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May
16
Written by:
James Deane
16/05/2011 13:40
The 2 Oceans it is not! The 2 Bays or the 2 Currents but not the 2 Oceans. Cape Town is surrounded on both sides by the Atlantic Ocean. The Indian Ocean in fact meets the Atlantic some 250km further south at the tip of Africa, Cape Agulhas. A commonly held misconception, even by the locals as demonstrated in the naming of arguably the most beautiful, interesting and challenging marathons around.
Cape Town, Bon Esperance, The Cape of Good Hope, The Cape of Storms or the Mother city to the locals and home to the mother of all marathons; The 2 Oceans Ultra Marathon at 56km is more than a marathon. A marathon and a third, exactly, to be precise. But it's even more than that. Founded in 1970 as a training race for the Comrades Ultra Marathon and now with 42 editions firmly under the belt it's older than any of the European big city marathons and the organisation of the event, like it's route, is breath takingly good. The race is held on the Saturday morning on the Easter weekend each year. [Next one is Sat 7 April 2012]
Race start is bang outside the entrance to Newlands Rugby ground at 6.25am, a good hour before sunrise. Important in a country where the mercury thinks nothing of sneaking past 30C in autumnal April. This year we had no such worries with ideal conditions of clear skies and 10C at the start as we meandered our way down the old main road through Claremont, Wynberg and onto Muizenberg at the 16km (10mile) marker for our first views of the coast line with dawn breaking out over False Bay. Just magical. It was here at the Battle of Muizenberg in 1795 that the British wrestled control of the Cape from the Dutch in a grab for the riches granted by controlling the trade routes to the East 100 years before diamonds and gold were discovered in SA and before the Suez Canal was built. The next 5 km wind you along the western seaboard of False Bay collecting St James, Clovelly and Fish Hoek in your stride to bring you through the half marathon mark. So far, so good, and flat. From here you cut the Cape Peninsula in half and head slightly up and over through Sun Valley for vistas over Kommetjie and Noordehoek and into the half way mark at 28km.

This is where the chit-chat ends and the real running begins with Chapman’s Peak, still in shade, looming up ahead. First up is Little Chappies which starts with a nasty, short ramp up but then offers some relief with a brief downhill as you leave the lip of Noordehoek behind you and get your 1st views across Hout Bay towards the Sentinel, home to ad hoc Big Wave surfing competitions. But this is no time for surfing romanticism. The air is still fresh and you're coursing along one of the worlds most famous coastal drives but you don't care because now you can see the top of Chapman’s Peak, Chappies, and there's some vertical distance that needs your attention. This is 2 tough km's of uphill hugging the rock face of the mountain. There's plenty of race support and camera crews along this stretch but no spectators as the roads are closed and inaccessible at this point unless you're an early morning rock climber. As you hit the top of Chappies (34km) you literally burst through the break in the pass at the summit to look into the horse shoe below that is Hout Bay but more importantly 5km of sweet downhill. In my opinion this is where you'll make or break your race. Nail this downhill at your peril as the big test is still to come and you'll need to keep quite a lot under the lid to get you through it.
Through the elbow of Hout Bay and onto the Constantia Neck road leaving the sea behind you with a gentle uphill to bag the marathon mark. It's 4km to the top of Constantia Neck from here and this is all uphill. You have a marathon under your belt now and there's no gentle way of saying it but 44-46km is just brutal. Most walk it, all of it. Of course there are more radio and TV stations here to catch your pain. Supporters lie and say you're looking good. I just kept my head down and wondered how one going so slowly could possibly hope for a silver medal. There's no bursting through the top of Constantia Neck, you ease through it as the relief swells through your body. Cordoned off crowds welcome you here to help you forget the previous 4km of toil. You might want to take a quick chat here with supporters while sneaking some recovery for the legs. 10km of net downhill to go from here but Rhodes Drive is undulating and at times steeply cambered. It's at this part of the race where some who feel they can't finish are swept up by buses of singing and chanting runners who practically carry them to the end past the world famous Kirstenbosch gardens and onto the sun drenched rugby fields of the University of Cape Town for the finish.

The 2 Oceans comes in 2 forms, the 56km Ultra and the more recent addition 21.1km half marathon which is handy for families travelling to SA where not all family members are as keen on the longer distances as others! The half marathon sells out in super quick time where as the Ultra tends not to as you can only enter after you've done a qualifying marathon run, within the previous 5 months, which a lot of people incorporate into their training programme. That being said, International entrants do not need to run a qualifying marathon to enter. However if you wish to be seeded you will need to provide some sort of proof of marathon speed. The International race fee for 2011 was £70 and is good value in that it comes with a catered venue at registration for the athlete and a guest. This is also the case on race day where Internationals have their own marquee on the finishing chute which includes drinks and food for themselves and 1 guest not to mention the premium vantage spot.
At 7 hours the cut-off for the Ultra is fairly unforgiving. In 2011, 2,000 people didn't make the finish cut-off. You will encounter no half marathon runners on the course as they have a slightly earlier start and are cleared from the course before the Ultra race leaders come through. There are also various cut-offs along the course where runners are pulled from the race if they don't hit the mile-stones within the required cut-offs. No exceptions. This is Africa, you make it or you don't. As with all South African races there are different medals for different race performances. For the Ultra:
Gold - 1st 10
Silver - under 4 hours (yes, thanks for asking)
Sainsbury medal - under 5 hours
Bronze medal - under 6 hours
Blue medal - under 7 hours
With a non-jet-lag overnight flight from London to Cape Town on the extra long Easter weekend, why wouldn't you?
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4 comment(s) so far...
Re: The Mother of all Marathons - The 2 Oceans
James, great result and a good read. You'd almost talked me into it, until I got to the profile at the very bottom.
By George Karolemeas on
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