Doug and I ran a 10km in Mbabane a while back to raise funds for breast cancer awareness and because one of our friends, Yael, was organizing the race. It was just a Sunday morning run, but I think it sparked something inside of me. It was fun to compete and to race again as I figured out that day that it had been since October of 2006 and our arrival in Los Angeles that I had participated in a race (shocking, but true)! Fortunately, all of that has changed, as I busted onto the race scene in Swaziland a couple of weekends ago via the Nhlangano Bike Race. I did the 40km road race and didn’t die (even though I hadn’t been on a bike in about 3 years), so I decided to sign-up for a few more races and to see what happens. This past Sunday, I ran the 18km ‘Tough Man’ in Manzini; on March 7th I’m doing a 76km triathlon in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa; on April 3 Doug and I are running the Two Oceans ½ Marathon in Cape Town, and then on April 24-27 we’re going to do the Swazi Extreme Sport Adventure Race! I’m very excited to have a purpose in my workout schedule again and will keep you posted on the results…But first, back to Nhlangano. Did I mention it had been 3 years since I’d been on a bike? And, that there were 3 mountain passes involved? Let’s just say that there was a 12 year old boy who was seriously threatening to beat me…Alas…
Race Day!
Parking lot and set-up area
This racer was definitely more hardcore sleeping out the night before the race
Getting ready
The start (not that many cyclists in Swaziland...)
My fake smile says, 'What am I doing?'
Yay! We made it...on mountain bikes, no less
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