Date: 4 April 2015

Distance: 56km

Time: 6:43.42

At the start, still dark.

Thousands of runners all rearing to go with the start banner way up ahead.

And still thousands more behind us, all getting into the spirit of things.

Quite unbelievable to see so many runners on one course.

And the stream of runners continues as far as the eye can see.

Lots of supporters next to the road.

Approaching Fish Hoek, we had to make our way through the roadwords.

Fish Hoek.

The famous colourful bathing boxes at St James.

A band entertaining runners. We were treated to “Like a Rolling Stone” as we passed.

More entertainment.

The dreadful sachets that are an environmental nightmare. When will someone please ban these for good!?

Yay! Salty boiled potatoes at the bottom of Ou Kaapseweg.

Taking a walk break on the 7km uphill.

The long road of runners up ahead makes this a rather social outing.

Luckily we were safely within the cut-off time.

A colourful snake of runners.

Still smiling, or is that a grimace?

Presumably the houses of Noordhoek Manor visible up ahead.

Approaching the fire-ravaged, black and bleak Silvermine landscape.

Once over the top of Ou Kaapseweg we were faced with a knee jarring downhill.

Road signs damaged in the recent fire.

The Kaapse Klopse provided some colourful entertainment.

A silly little out-and-back section along Southern Cross Drive before the Constantia Neck hill.

More entertainment to keep everyone motivated over the last few kilometres.

Cold and windy at the finish.

Happy to have made it in time.

On a recent trip to South Africa to catch up with family and friends, we grabbed the opportunity to take part in the Two Oceans (ultra) marathon, aside from the world famous Comrades Marathon probably the premier ultra marathon in the country. Twelve years ago (2003) was our previous running of “the world’s most beautiful marathon”, when due to some or other natural mishap (and road works to prevent rock falls) the course could not follow the usual route over Chapman’s Peak. It had to be diverted over Ou Kaapseweg (loosely translated as Old Cape Road). We call it Ou Kakseweg (Old Shits Road), because it is terribly hilly, crossing over the Muizenberg Mountains from south-west to north-east. All these years we’ve always felt like we had unfinished business and thought this would be a good opportunity to finally experience the official course over Chapman’s Peak. Described on Wikipedia the course looks like this: “The Ultra Marathon follows a more or less circular route through Muizenberg, Fish Hoek, over Chapman’s Peak, through Hout Bay and Constantia Nek, and eventually finishes at the University of Cape Town campus. On occasions when Chapman’s Peak Drive has been closed due to construction or rock falls, the Ultra Marathon has followed an alternate route over Ou Kaapse Weg“. Continue reading →