Ke bophelo bja gago, Mmapula! (This is your life, Mmapula!): LongTom, Round Two

29 March 2009

LongTom, Round Two

Aw yeah, 21.1km of LongTom Pass was walked (at a swift pace for me, I might add.. a little bit more speedy than my every couple of days walk through Metz to the post office!) again this year. It was a whirlwind weekend... I met up with Nick Friday morning a litte after 7 and started my day with a nice taxi ride with 50 Cent blaring through the speakers. I told the driver my friend was waiting on the side of the road for us to come pick him up and he spotted Nick WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY before I even saw him. I guess we really do look that different. Nick and I met Christy and Zana (all my closest volunteers)in Hoedspruit for coffee and tea before catching the first of 4 more taxis to Sabie. Yep, it took us 6 taxis and about 6 1/2 hours of traveling, but we made it! We spent Friday afternoon in Sabie, Mpumalanga hanging out at a pancake house talking and then met up with other volunteers who had come in for the race. We woke up at 4:30 Saturday morning... met our bus at 5:30 drove the first part (all uphill) of the ultra marathon (it was 56km)to the start line for the 1/2. The race started at 7. 4 hours and 45 minutes of good conversation with Christy, free oranges, water, Powerade, Coke, and Bar One Bars all along the route and some really good stirfry at the finish line and you've got quite a Saturday morning. The afternoon was spent catching up with other volunteers and just hanging out. Sunday morning, instead of taking taxis all the way back to the village and risking being stuck somewhere without transport, we got to sleep in and get a free ride home! Allison, an SA-12 who worked with John and Mary's organization, was going back to Tzaneen for a visit. I got a ride all the way to Metz! I was in my room by 1:30 Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day on my bed, watching, yes, this is sort of embarassing, but not really, Season One of Dawson's Creek.