with anne and teresa post-race

ok, i think i’m giving up on giving up! ran the soweto 10k yesterday in 1h05 (4 minutes better than the spar 10k) and as soon as i got home, went online looking to see if there was another 10k in my area this coming weekend. i’m happy to report, there isn’t. 😉

the start was so disorganized that we crossed the start line a good six minutes after the starting gun went off. hordes of people and a crazy bottle-neck. i stood in line for 12 minutes to use one of the 3 porta-potties available, by which time the starting gun sounded, which meant i finally got to use the bathroom a good 2 hours later when i finally got back home. 

and yet, despite the fact that i had pulled a calf muscle from filming in high heels and doing all kinds of crazy spins for a promo for the station my show is on and had to strap my leg, despite the fact that the sun was already up and merciless at 7a.m., despite running over piles of trash, old carpets, road-kill, etc, it was a great race. there were an insane amount of people and i was so busy getting around walkers and runners of every conceivable shape and size (people running in slippers and flimsy slip-on shoes) that i couldn’t believe it when we i looked up and we had already reached the 3km mark. 

my journo friend, teresa and i finally got to run together and it really makes a great difference, having someone to talk to and share the race. we eventually parted around the 4k mark when i wanted to go a little faster. i normally don’t run without my ipod, but those first 4k’s were just fine when i had someone to talk to. when i was running on my own, though, i put in my ear-phones. there’s a song by  juno reactor called “conga fury” and it always drives me a little faster whenever i put it on. i decided to put it on a loop, and just kept listening to it over and over. it really kept me amped. the orange mega-carb boosters they were handing out at the water-stations also seemed to keep me going. i had taken a gu about 15 minutes before the race and had one on hand for the 5k mark, but the orange stuff they were handing out seemed to do the trick. 

all in all, i really enjoyed it! ok, even i can’t believe i’m saying that! so, i’m going to stop talking about hanging up my running shoes and if it happens, fine, but don’t be surprised if i start talking about the next big race. doing it with a friend makes all the difference. (hey patty, come on over!)

for those of you looking for some (free) music downloads to keep you going:

• my friend dj kramer has fantastic free hour long downloads of his mixes.
• over at podrunner dj steveboy has mixes specifically for running – you can find mixes at specific bpm’s to suit your pace.
• dj steveboy also does groovelectric 
• electric theatre also has some fantastic mixes 
• some fantastic mixes here too. i love anything by dj cush.

i have a running mix in my ipod: SONG/ARTIST/ALBUM/TIME

• Yeah Toxic (Blades Blend Remix/Britney Spears Ft. Usher and/Yeah Toxic (Blades Blend Remix/3:45
• Poor Leno [Silikon Soul Rmx] / There Is A Light That Never Goes Out [Acapella]/Röyksopp Remixed By Silikon Soul / Erlend Øye/DJ Kicks: Erlend Oye/5:53
• City Life/Brothers Of Peace/The D Project: Life ‘Iskorokoro/6:09
• New York City Girl/Bodyrockers/Bodyrockers/4:14
• Conga Fury/Juno Reactor/Bible of Dreams/8:08
• Spaced Invader/Hatiras Feat. Slarta John/Best Of Club Hits Volume 4/4:15
• Gramma Jams/Bassnectar/Beatfreak Bohemia/2:42
• The Need To Be Naked/Amber/Best Of Club Hits Volume 4/4:59
• September/The Joker (Shinichi Osawa Remix)/Fatboy Slim & Wind & Fire Earth/Babel Original Soundtrack/6:29
• Who Are You?/Bassnectar/Beatfreak Bohemia/4:55
• Burn For You/Kreo’/Best Of Club Hits Volume 4/5:02
• I Like The Way/Bodyrockers/Bodyrockers/3:20