I traveled to Cape Town South Africa for the Two Oceans Marathon.The marathon was meant to be my "A Race" for the first half of 2011. But ultimately it turned out to primarily serve as a fine excuse to journey to parts of the world I would otherwise never venture. The journey proved highly worthwhile, I can see why Cape Town was voted the world's number one travel destination on Trip Adviser. I have read that travelers are most attracted to places that remind them of their homes. Cape Town was like visiting a parallel universe version of my old home - San Francisco. And the athletic culture in Cape Town is amazing.
The marathon organizers held a "Friendship Run" around the Cape Town waterfront on Friday morning for runners coming from outside the country. It was a remarkably scenic and well organized event. I violated yet another sacred rule among more serious runners about never doing a run event carrying a balloon. This is probably an even more profound violation of the sacred standards than the many other rules I have now broken - doing pre-race group aerobics, walking during a race event, wearing the event t-shirt during the race..
The next day 6,000 runners gathered at dawn for the start of the marathon. Among the most moving parts of the event was hearing most all of the 6,000 runners around me bellow out the South Africa national anthem. As you know if you have seen the Hollywood movie "Invictus," the anthem itself is a beautiful song and represents a unifying element of South Africa ( During my visit to South Africa I was constantly reading and hearing of the issues of race and belonging and unity in South Africa)
The half marathon winds through Cape Town's upscale neighborhoods at the base of Table Mountain. I started slowly and managed to move past hundreds of other runners. My name was printed on my number and throughout the run spectators and fellow runners kept yelling "go Jay, looking good Jay" etc.
The race finished with a long, long finishing chute lined with bleachers that were packed with cheering supporters. Like at an Ironman Triathlon, the announcers work the crowd to encourage each runner. A different color medal is awarded to finishers under 4 hours, 5 hours 6 hours and 7 hours and as the clock ticked toward each hour mark, the crowd would build into a frenzy of cheering and stamping and clapping to exhort the runners staggering down the finish chute - yet another moving
element of Two Oceans.
My teammate Matthias had inspired
me to do Two Oceans - in fact I had originally had visions of joining him for Comrades, an 89-kilometer event in Durban, South Africa that also ranks among the world's great endurance events. Another teammate, Renald, is finishing up a several year work assignment in South Africa and he proved an amazingly host for us - we toured the wine country, cruised the harbor, climbed Table Mountain, ate at unique local restaurants, explored game parks and were able to gain a fascinating glimpse of South Africa. I may or may not make it back to South Africa for Comrades someday, but we are certainly keen to reunite our group for several possible events later this year and next in Europe.
(Oh, I finished the half marathon in 1:24:50 - I hoped to be able to run well enough to contend for prize money but it was not happening)