Two Oceans Ultra Marathon - Cape Town South Africa

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Chapman's Peak
My boyfriend wanted to do the Two Oceans 35 mile run in Cape Town South Africa this year.  He is from SA and it was a good trip for him to see his family and schedule a racecation.  The Two Oceans is a bucket list race because of the beauty and toughness of the course.  It was a long flight that included 3 planes and about 28 hours.  I arrived at night so I went straight to bed and I had a few days to get used to the time change before the race.  We had lots of sight seeing to do so I was busy in those few days but it was so much fun!  Cape Town is an amazing place to visit.  We saw seals, penguins, donkeys and shop dogs (dogs hanging out in their owners shops)  We visited several vineyards and drank lots of wine, beer, and coffee.  Thats not necessarily the best thing to do leading up to an ultra marathon but I was on vacation and I did travel a very long way to enjoy myself so I did drink and eat!  We drove part of the course and we got to see the really big hill we would climb it was called Chapmans Peak.  It had such beautiful views of the ocean and major hills! We had trained on hills but there was nothing we could have trained on that would have compared to this.  I didn't really have a goal in mind because I knew I wanted to enjoy the course.  The time cut off was 7 hours and 30 minutes.  I figured I could do that without a problem but I thought I'd probably do something like 6:30.  I think if I would have been more serious about it I could have tried for 6 hours.  The day before the race we received an email that they had to change the race course because of a suspected group of protestors.  Apparently one of the towns we run through didn't want the race coming through their town.  Unfortunately this part of the course was the most scenic part Chapmans Peak! We were pretty bummed but understand that our safety is more important.  Another downfall to this new route was that it was even harder and the climbing was worse than before!
Pusha and his bus
The morning of the race it was a little cool in the 60's and there was a light rain.  We started running and I stayed with my boyfriend until about mile 9.  At that point he was with the 6 hour bus (that's what they call the 6 hour pacer).  They started to head up a hill and I couldn't keep the pace so he stayed with it while I fell back.  The hill seemed to never end and I eventually was with the 6:20 bus.  I must say the pacers in South Africa are some of the best pacers I've ever seen in a race.  I also ran Comrades two years ago in SA and noticed the same thing.  Going up these steep hills they do a run/walk and help everyone control breathing by making us raise our arms as they say breathe in and lower our arms as everyone says breathe out.  Then after a few of those its 1, 2 , 3 run and we run for a bit (many times to a tambourine or singing) then we walk.  The bus drivers (pacers) energize the people around them and bring them to the finish at the exact time they advertise!  It amazes me they can come in at the correct time especially with all the hills but they do it and do it really great!  

Finished!
When I arrived we did several days of sightseeing which included drinking lots of coffee and beer.  Cape Town has great breweries and coffee shops so I didn't want to miss out.  I typically don't recommend this before a big race but I couldn't help myself.  That combined with the very long travel time I was dehydrated going into this race and the humid environment didn't help.  The temperature wasn't bad it was supposed to be in the low 70's race day.  Several miles into the race I realized I was sweating more than normal and that was mostly because of the humidity.  I was really thirsty most of the race mostly craving water but I tried to hydrate with the poweraid they were also serving.  When we were halfway to the top of the big hill I was dying for water and this was about mile 15.  I think the aid stations were about every 2 or 3 miles.  As we approached the aid station the volunteers said they didn't have water they only had cola!  I was so thirsty and had to go  several more miles without water.  After a few more miles we approached the next aid station and guess what???? No water!  I was dying but I made it to the next station and thankfully they had water.   I don't think I've ever had something like that happen in a race.  It seems simple enough for a race director to have enough water at every aid station but apparently not this time!  I ended up finishing the race in 6 hours and 26 minutes according to the official results.   My boyfriend came in 4 minutes ahead of me.  
I would definitely recommend going to Cape Town and trying this race.  It was unfortunate that we didn't get to run the normal route but that rarely happens.  It happened once before and that was due to rock slides.  Cape Town has a lot of really great things to do and it was a lot of fun!   






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