As promised, here’s the update from the first race on the list, the Voet of Afrika.
After some thinking, and chatting to a few knowledgeable people, I decided to attempt the Caltex Voet van Afrika Half Marathon. While I had completed a race since the op, this would be my first 21km in nearly a year.
The Voet van Afrika (Foot of Africa) Marathon is well known in South Africa, and is regarded as one of the toughest marathons around, while providing fantastic views of the Overberg scenery. The half marathon however, does not have the same reputation, and I was told it simply trudges along next to a highway.
Anyway, the flyer promised a new route, I entered anyway, and wow was I glad I did. The route change proved very popular, and was especially good during the first 13kms, while we messed about in the Overberg.
The graph below shows the altitude (red line) compared to my split times (blue bars):
It illustrates my race quite nicely. The plan was to run about 1:45/1:50, so around 5 min/km was my goal pace, which I managed until about 8kms, and we started going downhill. The ankle felt great, so I opened up a bit, and made the mistake of letting my race ego take control.
I built up momentum, and just got faster and faster and faster. It was a great feeling, but at the back of my mind, I knew I was going to pay for it. Well I never did, my ankle recovered fine, and I finished in 1:37:53, which equals to an average pace of 4:39 min/km. My average heart rate was 163.
So, first half marathon out of the way, and while I ran it significantly faster than I had planned, the ankle held up fine. I think it also showed I was fitter than I though. 
You can find the results here.
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