2004 Comrades Marathon Up Run

(As A Spectator)

I didn't run this year.  Lack of training due to knee troubles has kept my weight up and my mileage down.  But I traveled along with Tom to see our friends and try being a spectator, for a new experience.

Getting There

We flew to JFK and Les Brenner came and spent the day with us to get us off to a great start.  A couple of over-sized pints at the airport helped.  Then we boarded for Johannesburg, non-stop.  We arrived there about 1500 the next day and checked into the hotel across the drive, the Intercontinental Sun.  Our plane to Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport left early in the morning, and we had plans for a nice evening in Johannesburg with our friends.  Tiekie picked us up, took us way across town and we met Alex and Pauline and Uwe and Dianne for a terrific dinner.  Then Tiekie brought us back to our hotel.

June 10, 2004

 We woke up at 5:30 when our alarms went off.   We checked out in nothing flat.  We went across the street and checked into our flight, and only waited about 3 minutes to be bussed to the plane.  The plane took off on time, and the stewardess served a snack.   The trip was less than 45 minutes and we landed at Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport, near a city named Nelspruit.  We rented the car and got directions to the shopping mall.  We bought a map from a lady in the Kruger Park booth and she gave the directions.  She also cautioned us not to stop on the roads and only go to the police station for help or directions, and not to trust anyone we met on the road.  I wanted to buy a power adapter for the electric outlets here, since mine don’t fit.  But, we didn’t follow her directions and wound up in a bad part of town, and went walking around looking for a hardware store.  We went into the police station to ask directions, but the guy wasn’t sure where there was a store for us.  We walked down the street and I saw a hardware store so we went in.  I saw what I was looking for and the man behind the counter came over.  He was very friendly.  He asked where we were from, and I told him.  He said we were in a very bad part of town and I should not have my cell phone on my belt, so I put it in my pocket.  He sold me the part I needed and he was very friendly.

We decided to get back in the car and find a better part of town for a little breakfast.  We drove around and found a really nice spot.  We got a little lost finding the highway, but after one turn around, we were on it and heading for the park.  We got to Malelane, which we had been in two years ago, and then turned onto the road leading to the park entrance.  We were about 1 kilometer from the gate, and came over a hilltop, and down in the valley there were a bunch of people standing around.  We got closer, and they were police.  They motioned to me to go to the side of the road.   A very nice young man asked me if I knew why I was stopped.  He said I was going 77 kph in a 60 kph zone and I was speeding.  He offered to show me on the speed camera, but I said I believed him, I didn’t know the speed limit was 60.  He wanted my driver’s license, and when he saw it was NYS, he explained I could either go to the police station or pay them there.  A couple other officers came over, and they showed me a printout that said the fine was R250 (about $35).  So I agreed to pay the fine, and he wrote up the ticket.  I paid him and he was very nice.  I was terrified and very glad to not have to go anywhere with anyone I didn’t know.  They all had uniforms on, but I still wasn’t too reassured.  I know you will get a kick out of me getting a speeding ticket, especially since I wasn’t even in hurry, and less than a mile from where I was going.

So, I got a speeding ticket.  Ha ha.  Then, we arrived at the Malelane gate for Kruger National Park.  All our papers were in order and they let us through the gate, and reminded us to drive 50.  Almost like the cops at the speed trap called here and told them they got us.  Anyway, we drove about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) to this rest camp, Berg-En-Dal.  It has very nice brick architecture in the “huts” and the main camp buildings.  On the way, we saw a group of kudu, which are large deer-like things, and a huge herd of water buffalo, (in the hundreds) and two elephants, one on either side of the road.  My hut had 3 beds, a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a porch with a fireplace and a cooking fireplace, and a table and 4 chairs.  I laid out my things and made sure my new power converters worked OK.

About 4:40 we took a couple of beers down by the dam and drank and watched it get dark.   We saw two rainbow rock skinks, which are blue-tailed chameleons.  We also saw two African Fish Eagles and nothing much else, but we think we heard a lion.  Anyway, it was really getting cold, so we walked back to our huts to get in long sleeves for dinner.  We walked to dinner and had the buffet. On the walk back, it was very dark and we walked along the Hippo trial, which we are not supposed to do after dark, but we

June 11, 2004

Technically this may still be the first day in Africa, I’m not sure.  It is extremely quiet here in the middle of the night.  If it weren’t the middle of the night, I would get dressed and go out to look at the stars.   It seems like my body clock is not adjusting.  And I’m not worried about it this year, because I am not running the ultra marathon.  

We decided to take a back road to Skukuza since it was about the same distance, and there would be less traffic than on the main road.  We saw some giraffe up close, and lots of impala.

We kept going along, and soon we came upon a small elephant in the road, with larger ones off to the side.  We stopped.  We turned the car off.  There were a lot of elephants here – at least a dozen.  Most were ahead of us and on the right side of the road, but we thought there might be one on the left of us.  We sat and watched and listened and I kept hearing something to the right and behind us.  After a while we saw something moving over there, and Tom suggested we’d better get ready to move.  I started the car and he said to back up.  I popped the clutch and stalled the car.  I re-started it, but he said don’t back up.  So I slammed it into first and spun ahead.  He said the elephant didn’t seem pissed at us, but it wasn’t more than 5 feet behind us.  I started breathing again.

We still had to sit there and wait, because the elephants ahead of us were spread all over the road.  There was a baby one on the left side who kept coming back and forth to the bigger ones on the right side.  We crept up and stopped again.  After a while, they all got off the right side except this baby.  So we thought it was our chance to get through.  Just as we crept up, a bigger elephant on the right wheeled around and snorted at us, then it kept turning away.  It didn’t charge and we got through. 

Before going to the rest camp, we headed over to the golf course to see when we could play.  We got there and some uniformed men waved us into the parking lot.  There were lots of cars, not like last year when it was deserted.  Just as we got to the driveway to cross to the clubhouse, this motorcade with flashing lights pulled up and a guy got out of the limousine.  He came over to us and lit a cigarette and we started talking.  Bodyguards all around.  He asked us all about what we were doing.  Soon another two guys came over, and one of them had run the Comrades once and is running it this year.  They didn’t throw us out, but it was time for this guy to go in.  So we walked in ahead of them and stood off to the side.  The place was packed, and there were traditional dancers in costume, and all the tables were set.  We decided we weren’t going to get much attention that day, so we left.  On the way out Tom asked one of the guards who that was, and he said it was Premier so and so.  I think that’s like the governor of this province.

We checked in at Skukuza and then went to our huts and unloaded.  We got together for a beer on Tom’s porch, and decided to go get some more beer at the store, and drink some in the sun along the river. 

We asked the lady in charge at the golf course about playing, and she said we could play tomorrow if we showed up about 9:30, which is fine with us.  We got a beer and sat on the lawn and watched some other golfers and enjoyed the sunshine.  Here is a photo:

June 12, 2004

Then we decided we had just time to drive to the Mlondezi Dam and see if we could find some wildlife.  So we hopped in the car and headed out.  It was about an hour drive, and we had to be back in the rest camp by 5:30 when the gates close.  We decided to leave there about 4, and we got there about 3:15.  There were some hippos in the dam, and I mostly used my binoculars.  Tom took some photos, and about 4 we left.  We caught some baboons crossing the bridge on the way back - Papa, momma and baby.

June 13, 2004

This morning Tom and I went to play golf.  About the 4th hole, we hooked up with a guy named Ivan who lives here and plays this course every day.  His wife works for the Park and has something to do with the animals.  He gave Tom his cell number and we’re supposed to call him at 8 in the morning, and he’s going to meet us and take us to see 3 rhinos that his wife has care of.  He says we can pet them.  We’ll see about that.  My golfing photos are below.  We called John Hanna after dinner and spoke to him.  He sounds good.

June 14, 2004

Yesterday when we played golf, we joined up with this guy named Ivan.  We had a beer with him after and he told us his wife worked for the Park and had something to do with animal care.  He said they could take us to se some rhinos, and we should call him about 8:00, and he gave us their cell number.

After packing up, we called them, and she said to meet them at the golf course, so we went over there.  We waited a long time, over an hour and a half.  She called once and said she would be over and to keep waiting.  So we did.  After a while they showed up and said to follow them.  They took us, not far, down a little dirt driveway, and right there was a huge facility with loading docks and chutes and corrals.  We got out by the rhinos.  These three are fairly tame.  The white rhino just came in a crate from the Frankfurt (Germany) zoo.  The female rhino was upset because her crate was being cleaned and she couldn’t be in it.  The two male black rhinos came over to the fence when we called and let us pet them.  There were some more rhinos there, but they said they were too wild to go near.  They also had some water buffalo that we couldn’t get too close to because they would charge the fence.

Then we headed out.  It was about an hour drive to the gate.  We were going out the Numbi gate, which we had never been to before.  I drove along and didn’t meet much traffic.  When we were just a little ways from the gate, we came around a bend, and there was a lion standing in the road on our side.  I stopped about 200 yards from it.  It went off the road on our side, so I crept up.  When we got to where it was, I shut off the engine.  It was laying about 20 feet off the road.  Tom was loading his camera, but the lion didn’t like us that close, so it got up and moved back to where we couldn’t see it.  Tom’s window was down and I got one shot off.  If you look really close, you can see a lion’s head in the center of the photo.  It is the back of the lion, since it was walking away from us.

Then we drove on to White River, and looked for a place to eat.  We didn’t find one.  We gassed the car up and headed to the airport.  We were plenty early, so after getting a final bill for the car, we found a little sandwich place.  They were out of ham and cheese sandwiches, so we had to settle for cheese and tomato.  We waited about an hour, and got on our plane for Durban.  Once there, we waited for the shuttle, and crammed in with 25 members of the Knyska Municipality running club.  They introduced us to every member on the bus.  Then we were at the Balmoral, and our waiter, Ronnie, was waiting for us.  He and the other waiters came out to the bus and got our bags, and we were instant celebrities.

During dinner there was a big confrontation between police and some drunk guys right in front of the hotel, where we were having dinner.  It wasn’t really anything, but provided good entertainment.  Here's the view from my room overlooking the Indian Ocean.

June 15, 2004

Today is the day before the race.  Tiekie arrived this morning about 8:30 and we all had breakfast together.  After that, we walked over to the expo and they got their numbers.  We walked around there for a while.  Polar has a new heart rate, speed, distance, altimeter sensor with new software that is really cool.  It takes the heart rate data, the altimeter data, and the speed/distance data and plots them all together.  The software is similar to what I have, but mine only plots the heart rate. About R3000, or maybe $450.  Very cool.  If I ever run again, I will ask for this for Christmas.

Then we walked a few blocks over to a big mall, and I bought some masks.  They wrapped them in bubble wrap, and I am hoping I have them packed so they will not be damaged in the flight.

June 16, 2004 - Race Day

Here’s the story of race day. I didn’t sleep at all.  I don’t know why, but I just laid there like I was going to race the next day.  Got up about 3 and got cleaned up.  Made sure Tiekie and Tom were up at 4:30 per the plan.  Alex, Pauline, Uwe and Dianne picked us up at 4:45 per the plan.  We were all in Uwe and Dianne’s van, called a combie there.  We dropped the runners off near the start line and then Dianne, Pauline and I went to their B&B for breakfast and to watch the start on TV.  We had breakfast and watched the start, then packed up the van and took off for the first place to watch the race,  Hillcrest.

But, it was blocked off so we went to the next place, about 36K to go, near Inchanga Park.  This was a place where we paid to park, but was a good view.  We could see the 36K to go sign about half a K up on the hill, and then the route went down through a dip and back up to us.  Dianne got the binoculars and they could see people coming a long way off.  She also brought the beer, so this is where we started drinking.

At the finish, Pauline directed us to the correct parking spot, regardless of where the traffic flow people wanted us to go.  We took the rest of the beer to the Florida tent and hung out there.

Then it was back to Durban.  After the race, Uwe drove us all back to Durban, and we all showered, and then had dinner on the veranda.

June 17, 2004

The next day we walked down the beach for lunch at Thirstie's. After that, we got a bus to the airport, flew to Johannesburg, after a final beer with Tiekie at the Durban airport.  Then back to Syracuse via Dakar and JFK.