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Wilhelm du Plooy, is a South African currently living
in the UK, where he trained towards his Two Oceans 2003 Silver
Challenge - TheEd
What a magnificent race!!! I flew down to Cape Town on Friday
afternoon and was feeling a little uneasy about the race coming
up the following day. Usually I would have been very focused
on only the race and wouldn't have partied at all the previous
week. But alas, I was only in SA for a few weeks and the people
wouldn't let me do my own thing. Although I had been doing
all my carbo-loading etc, it wasn't the way that I normally
would've prepared for such a big race.
The Expo which is an exhibition
of all the race sponsors and where one can buy race memorabilia,
etc, was once again a huge success. In all honesty Two Oceans
must be the best-organized race in the country. Upon arrival
at UCT (where the race ends and where you collect a race number
and information pack) all you need to do is present the race
entry registration card (which would have been posted earlier)
and they give you your number. The next step is to 'swipe'
your championchip over the mat to ensure that the timing devices
are able to pick up the signal when you go over the timing
mats in the race. For those not familiar with the Championchip
system, it's a little device that laces into the shoelaces.
At certain points in the race the runner runs over a timing
mat which registers the chip number and then automatically
transfers the information into a database which can then be
accessed to give split times, position in the race etc.
After the Expo I went to
my friend's house where I was staying for the weekend. I unpacked
and then relaxed. Around 18:30 we went to an Italian restaurant
for some pasta. This was the final topping up before the race.
I got home around 21:30 and went to bed.
I got up on the race morning
at 04:30 feeling a little nervous. Running a Two Oceans silver
is the most difficult Silver in the whole country. I had come
a long way to try and get another one. Although my preparation
and training had gone very well indeed there is always that
little bit of doubt in your mind as to whether you've done
enough, whether you're going to make it or not, what happens
if you get a cramp etc.
I got to the start at 05:30,
and met my fellow running mates. I was running with Frank
Da Ascencao and Yolandi Maclean. Frank is a old campaigner.
He has done 19 Comrades already, with the last 18 being silvers
medals. Only one of them over seven hours. What makes it more
impressive is that he has done the last 18 without missing
a single year!! Yolandi on the other hand is a relative novice,
although she has a huge amount of talent. She basically has
won every race she has entered. In the last two months she
has won 2 marathons, a 50km ultra marathon (where she also
broke the record), and has been training around 135 - 150
km per week. Our goal was for all of us to get silver medals
and to help Yolandi get a good position in the ladies race.
With the prize money ranging from R150 000 for the 1st
lady to R1 000 for the 10th lady, every position
meant more money!
To run for a silver Two Oceans one has to run at an average
pace of 4:17/km. This is not an easy task with two tough climbs,
namely Ou Kaapse Weg and Southern Cross Drive. Our race strategy
was to go out and run 4 min/km for the first 25 odd kms until
we got to Ou Kaapse Weg. This would be the real tester. It's
about 6km long and if one runs it too fast getting a sliver
will be impossible. We wanted to run an easy 5min/k up to
that point knowing that we would have already had made up
lots of time by running the previous 25 at 4 min/km. From
the top of Ou Kaaps to the bottom there is a very steep decent
of about 3 km. If you go down this too fast, you will hurt
your legs and the race is most certainly over. We planned
to run 4 min/km again from the top of Ou Kaapse Weg to the
beginning of Southern Cross drive which is approximately 44km.
From there it would be another 5min/km up Southern Cross Drive
which is about 2,5km long. From this point onwards one only
has about 8km to go and with enough time one can run around
4,20/km.
Two Oceans 2003 continued | more
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