Today I am finally beginning to feel normal...on Sunday 18 Feb. Mark Tolsma helped me to achieve something that I never thought possible.

After running the Cape Town marathon in September to qualify for the Two Oceans in 4hr39mins I was pretty chuffed that that was now over.
Then along came Mark, he told me one day casually on a time trial run that he thought I could do a sub 4hr marathon according to my time trial figures ..Hah I scoffed at him, never I said. But the seed was planted and the week before the Peninsula he told me to run the time trial slower than normal as this is how fast I would be running on Sunday.

Well, the thought of running that fast for 42.2km sent me straight to the rescue remedy!! 3 days of carbo loading and rescue remedy later, it was a 3am rise on race day. Thanks to Mark's positive encouragement and of course the rescue remedy we started off nice and calmly. From the moment the gun went off Mark talked me through every possible aspect of the race, from when to look at the scenery to when to drink coke and take a sachet.

I started to feel pretty bad at about 32km, the dreaded wall, as predicted by just about every running expert there is; Fortunately Mark was there to help me hop over it instead of smash straight into it!
But the worst was yet to come, the fact that my feet, legs, arms, toes, knees, thighs, and even nose were having trouble listening to my brain telling them all to carry on and inflict further pain on them all simultaneously! ....and then there it was, the little hill that looked like a mountain, which was the beginning of the end... Mark was ahead of me quietly telling me "well done" and then to look at the clock - 3hr49minutes!!

Well of course being a female and utterly knackered I had to blubber all over the place hey!!
Mark and Lynne you have been an inspiration to me from the very beginning, the Simons town Mile if I remember correctly; you have showed me that I can do it and you have always been there with hugs and smiles at the finish.

Thank you Lynne for lending Mark to me and thank you Mark for my sub 4hour marathon.

Lee-anne Dawson