Knynsa Oyster Festival

This past weekend in Knysna was slightly different for me as an athlete, as I supported for a change and didn’t opt to run. It was however as much fun, and I don’t think any less effort than running! I trained with Garth on his half marathon program and have really seen a great improvement in my running, but my goal is the Gun RUN, so I just soaked the atmosphere up in Knysna. The registration and expo on Friday was busy and very well organised. It was great to hang around a bit and experience the food trucks and local cuisine! (And no, I didn’t try an oyster!).

      

Race DAY!! It was a very early start to the day dropping the athletes off at the pick up spot where they caught a shuttle taxi to the start of the race. It was 22 degrees, a false summer and we were not complaining as in the past the forest has been ZERO degrees and that’s so cold while you wait to start! The majority of the run was not accessible for us to support until the last 3km of the run, so we stood at the finish line to welcome the athletes as they came in.
      
The sight of relief on their faces as they crossed the finish line, we knew it was a tough day out. The warm conditions and wind certainly added an extra degree of difficulty. There was a Castle Lite beer tent on the finishing field and this was our meeting place for the Embark athletes. Nothing like a cold beer to cool down from the marathon or half marathon. It was great having a beer tent at the finish, something we haven’t seen for year because of the ‘you know what!’ A great time to exchange stories and compare times and show of the medals and marathon plaques.

    
The rest of the afternoon was Tour De France, Wimbledon and snoozes until we headed to the team dinner at Blend, to watch the rugby and celebrate everyone's accomplishments from the race.
          
It's always great to support the Embark crew and see how an individual sport can have such a great group comradery. I will definitely be back next year to run, and my boyfriend can support me this time 😊 - Jenna Holmwood