To date I have completed 6 Parish Walks, 3 - 100 centurion’s and ran 3 Marathons. Up until my last 100 I would of said the hardest event I had completed was my first Marathon.
My third 100 was in South Africa - training had gone well after the parish and I was really excited and nervous to go.
The week before I started coming down with a cough, cold and sore throat - I’m not usually one to come down with illness so it was a real worry. I travelled with my eldest daughter we flew in to Manchester and had planned a relaxing day with some shopping ! In reality it was hard going we visited a few shops, not as many clothes shops as I would of liked but more chemists trying to find the best cough and throat medicines I could ! Feeling the way I did I wasn’t at all looking forward to the 2 long haul flights that would take us to Capetown.
We arrived at Manchester airport in plenty of time with all my medicines decanted in to bottles of under 100m for the flights, I was nervous checking in as there are extra requirements if you are flying into South Africa with a child under 18 without both parents being present. I had to have a signed affidavit by the courts, in which her dad gave permission to travel without him, along with copies of his passport, her original birth certificate and my original marriage certificate ! When we checked in all documents had to be checked and approved by a supervisor so if was a great relief when we were given the ok to fly.
The flights went pretty quickly it was a busy flight out but Caitlin was happy she had WiFi and thousands of movies to watch.
When we arrived in Dubai we met up with Andy and Linda Green who were on the same connecting flight as us. It was great to see them and made me relax a little. I has last seen Andy when he was supporting the 100 miles in the Isle of Man, I had told him I was going to try the African Centurion and at the time I was the only person from the IOM going, so the gent that Andy was felt he couldn’t let me go alone so he decided he would take on his first 100 Mile challenge too, it was the day before a special birthday for him.
We all stayed in the same apartment complex - which Andy had found it was lovely. I had 2 days before the race so Caitlin and I decided that we would visit table mountain on our first day, and visit the waterfront on the second day which was also where the race sign on was. Table Mountain was incredible, even with my fear of heights in the cable cars. Caitlin and I spent ages up there walking round and looking a the picture perfect views, I loved seeing Robben Island and was so excited about the walk despite still not feeling 100% but I was definitely improving.
That night we had dinner with some of the other International Walkers Sharon and Justin Scholz (Sharon And Justin are incredible walkers and runners and this was to be their 6th Centurion) Jantinus Meints (this was his 5th Centurion Badge), Trudy Geldhof (no Centurion badges) and Andy (1st Centurion badge) and Linda Green
There is only 1 person in the world who holds all 7 Centurion badges and that is Sandra Brown she has completed a 100 Miles in The UK, Europe, United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Malaysia. The Malaysia Centurion is no longer held, so unless it is ever brought back Sandra will remain the only person in the world to hold them all! She is an incredible walker and one whom I’m privileged to say I walked with for part of my second Centurion race in the Netherlands
Link to multiple centurion badge holders Thanks to Rob Robertson
The day before the race Caitlin and I shared and Uber to the waterfront with Linda and Andy. Caitlin and I had a lovely walk around and decided to get some lunch before going to sign on, we found a lovely restaurant and whilst I was waiting for my Thai curry to arrive I thought I would check in with my emails on the waterfront WiFi. I opened my email account and waited for them to download and my heart sank when I saw an email from the African Centurion organisers with the title .. event cancelled on Robben Island !
When we arrived in Dubai we met up with Andy and Linda Green who were on the same connecting flight as us. It was great to see them and made me relax a little. I has last seen Andy when he was supporting the 100 miles in the Isle of Man, I had told him I was going to try the African Centurion and at the time I was the only person from the IOM going, so the gent that Andy was felt he couldn’t let me go alone so he decided he would take on his first 100 Mile challenge too, it was the day before a special birthday for him.
We all stayed in the same apartment complex - which Andy had found it was lovely. I had 2 days before the race so Caitlin and I decided that we would visit table mountain on our first day, and visit the waterfront on the second day which was also where the race sign on was. Table Mountain was incredible, even with my fear of heights in the cable cars. Caitlin and I spent ages up there walking round and looking a the picture perfect views, I loved seeing Robben Island and was so excited about the walk despite still not feeling 100% but I was definitely improving.
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