Greetings, and to not Greet anybody unless they Greet me first.

Embarrassed clients take their business elsewhere.

I have been watching my diet the past week or more. I've managed to lose a few kilos, but they get lonely and come right back, except for the little buggers who are totally lost. There were only 4 of them.

I drink less coffee now, but more tea, so, no gain or loss there. But I do have only one sugar!

We've started having breakfast now.

Tomorrow night its Spaghetti Bolognaise carb loading time, and then on Friday night it's Cold meat and salad type healthy protein stuff.

Saturday morning, a light breakfast, then mid morning banana and sugar sandwich, and all the while drinking plenty of fluid stuff.

Then it's the race.

The after the race, depending on how I get to the finish, it's a beer! Or several...

To celebrate my birthday!