Road to Soweto: Training Recap, Week 8

For 8 weeks, I trained for the Soweto Race (10 km) which was held on the 5th November 2017. The race is now long done and dusted, and when work and life took over, I never got round to summarising my final week of training! This is LONG overdue but for consistency’s sake, here is my last training recap for the Soweto Race! 🙂

The Soweto Race in South Africa is huge and in the week leading up to it I was excited and nervous. Excited for many reasons – running in Soweto, even if not in the Marathon, is a sensational, electric experience and I was so looking forward to being a part of that vibe and to be among 27, 000 runners from several parts of the world! Excited also because I would be going on a road trip with my hubby and friends; and that I would be visiting our close friends, Taffy and Ticha who are based in Johannesburg! I was nervous because of the hilly terrain. Coming from Gaborone – probably one of the flattest cities on earth, hills scare me! 🙂 Throw in all the admin that goes with travelling, I was a little bit anxious… but I stuck to my training plan and when Race Day came I was raring to go!

Monday, 30th October: Rest Day

I felt after my 17.6 km race on Saturday, I deserved an extra day of rest! So although I had not planned it, I took the day off and didn’t even feel guilty about it.

Tuesday, 31st October: (Treadmill, 36:30 min; 5 km)

This was a good solid run and I was quite proud of my 07:18 min/km pace. My legs felt good so I was glad I took an extra day’s break on Monday.

Wednesday, 1st November: Rest Day

Thursday, 2nd November: (Treadmill, 2.82 km; 20:34 min)

This was the day I decided my last race of the year would be a 15 k Trail Run to redeem myself for Saturday’s disastrous race. It was also the day I decided I wanted to try doing a Half Marathon in May 2018. So I contacted Coach Nicola at Running Happy and I am so pleased we are back working together! Meanwhile in Johannesburg, our friend Ticha was collecting our race packs on our behalf!

Friday, 3rd November: (Treadmill, 2.54 km; 20:03 min)

Another short and easy run – my last before the big day!

Saturday, 4th November: Travel Day

I will write lots more about this when I put the Soweto Race Recap up! But just to say we had a fantastic drive down to South Africa – we took two cars and divided ourselves between them, but stuck together for the whole trip.

We also visited an Asics Store in the Mall of Africa where I had a mini-assessment done, and bought a new pair of shoes! The thing that really surprised me is that I need a whole size bigger running shoe… this seemed to be common knowledge, so it shows I still have a lot of running basics to cover!

Sunday, 5th November: Race Day!

I participated in my 14th Race of my 17 Race Challenge, the Soweto Race (10 km) in South Africa! What an epic race – I didn’t break any personal records but I fought really hard for my medal and had a brilliant time with all my running friends! It was one of the most amazing experiences ever. Here is the Race Recap!