It was sore. Possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I finished, 4:28 was my time. A little slower than my goal, but I’m happy. Race report to follow.
Tag Archive for 'race'
Everyone’s had their moment of stupidity, I seem to have more of them. So on Tuesday evening a couple of guys from work and I headed down to the beach to play some touch rugby.
Bad idea.
I woke up on Wednesday to an ankle that wasn’t happy when I put weight on it. And yes, it was that ankle. So to say I started worrying was an understatement, as I’m due to run the Red Hill 36km Classic race this weekend. I immediately booked an appointment with my physio, first thing on Thursday morning.
Thankfully, after an evening of icing and arnica, my ankle felt fine when I woke up this morning. I went to the physio anyway, and he just confirmed that I must have stressed it slightly, caused some inflammation, therefore pain. He advised me to rather avoid running until the race, and let it recover fully.
Whew. I’ll let you all know how the race goes.
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.
Picture from www.cape-odyssey.com
The 2007 Cape Odyssey is over, and having blogged about it early on, Nick dropped by this morning, and commented on how his race went. I took the liberty of pasting his comment below:
Hi guys!
Well, Cape Odyssey was an absolutely amazing event!!!The route was a lot more technical than I expected after listening to the presentations at Capestorm, but it was a fantastic race, and one I’d love to do again next year.
The last two days were a bit frustrating in that day 4 had over 11km of rocky, unrunable hiking path and day 5 had some very steep and scratchy scrambling, but then again I guess that suited some trail runners more than others. I was quite surprised day 4 didn’t yield any twisted ankles though. Day 4 was the only day the organisers hadn’t trial run, so everyone was quite surprised at how tough it was. Kevin Vermark actually ran days 3 and 4 with us, which I think is really brilliant! So he experienced the route first hand! : )
It must be tough finding a suitable route, in the right distance range between places where a race village can be setup. I’m sure the organisers will find a happy medium in future routes though.I went into the race concerned that I did not put in enough training. As a mountain biker, I surprised myself at how comfortable I felt though. I think the secret was taking the event one day at a time, pacing yourself correctly and managing your diet correctly. The two man team setup sparked much debate before the event, but I’m quite convinced that every single one of the non-competitive entrants saw it’s benefit at least somewhere along the 211km. Massages are also definitely a must! The physio’s do a great job, and I’m pretty certain I would not have managed without my daily massages.
The setup was an exact duplicate of Cape Epic, so if you’ve done the Epic you’ll know exactly what to expect!
Running is definitely a lot more social than cycling. The comradery is fantastic, and what made the inaugural run so special was that you get to know most of the 100 runners by the end. The 2007 Cape Odyssey was an unforgettable experience. I’m certain the event will be grow to be exceptionally successful, and I hope you will all someday be a Cape Odyssey Finisher.
Nick didn’t mention that they placed 4th in their category (mixed) and 20th overall, which is an excellent achievement. Nick’s running partner, Thamar Houliston, posted updates on iAfrica.com, and reading them gives you an idea on how tough this race is.
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