My kingdom for a
proper wetsuit!
Richly deserved
post-race frosties
Trail
(Mis)Adventures
By Carla Lea Farina
TORPEDOED
FROM THE START
They say there are two things that can cause you to
hallucinate. The first is when you haven’t eaten enough, and
as I wrote in a recent column, this happened to me at one
of my very first trail races, Kruger to Canyon. Another way
is when your core temperature is not quite right, and the
story I am about to tell you about deals with that type of
hallucination!
As you are aware,
I very seldom say
no to a challenge,
and this has led to some
epic (mis)adventures.
This story began when
Team Challenge Accepted
enthusiastically agreed
to sign up for the first
ever Torpedo SwimRun
Wild in Wilderness.
The organisers had
implemented the
executive decision
to make wetsuits
compulsory, but one
problem… I didn’t have
a wetsuit. Fortunately,
I could borrow a men’s
sleeveless triathlon wetsuit from a friend, and I had the brilliant idea of wearing a Mr
Price Sport long-sleeve thermal top underneath. I thought I looked super cool, and
surely that would keep me warm? Boy, was I wrong!
By this time, however, my brilliant DIY wetsuit had failed me completely. My lips
had turned purple, and Su-yen was waiting patiently for me, as I had become
as slow as a tortoise walking backwards. My mind was full of images of myself
freezing to death, and not finishing the race haunted me…
Eating Dangerously
Finally, we arrived at a water table. I was hallucinating, and just grabbed the first
thing I could find to shove into my mouth. As I was about to eat said snack, I heard
Su-yen scream, “Noooooo!” and the food was snatched out of my hand. I couldn’t
believe what had just happened, until I heard her say, “You will die if you eat that,
it’s peanut butter flavour!” Phew, another close call for Carla.
Su-yen found me the correct flavour and slowly my vision returned, and fortunately
there was no more ice-cold water to deal with for a while. All the running suited us
perfectly, so on we went, eventually arriving at the Red Bull aid station. We were
both pretty exhausted by this point, so imagine our delight when we came across
a water table stocked only with Red Bull. How cool! But, while Su-yen grabbed a
normal one, bright-spark here thought, “Hey, I’ll be healthy,” and grab a sugar-free
one. Mistake number two on this epic adventure…
So, Su-yen suddenly got a bout of energy so amazing, it was like she had
supercharged batteries. Me, on the other hand… I felt exactly the same, and was
struggling to keep up with her. She would run ahead a bit, scope out the terrain and
come back to motivate and cheer me on. It was great team spirit. In fact, she was
so motivational that we somehow even ended up passing several other teams. At
one point she even grabbed my hand and was pulling me along, sharing some of
that Red Bull energy.
Home, Sweet Home
The last few kays were fairly incident-free, apart from a guy who had such bad
cramps that he was screaming bloody murder. (I actually thought he had broken his
leg, but luckily it wasn’t quite that bad.) Finally, we arrived at the finish line – man,
that was a sight for sore eyes – and our friends welcomed us back with beer. We
couldn’t believe it, but we had come in fourth women’s team, which we thought
was pretty awesome. Then at prize-giving we were hit with the news that there had
been an error with a timing chip, so we hadn’t come in fourth… We had podiumed
as third women’s team! All in all, a pretty successful race, I’d say.
Granted, I had nearly drowned, outrun hypothermia, narrowly avoided a near-death
experience by peanuts, and conquered the battle of the Red Bulls, so I can definitely
say this one counts as another misadventure on my part. But just wait until Torpedo
SwimRun part two, some time in the future. More misadventures are inevitable…
Waiting for the
hallucinations to pass
Images: Courtesy Carla Farina
The first leg of the race meant making our way from one end of the Kaaimans River
to the other, which involved a lot of ‘bundu-bashing.’ Even though the water was
only about 10 degrees, we thought that it would be the quickest to just swim right
down the middle of the river, until we noticed team after team passing us running
along the banks. We joined them, and soon found that there wasn’t a path, and it
involved a lot of climbing over things. (No wonder we had to wear helmets for this
part of the race.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: While Carla’s ‘day job’ is Head Tennis Coach and
Director of Tennis at Game Set Match Tennis in Johannesburg, her second love
is trail running, which she tackles with an unquenchable thirst for adventure,
a never-say-die attitude, and a healthy sense of humour about all the
misadventures that befall her on the trails!
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