The Milland Valley Trail Race

Wow. Wow. Wow. Well, I don't really know what to say. I don't know if anyone read on the Amai Anthazi Project blog, but I put a quote on there from the race's website:

"The terrain is hilly and the long race is particularly tough. Taking place in August, the weather can also be hot although water stations are provided along the route."

I can only say that this is the understatement of the century. While we were milling about before the race, we overheard people saying that the first 2-3 miles were the toughest...yes they were. It was like HIKING! Straight up hill. All the runners were backed up - climbing on all fours up these steep, muddy embankments. We were grabbing on to trees, roots anything - people were even lending a hand to help pull people up. The general consensus was...WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!?! No one was ready for this. Things levelled out after the first 3 miles, and the terrain was beautiful - we were running through wheat and heather fields, through farms and forests. It was going pretty well. Andy was amazing - he kept up with me (having done no training whatsoever).
Then we hit some more massive hills - it was just so extreme, either extreme uphill or extreme downhill - the kind where you can hardly control the speed you're going. The other thing is that it was overcast and misting rain, which was good in terms of cooling people down, but it made the ground very muddy and slippery. Around mile 10 Andy twisted his ankle coming down a hill - this is an ankle he's had trouble with in the past (just finished physio, in fact.) I stayed with him for a minute, then we walked for a minute and then he sort of kept jogging with me. After about a mile he asked me to go on without him, but I didn't want to. I felt like we were in this together, but he said he wasn't sure if he could finish or not. So we decided I should go on...and I did. Around mile 12 I was coming down a steep hill and had a terrible fall - what would be later termed "A Commando Roll" haha...just a head over heels roll. I recovered quickly and just kept on, though embarssingly covered in dirt and mud. And I finished, after about 2hrs 35mins. There really is no better feeling than crossing that finish line...and my lovely friend Emily was there - with water, candy bars and jackets...it was SO great to have her there!

I didn't know what had happened to Andy...but I knew there was no way my man would give up...he's a lot of things, but he's not a quitter. About 10 minutes after I finished, Andy came running around the corner and we shouted and cheered. I was SO very proud of him. Let me remind you, he had NOT trained. I run every morning and even I could barely handle the intensity of the run...and here he was....ten minutes behind me! And he did it for me, for the project, to raise money. That's what we had to keep remembering - this was for the project. And I thought about it a lot while I was running. This is for the women - for the women of Chisala, so that they should not suffer through unsafe births, so that they should not transfer HIV to their children. So that their babies can be born healthy and continue to grow that way. It was well worth it - and I'm sure the pain I experienced today is nowhere near the pain of childbirth!

We've been home an hour...we've had incredibly long showers, a grilled cheese and tomato soup and now Andy's asleep on the couch. We're getting take-out tonight and parking ourselves firmly on the couch for a well deserved chilled out evening.

YEA! IT'S OVER!