Having fun manning a water point

Yesterday was a Mothers Day like no other I’ve experienced. Instead of sleeping in and cuddles with kids, or being out on an early morning run, I got the kids up at 4:30am in the icy Gauteng cold and we headed out to man a water point.

Our Run Walk for Life branch manned the 8km water point at the Adrienne Hersch race on Sunday.

I was actually going to run the race, and the kids were going to help at the water point… but I’ve been sick for over a week and decided that running a half marathon with a head cold wasn’t the greatest plan in the world. So instead, we all went and had an absolute ball!

Of course I took my camera along too. And in fact, between lifting it with the one hand, and holding out endless bags of water with my other outstretched hand… my shoulders are pretty stiff today! LOL!

It was dark when we started setting up the tables and drinks, and once it was done, we all enjoyed bacon rolls (braaied on a skottle) and hot coffee and milo.We played music loudly, and danced in the streets while waiting for the first runners to arrive.

Katherine and Rachel had made Mothers Day signs for us to stick to the tables… and we made sure we shouted “Happy Mothers Day” as often as we could 🙂 which made lots of runners smile.

It was fantastic watching the runners come through. It was also fabulous to watch the runners with the kids.

These were the guys leading the pack, and they past us 26 minutes after the race started.

This guy’s parents and grandparents were standing with us, cheering him on… so I took a few photos for them and they received an email from me this morning 🙂

He’s 17, and finished the 10km in 36 minutes! So impressive!

I loved this moment! Rene Kalmer spotted Rachel holding out her water, and made a point of aiming for her sachet. Rachel was thrilled and cheering afterwards for “selling” her first water! Rene won the 21km in 1h22!

Caroline Wostmann raced through soon after Rene… it was so awesome to spot them running past us, and actually knowing their names! Who’d have thought that I’d know top runners names by sight! Hehe this running bug has seriously bitten.

And how amazing is Sonja Laxton? She finished the 10km in 52 minutes… in my dreams!

I loved spotting friends and colleagues amongst the runners and walkers in the race.

We had a ball!

The boys both said that they wanted to do that again. So the early morning moans and groans were worth it 😉 I love that we could do this as a family, and have fun in the process.

It’s also about time that I gave back a little to this awesome running community.

And yes, I’ll definitely volunteer to man a water point with my Run Walk for Life branch again. It was great fun.