News from South London Harriers
April 6th, 2007: Two Oceans race Capetown
Posted by Runningclogs at 3:07 pmSince I’m killing time at the airport in Cape Town waiting for my flight back to London, I thought I’d update you on my long run this weekend.
As some of you may have known I ran the Two Oceans on Saturday. Despite the warnings of gale force winds from the start, the morning started fairly cool (20 C) with only a gentle breeze. It was an early start, having to get up at 4:45 am to prep for the run, have a bowl of cereal and then walk down to the start. Fortunately the place we were staying in was less than 2km from the start. I go there just in time to watch the half marathon start at 6am. Then there was just enough time to find my way into the correct seeding zone and strech for a few minutes before our start at 6:20am.
Unfortunately, since I did not do a qualitfying marathon, I was seeded right at the back of the 10,000 string field. The result being that after 5 kms I was already 7 mins behind my pace. Something I wouldn’t make up. Anyway I took it easy through the 1st 21km and got to the half marathon mark in 1:46 still feeling strong. All thoses sunday long runs were obviously paying off.
The 1st real test is just after half way at 28km where two hills, “little Chapmans” and “Chapmans Peak” are found. I think all in all together they are about 4-5kms of uphill. Breathtaking sights though. The road is carved out of the cliffs with the mountains on your right and beautiful ocean views on the left. At last I reached the top, however this is where I found the gale force winds. So what was supposed to be the nice downhill other side Chapmans became a fight against the wind.
By the time I got down the other side we were no longer protected by the mountain from the sun either. So the heat was on, and with maximums expected to be 30 degrees it was quite warm in the sun. Well after running through Hout Bay where it’s fairly flat another land mark was reached, the marathon mark, in 3:49. And I’m please to say that no walking had been done up to then.
That unfortunately is where the wheels began to fall off. The problem is at 44km another hill called Contansia is in the way, and it’s not short or gentle. So I walked up the whoe thing. All dreams of a sub 5hr were now gone.
From then on it was baking hot and my legs were shattered. It was just a matter of hanging in, running the downhills and walking the uphills. At last I made it into the stadium, and a few hundred meters around the rugby field I was done - 5hrs 26mins.
And the surprise at the end for me - I was pulled aside by the TV crew and inteviewed live on telly as an international runner from the UK. The surprise they had when they heard my South African accent.
Well, hopefully I’ll be down at training on Thursday, if ,my legs are feeling ok by then.
Cheers
Wayne
Posted in Road Running
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