fish river marathon

working as a rural physiotherapist presents few opportunities for some good old sports injury treatment and so when i was invited to join my friend sam at the fish river marathon there were no objections from me. the fish river marathon takes place in craddock, a small town some 4 hours from mthatha. it is well attended. in the western cape the berg river canoe marathon is attended by around about 140 paddlers. the fish often attracts over 2000. after a scenic trip through maclear and elliot we arrived at craddock and went straight to work. it is always slightly daunting when you have to switch to a sports mindset after working in a general hospital for 9 months so i spent the evening feeling a bit inept. after a while i did manage to get my confidence a bit higher, just in time for the start.

don't get up at 5 am. its cold. the race started at 7 am for the top 50 seeded paddlers. the mist didn't clear until an hour or so later. i managed to strap my first tennis elbow before going to see the mad rush

it turned out to be awesome weather for the rest of the weekend. pictured below is one of the later batches starting off on the dam. one of the draw cards of the fish is that it is a controlled race. water is released from the dam allowing for perfect racing conditions.

it never ceases to amaze me how some people expect physiotherapy to be free. fortunately the strapping for the race was donated by leuko and so we only charged R40 for a strapping. having a sponsor did of course mean that a few photos had to be taken with lots of leuko stuff in it. so smile, say leuko and nail that piriformis sam!

due to work requirements i was only able to watch one rapid being shot. this was called "soutpans" and i only saw it because the road we had to take crossed the river there. the paddlers go over a small weir and under a bridge before a long section of rapids. watching for 10 minutes was enough to get me hooked.

massaging is harder than you think, an afternoon of massage leaves your arms and fingers in a fair amount of pain. at least business was brisk which always means payday will be better... at least in the private sector. the second day was even brisker. tired paddlers came flooding in. one guy had three sessions, one each day. he dislocated his shoulder and had a bristow repair exactly 6 months before the race. 6 months is the recommended time for return to contact sport. he was cutting it fine. gave me a chance to practice my shoulder strapping which is all i ask.

len jenkins, professional paddler and lusty pursuer of a colleague of mine, won the marathon in record time. its his fifth in a row i believe. when he won half of the field was still waiting to start the second day. some people just take the fun out of everything. most likely in an attempt to balance things out, at the end of the race everyone has a big piss up. the varsity students dont mess around. you have not seen drunk until you have gone to fish. since i planned to drive the next day i had an early night. the ladies i traveled with had a wild night. being medical professionals has its benefits though. Dr kelly set up some drips, works wonders I'm told

now some of you out there may think it pretty lame that i didn't get tipsy at the biggest party in the great karoo. this may well be true, however, the next day i got to drive sam's audi A4. yeah. well worth being sober for that.

now where do i buy a kayak?