ASICS FrontRunner Wandisile Nongodlwana tackled the notorious Washie 100 Miler this weekend. Not only did he finish, but he finished second in a time of 16.31.09. What an epic result! We caught up with him afterward for a report:
The Washie 100 Miler is an annual race from Port Alfred to East London. The race starts at 17h00 on Friday and the cut-off time is 26 hours. Due to road works the route for the past two years has start in Cathcart (and finished in East London).
Because of this, the first 36km was a loop inside Cathcart. There were a lot of supporters and cheering in side the town which was great. After 36/37 km we headed out on the N6 to East London.
The route is very tough, especially the first half were there are a lot of long uphills. I took on the challenge to help raise for Team RedCross, leading up to Chicago Marathon.
Chicago Marathon will be on the 13th October and is a big goal of mine this year. I chose Washie as a fundraising race because I believe in challenging myself beyond my usual comfort zone.
And this took me there for sure - indeed, there were times when I wanted to quit but I had a greater cause to run for. I passed 83 shortly after eight hours.
It was getting very cold and I was really sleepy but I pushed through. I took on food roughly every hour to 90 mins. It was a mix of fruit, energy gels and toast.
The most difficult part was definitely between 1 am and 3 am. I wanted to sleep so badly, I was struggling to keep my eyes open but forced myself through.
Aside from the endurance (and staying awake!) one of the critical things in planning for Washie is shoes. Running 161 km is no joke. I had to make sure I had shoes that had enough cushion and yet weren't too heavy. That's where my ASICS DynaFlyte 3 came in very handy. They are lightweight and the outsole unit of the Asics DynaFlyte 3 makes use of AHAR®️ or Asics High Abrasion Rubber. This offers traction and protection against the abrasive nature of the surfaces.
They carried me home and I was very happy to finish and get the result I did.
I will now certainly take a rest from running for the next week or so. It's time for strength-training now while thinking of the next adventure.
