Race: Lion of Africa 21.1km - Tokai/Constantia

It's been a blistering hot couple of days in  Cape Town, so the rain during the night brought much needed coolness for a Sarurday morning half marathon jaunt.

It was an early start 06:00. My running sidekick did not realise it was pre-registration only so I was left to my own devices for this one. 

I tried pushing myself to go a bit faster, but was wary of last week's ankle niggle that had made its presence known throughout the week. Wore my old shoes and thinner socks (had been running in compression socks) and this combination seemed to have done the trick. Ankle was fine throughout the race. 

Managed to keep up with other Club members for a minuscule amount of time, and when I couldn't anymore, was super pleased I could still see them in the distance. 

It is a beautiful route, even saw a rainbow! and of course a couple of uphills but nothing as hectic as last week's Kloof Nek Challenge. 

Tried running away from the big group bus, but alas I had to give in at a point - it was so much calmer and quieter once they were comfortably well in front. 

Time: 02:28:24 very happy to have completed it sub 02:30! 

Magazine & medal at end. 

Race: Kloof Nek Classic - Camps Bay, 21.1km

I was warned that this was a TOUGH race with hectic uphills. So I got myself ready to do a lot of walking and to just aim for an under three hour finish. At the beginning of the race, one of my fellow team mates said that you should take your worst time for a half marathon and then add 30 minutes. My worst time last year was half TwoOceans and if I added 30 mins to that I would be well over the three hour cut off. All I could do was to crack on and get on with it. 

The hills were relentless! It started at Camps Bay High School; you run on the grass running course out of the school then veer out along the winding road up towards Kloof Nek. You then cross the road at the top of the Nek and run up to the cable station at Table Mountain. At about the 7km mark where the turn around is it starts easying off for the first time and you have a bit of a downhill. At this stage the soles of my feet started burning, weirdly my right ankle felt niggly and my big toe which had bruised from a previous race started to make its presence known. Once back at the traffic circle we made our way to the end of Signal Hill, which felt like a 45 degree angle, I just had to laugh! The other option was crying-laughing seemed like the better option of the two. The road undulated all the way to Signal Hill. The good news being that what goes up has to go down. 

The last six or so kms were all downhill along the winding road back to Camps Bay  High. To be greated by a horrible little uphill back onto the sports ground. Running on grass is tough, but we made it!!

I am SUPER chuffed with our time of 02:39!! Two minutes slower than Two Oceans BUT very HAPPY!!

Tough race but so incredibly beautiful. The Cape Town scenery makes every single step worth while!

(Thanks to Insragram for cool photo @gesantabed)

Book: The 4-Hour Work Week - Timothy Ferriss

I had heard rave reviews about this book and received it as a birthday gift. But for some or other reason I was reluctant to read it. One of the main reasons probably being that my previous accountant who I have very little regard for, had also read the book. Long story short, I decided to read the book during the December holiday and had a wonderfully pleasant reading experience. 

Timothy Ferriss has a fantastic sense of humour and there are great tools and techniques in the book to help with productivity. In some ways I feel that I am already ahead of the curve encouraging everyone within the office to work remotely. Some of the examples and websites are a bit dated and not that relevant to South Africa, but there are some great ideas on freeing up more time to enjoy "mini retirements" during the year that I look forward to implementing. 

Definitely a book worth investing in and reading. 

Race: Brooks Hohenort 15km Road Run

10 January 2014 - what a beautiful race. I was in two minds whether I wanted to do this race after last week's hectic Bay to Bay and I got home quite late from our strategy session in Durban last night (and my body had taken quite a beating in the waves!). But I told myself that if I wake up on my own sans alarm clock I would go. Yip, so I made the race!

Parked at Constantia Village, short walk to registration. Again so wonderful up see fellow Harriers and also seeing familiar faces from other clubs. 

Was quite a tough run with three hills, at least it was fairly downhill | flat towards the end. Only walked a bit up the last uphill. 

At the end, instead of a medal, socks and year running calendar was handed out. 

Feeling exhausted and very sore thighs. (But realise that it could be contributable to sprints we did on the beach yesterday :-D). 

Time: 01:44

Race: Ocean Basket Bay to Bay 30kms

04 January 2015 - TOTAL MADNESS! But totally stoked and super proud of the first race of the year. 

It is a crazy distance, fortunately along one of my absolutely favourite routes on the planet. We started at Maiden's Cove in Camps Bay and ran to Hout Bay down Suikerbossie, left into Victoria Road to Valley road back to Suikerbossie and back to Camps Bay. 

Running partner (Graham), fellow Hout Bay Harrier suggested a running / walking strategy. So on the uphills & flats we ran for nine minutes and walked a minute. Strategy on Suikerbossie was to run about 100 metres, walk 100 (or landmark, tree or drain to the next).  This definitely helped with the hectic Suikerbossie uphill and then finishing the race within the cut off time of four hours. In fact we finished 03:48:something. Super super happy!

Pre training of 15kms, 21 kms the next weekend and 24 kms last weekend helped A LOT!

Slight knee niggle and sore thighs just before Bakoven, but it seemed to sort itself out. 

Used Gu (salted caramel and peanut butter) every 10 kms, which seemed to help as well. I know you should not try new things on race day, but I did not want to be stranded with no resources. Great tasting! Also replaced the jam on one of my rice cakes with honey for breakfast. 

The weather was wonderful, cool and misty. 

A really wonderful race!

Race: Memorial Race, 8km Mouille Point

 

Last race for the year - the Memorial 8km race at Mouille Point. I'm not too sure how to feel about it - on the one hand it is quite nice to have a moment's silence for, and remember all the runners that have passed on over the past two years - their names get read out just before the race starts. On the other hand, it's worrying how many there are and not too sure that it is the greatest advert for running.

 

There are a myriad of excuses why this wasn't my best race (extremely hot! I had taken the bus to avoid year-end traffic through Camps Bay as I was not too sure about where to get off, so misjudged the stop and had to walk quite a distance to the start in the blistering heat and did not rehydrate sufficiently - note to self for next year, Ellerslie stop is a lot closer. I also ran in my new Puma's 500FAAS v2.0 - lovely and comfortable (also love the bright colour and there is a strip on the edge that glows in the dark!), but did start burning the soles of my feet close to the end (the shoes itself, not the glowing part). Really am not a fan of the route, I don't enjoy flat races, give me hills any day).

 

I completed the kms in 54 minutes, which I suppose it not too bad taking into consideration that I walked A LOT! The first 1500 finishers received a commemorative glass, luckily I made it. Everyone also received an aQuelle 500ml sparking flavoured water - very refreshing! 

All in all it has been a wonderful running year, about 220kms of race running in total - super stoked. I look forward to betting my times and increased running for 2015!