Comrades Marathon - Angelique Smith - back to back medalist

This was my first up-run. Gosh, I must say that I found the up-run much tougher than the down-run.
My fiance (Schalk Smit) and I, trained together (following Don's Programme - well sort of, we only ran 5/7 days).

It was therefore very special to me when Schalk also said that he would run Comrades with me. This was his 12th Comrades, so I could draw from his experience. We walked MUCH more than last year, but all said and done, we were very happy with our time of: 10h16min01sec. We thought we may make it before the clock ticks over to 10h16min, so we literally sprinted for the finishing matt (where does one get that energy from after 87km??), we thought we were safe as our time was 10h15min58sec when we put our foot on Matt 1, but the official time was 10h16min.

Anyway, it was exhilirating putting in that sprint, and those 3 seconds really don't make a differance.

Comrades Marathon remains so special to me due to the vast numbers of supporters. I can't express how much it means to me to see those clapping faces and to have a total stranger look me in the eye, and say: "Well done Angelique", or "keep going Angelique", or "Angelique, you look good" - the latter no doubt somewhat a half-truth.

I can now say that I will definitely be back - but perhaps only every second year (down runs).