Sunday 25 January 2015

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)


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