this past weekend saw that Western Province Marathon Championships, here in Cape Town, South Africa. (kinda like state champs, so they could chose a team for the national champs and then for marathon worlds selection)
The race was actually 2 laps of a 35km course (22 miles each), about 1050m of climbing per lap (3500 feet per lap).
I rode the half marathon, one lap only, but it was certainly enough, very tough route, lots of open dirt roads and some great singltrack sections too. The start was a mess as there was supposed to be a neutral section of asphalt road before the flag would drop as you turn off into singtrack, but there was such a bottleneck leaving the start area, that i never even saw the official start and then with the singletrack right after the start it made it difficult to move up.
anyways it was a great sunny winter's day and I came in 17th place (out of 139) so i was happy, oh and 1h55 mins.
the winner of the 2 lap race clocked 1h26 mins for his first lap and like 1h27 for the second..........
The race was actually 2 laps of a 35km course (22 miles each), about 1050m of climbing per lap (3500 feet per lap).
I rode the half marathon, one lap only, but it was certainly enough, very tough route, lots of open dirt roads and some great singltrack sections too. The start was a mess as there was supposed to be a neutral section of asphalt road before the flag would drop as you turn off into singtrack, but there was such a bottleneck leaving the start area, that i never even saw the official start and then with the singletrack right after the start it made it difficult to move up.
anyways it was a great sunny winter's day and I came in 17th place (out of 139) so i was happy, oh and 1h55 mins.
the winner of the 2 lap race clocked 1h26 mins for his first lap and like 1h27 for the second..........