Two Weeks Til' Soweto

Marathon training is in full swing. Yesterday Chris and I went for an 18 mile run out in the Cradle of Humankind. We've made the Cradle our home base for long runs the past few weeks and will head out there for one last long run next Sunday. The Cradle is a beautiful spot and it actually feels like you are in Africa. Our route starts at a recreation complex called Teak Place and meanders though the surrounding area where run by game reserves, are passed by cyclists, and are greeted by locals. All in all it is a refreshing change from J0burg.

Unfortunately, we made the mistake of sleeping in which put us out in the heat of the day, but I guess it was good mental training. We both had a great time the first three-quarters of the run, but once we used up all of our energy and water things got a bit tougher. The last few miles were a bear and I hate to admit it but I did a bit of walking. Once I quit sweating and my mouth dried up it was time to slow down. However, with a little bit of luck and decent support things are going to be great when we complete the Soweto Marathon in two weeks. Finishing Soweto will put us in a great place for the Las Vegas Marathon in six weeks. Phew!

Two 1/2 Marathons Down Two Full Marathons to Go

Sunday morning started bright and early when the alarm went off at 3:15 am. We quickly rolled out of bed and into our running gear so that we could catch the 4 am shuttle to the start line of the City 2 City 1/2 Marathon. Although, the morning was early it was definitely worth the effort as it meant we were able to get our long run in before the heat of the day settled.

City 2 City was our second half marathon in three weeks as we ran the Gerald Fox Memorial 1/2 Marathon two weeks prior. We are at a point in our training for the Soweto and Las Vegas Marathons that our long runs are about 13 miles long so the half-marathons are a God send because they not only measure the distance for you, but they also provide water and toilets* along the way.

The City 2 City 1/2 Marathon is run in conjunction with a 50km Ultra Marathon which covers the distance between Pretoria and Johannesburg. The course we ran went from Centurion to Johannesburg and managed to each and every hill along the way. The run was beautiful and the final stretch is across the Nelson Mandela bridge. However, the hills never seemed to stop which coincided the the water running out. Fortunately the water reappeared with 5km to go and it all ended on a high note.

After the race we treated ourselves to a carbohydrate coma at a local bakery, and are back to running this afternoon.

*Well the at least attempt to provide water and toilets along the way. Sometimes the water and ablutions arrive once most of the runners have passed. Additionally, Coke is South Africa's on course sport drink of choice which does awful things to the human body while running. TIA (this is Africa)

Rotary Heritage Day Celebration

Saturday afternoon members of the Khulanathi ensemble took the center stage at Rotary District 9300's annual Heritage Day celebration. Khulanathi wowed the audience with their musical talent and superb solos as they treated us all to two wonderful sets. For many of the young musicians this was their first time to shine as only 15 of the 30 member ensemble were able to attend due to prior obligations. The event kicked off just before noon and continued though the middle of the afternoon. We used this opportunity to promote our fundraising efforts and to share Khulanathi's talent with the Johannesburg Rotary community. Khulanathi shared the stage with a number of other talented young people including poets as well as gum-boot and township dancers.

As you may or may not already know we are running the Soweto Marathon November 1st to raise money and awareness for the Khulanathi Music Project. For more information about Khulanathi and our fundraising efforts visit: http://khulanathi.wordpress.com

All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon. The performers enjoyed the opportunity to showcase their talents and we enjoyed the show. We'll have some photos up soon for your viewing pleasure.

Please Give...Donation Details

Marathon preparation is in full swing. Our training is going great and we are running our second 1/2 marathon this weekend, but now we need YOUR help!! We are running the Soweto Marathon in hopes of raising money and awareness for the Khulanathi Music Project in Daveyton, South Africa. The project does great work and needs our help meet their expansion goals. For more information and to donate go to http://khulanathi.wordpress.com

We will keep you posted as November 5th approaches.

Belated News on our 4th of July Festivites

Yes, I do realize that this post is over a month too late, but I'm writing it so when I look back on our year here I'll be able to remember a few things. We had all sorts of plans of things we would, could, should do to celebrate America's Independence, but then things got a bit hectic. So instead of having a bbq and making apple pies we actually made lasagna and packed for field school all day. However, we did redeem ourselves a bit that evening and went to dinner with Linds and Adriann at the Gourmet Garage in Montecasino.

None of us had been to the monstrosity commonly called Montecasino, but we figured it was worth checking it out for what a local magazine claimed to been a "spectacular burger experience" with infinite burger choices. What the magazine described and what we found were two different things, but the food and company were good. The real treat of the evening wasn't the Gourmet Garage itself but the store we found while looking for the restaurant. Montecasino is quite large and we headed the wrong direction at first which was actually quite fortunate because we stumbled upon a store full of America memorabilia. We can't remember the name of the store, but it was full of all sorts of truly American goods. They had everything for Shasta soda to western boots and apparel. It truly was a sight to behold.

Marathon Update

For those of you who are following our running adventures here is a quick update. We are going to do the Soweto Marathon November 1st and then the Las Vegas Marathon December 6th. Training took a bit of a hit the last few months with visitors, field camp, a dislocated elbow, and a sprained anckle, but we are back on track. We are doing the Soweto Marathon along with two other Rotary Scholars to raise money for the Khulanathi Music Project and then hope to qualify for Boston in Vegas. We will have more info about the Khulanathi Music Project and our fundrasing efforts in the next few weeks.

Where does the time go?!?!

It is now official we are the worlds worst bloggers, but we have three months to redeem outsleves before we head home. We comfermed our tickets home this afternoon and are headed out November 5 at 9:30 pm (Jozi time) and arrive home November 6 late afternoon. With that said let's fill you in on the last few months.

For starters we just returned from a five week archeological digg in the Limpopo province. We stayed on the Venetia game resurve which is ownded by DeBeers and had the privledge of seeing African game on a daily basis. On the slightly less glamorous sid of things Chris worked and had class fifty hours a week while I organized the food and cooked for fifteen people. Needless to say we are thankful to be back in Joburg cooking for two with two sets of useful hands. There will be more details about our time in a later post.

Before the digg we had a marathon of guests and a great time seeing new parts of the county with them. Kevin, Chris's dad, was the first to arrive and we had a great time in the Southern Drakensburg and even went into Lesoto. Then Jimmy arrived for a quick trip inbetween jobs and we showed him around Johannesburg and the surrounds. Once Jimmy and Kevin headed home Lizabeth came over for two weeks. During her stay we loaded water and hit the open road ending up in Port Elizabeth (PE)--one of my favorite stops so far. We had planned to head up the coast to Jeffery's Bay, but decided that we wanted to stay a bit longer in PE. Finally, Patty, Scott, and Elizabeth came and we spent two wonderful weeks in the Pilanesburg game resurve and Cape Town. It was so nice to have a bit of home around for six weeks.

Well that is the update for now. I will work on loading some more pictures and writeing a few more detailed accounts.

Thanks for reading,
Mary