Benoni Northerns to Augrabies Falls:

Well done to BNAC members! We raised R6,628.00 for the SunFlower foundation and beat KlerksDorp!

A little story "Touched by an Angel"

Sunday 25 October 06h00, months of training and planning come to a head and the incredible journey starts 933km to go a daunting task to say the least. The days went by without a hitch and it came to a head with a sudden speed, , we were all disappointed and a quietness was around the air as we knew I would be handed over to the next crew and stage one was complete.

Every day we met such wonderful people who just opened their homes and hearts to us, strangers in the knight and taken in by the good samaraton's who looked after all our needs and what fun we had, only problem getting to be very late and still had to keep up with my supporters on Facebook and SMS's, they just wanted to hear and talk about what we were doing, the planning, training and the road ahead and with only 4 hr's sleep having to get up and do another "Comrades". I learnt to totally switch off and was oblivious to my surroundings and was totally focused on the job at hand, focussed and highly motivated so much so that I didn't use the many hours of music on the I-pod.

On the morning of leaving Klerksdorp we joined the club at 06h00 for their morning club run and then set off on our way, Conrad Pheiffer, one of our club members had driven to Klersdorp and joined me in the morning on his bike an hour or two, I thought this was such a great gesture and was very much appreciated it was on this section that Pat, who rode her bike next to me the whole way had her one and only puncture through 933km's

The Vryburg club joined mw at the 10km mark to go to town and escorted me in, and it rained hard and was cold, my crew pulled me off the road for safety reasons. The rain eased at about 1.5km further on and I was out to be with the runners and no further incidence. Being Beef country we had the biggest and best "T" bone steaks which went down so well and accompanied by a few beers. Colin, our esteemed driver volunteered me for a quick 10km jog with them the following morning, so another pleasant morning was had with the Vryburg running club, after which we had some coffee and rusks and set off on our merry way and after about an hour's running into yet another storm, after which the clouds cleared and the heat was on with temperatures rising quickly, this was a Friday "Green" day and as a true supporter of the Springboks, I donned the green and gold shirt.

During the next few days everything went according to plan and I had the most incredible experience of my life. I felt a slight pat on the shoulder and thought that Pat, wanted me for something only to see her a few metres behind, so I thought I was dreaming, and my speed increased to just under 6 min/km and was promptly hauled back by Pat. A few k's later the same thing happened again and I began to wonder if this was really happening, but on the third time I knew Allison was there, "Touched by an Angel", and kept me going, I have goose bumps and tears writing this. I know that my late Mother Joan and step Mom Pat also had a hand in this. I knew I could not maintain this speed and asked them to slow it down a bit, walked out of the caravan and turned straight into a strong head wind, the force was strong with me.

Leaving Upington saw us running with a few members from their club, who entertained us with a lot of facts about the area and was so interesting. Keimos was planned to be our next stop, we would run through and them come back to sleep over. The plan went pear shaped, we got there earlier than expected and pushed on to Kakamos for the last stay over, leaving just 28km for the run in (+/- 50km was planned)

A good night's rest and the sniff of the end was all it required to push a bit more eventually finishing the last 4km if 4:55 min/ km and as they said in the hotel grounds "quickly grab you camera's, the freight train is on its way". The finish was very emotional and plenty of tears as my Dear wife Alison was not there (tears), we had planned this together and at Christmas last year drove the route it was just too much.

And so part one of an incredible journey came to an end. The most incredible this was that I was not tired, sore, had any blisters, aches or pains and was ready to do it all over again, even the race Dr. was so surprised, "Touched by an Angel"

I am deeply indebted to my crew and can't thank them enough for all the hard work they did, they fussed, encouraged and looked after me in an extraordinary and professional way, they were just so totally awesome, thank you Pat, Rennette and Colin, without your dedication to the job at hand this would not have happened.

So onto the race, I felt strong through the first two check points of day 1 but then got very tired and walked the rest home wondering what had I got myself into. I woke up the next day feeling revived, strong and eager to go and just got stronger and stronger as the day wore on, even the haul up the mountain didn't dampen the spirit. Again when feeling a bit tired that awesome pat came and the strength just flowed for the rest of the race, "Touched by an Angel". It's always a tough event but it was a general consensus that there was a lot more sand this year which tends to make the going slow and extremely hard and with temperatures in to the 40's just sapping the energy. The long day is always a test of character, pushing your envelope to the limit, I left camp at 07:00 and finished at +/- 24:05 a long haul, but with a rest day ahead you just have to hang in and the trophy is yours. After the rest day only two more to go, which went without any incidents and so another section completed leaving me with just 5km to go. Again to the astonishment to all, finished very strong, not one blister etc. " Touched by an Angel".

And onto the final 5km, the guys from the club ran to my house and escorted me to the finish, what an honour and just a fantastic gesture one that I will never forget, even if it rained the spirits were high and could not be dampened.

And so the most incredible journey of my life came to an end, a big thank you to everyone who played a part in it, it was just one incredible team effort and the victor has to be The Sunflower Fund to whom it was just a great honour and privilege to have run for, R101,000.00 was raised at the time of writing this and some 100 new donors are now on the books.

Job done and dusted, objective achieved and until the next one.