Marsha's Sojourn To South Africa...And Back: Soweto 10k

On Sunday, I ran in yet another race, this time it was a 10k through the township of Soweto. The race was great, and it was awesome to see so many black people energized and ready to run. Before I talk about the race, I would be remiss if I didn't give a brief (very) background of Soweto. Soweto stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnship. It has a historically Black population and is known mainly for the role it played during the apartheid era. In 1976, an uprising occurred within the city and 10,0000 people (mainly students) peacefully marched through the streets to protest the government's enforcement of all people learning and speaking the language Afrikaan rather than English. Afrikaan is the language spoken by Afrikaaners. As police officers stood by, gun fire broke out and when it was all over, 566 people were dead. The impact of the massacre had a devastating effect throughout the country. Soweto is also the only city in the world to produce two Nobel Peace Prize winners--Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Of course this is a very abbreviated description of the township, so I suggest reading more about it.

The race went off at 6am so you had to admire the dedication of the thousand of people who were up and ready to run. People arrived in bus loads to run and to cheer the runners on.

Brie has been out of town for most of my trip, so I've managed to make some friends, and a few of them were game to enter the race. We all met up at 4:45am to head to the race on time.

the ladies and I too early in the morning

I've never ran a race that early in the morning and needless to say I was tired, and considered backing out when my alarm went off at 4am. But the energy of the crowd when we arrived got me geared up to run. Although Jo'burg is heading into summer, the mornings and nights can be a bit cool. If you registered for the race early, you were given a goody bag which included a dry fit t-shirt. I wore the shirt over another t-shirt and also had on a long-sleeve in hopes of keeping my body warm. I was all smiles before the race, but that smile disappeared around the 6k marker.

smiling before the start of the race

When the gun went off, you could see people running miles ahead. We had three options of distances to run when we registered weeks earlier. The ladies and I all agreed to run the 10k (approximately 6.2 miles). There was also a 10k walk, as well as a full marathon (42k).

We all separated early in the race, each running at our own comfortable speed. I stopped briefly along the run to take pictures of the township. The first thing I encountered was this sign that welcomes you to Soweto. I have a similar picture underneath this sign taken a little over a year ago during my first visit to South Africa.

the sign along the road while I was running

the sign when I visited in April 2008

The irony is when I visited the first time, I never thought that I would have the opportunity to ever visit again, especially a year later. Never did I think when I revisited the area, I would be running a 10k. I bobbed and weaved through the crowd thinking that it was going to be a pretty good run---then I arrived at heartbreak hill. The hill was not very steep, but it seemed to stretch on for miles and miles.

view of homes in Soweto

At one point I thought I would give up because the hill was taking all the energy out of my legs. I could also feel blisters developing on the bottom of my feet. As the hill finally came to an end and I rounded the corner,
there was another water stop. This time, instead of water, they were handing out cokes. CocaCola has a lock on the South African industry. If you are a soda drinker, I don't think you can find a Pepsi anywhere. I am not a soda drinker, so I was apprehensive about drinking soda in the middle of the race. I figured the cup was so tiny that it couldn't do much harm.

Coca Cola break

In think that cup of soda helped me to finish the race. It was just enough to provide me with a sugar rush, but not cause the lactic acid to build in my legs. The water breaks consisted of a bag filled with water that was handed to you as you ran by. There were also people along the route providing encouragement and blowing these horns as we ran by. Some even brought a hoes out to provide runners with a refreshing and quick shower as they ran by. One gentleman had a glass of something that looked like Hennessey. He held out the bottle and a glass, offering anyone who desired, a quick swig.

water pass

I tried to take as many pictures as I could along the way, but with every kilometer that went by, it became more and more draining to take out my camera and snap pictures. Here are a few below.

sign above for laundry detergent

Gentleman doing a dance as he heads to the start line

The people smiled and greeted you along the run, so it was very easy to remain motivated and to keep running even as fatigue kicked in. There was a lady along the race who could not be less than 65 years old. As I lumbered along, she cheered on the people around her with enough pep in her step to run the entire marathon. I tried to keep up with her but realized that I would be crawling across the finish line if I continued to try and stay alongside her. I didn't see her when I finished, but I'm sure granny finished earlier than I did. When I saw this greenmile sign I began picking up my pace rapidly, excited that I was near the finish line. As I came closer and closer to it, I realized that I was not at the finish line and I had approximately 400 meters to go.

Winded, and with my legs barely able to lift themselves up, I made a final push to the finish line.

celebrating at the end of the race

The race was great!!! I really enjoyed myself and the feeling of accomplishment once it was over. The ladies and I didn't meet up again until the end of the race.