On Sunday, October 20, 2024, I completed my 46th full marathon, the Cape Town marathon in South Africa!
This is my personal recap of my race experience; if you are considering the Cape Town marathon (and you should!), I hope this post is helpful to you.
Travel:
My husband Dustin and I arrived in Cape Town on Friday morning from London on an overnight flight, giving us about two days to adjust before the marathon. Fortunately, there isn’t a time difference between London and Cape Town (well, just one hour), so jet lag wasn’t a problem. Cape Town would be a much tougher journey from the US, and jet lag would be more of a concern if you’re coming from there; I shared this post awhile back with tips for jet lag!
For the two nights leading up to the marathon and the evening after, we stayed at the Radisson Blu at Seapoint in Cape Town. This hotel was the perfect place to walk to the expo prior to the race, and to the start and finish line on race day. The rooms were also quite spacious and we had a lovely view of the ocean.
I plan to share a recap of our time in South Africa separately, so I’ll focus on the marathon race experience for this post.
Cape Town was one of three cities that are in the running to become a new Abbott World Major; Dustin and I completed the current six World Majors back in 2016 in NYC. I ran Boston 2016 (& 2022), London 2016, Tokyo 2015, Chicago 2011, Berlin 2013, and New York City 2016.
I also loosely have the 7 continents goal, and we hadn’t run a marathon on the continent of Africa yet, so we booked this trip to do so! (I have South America and Australia left to run. We were meant to run the Patagonia marathon in 2020, but of course the pandemic cancelled that one, and we haven’t rebooked.)
Sydney, Australia did end getting selected as the new major, but they are considering adding others still, so Cape Town is still in the running.
The Cape Town marathon expo was easy- no long lines to get in like we have experienced at other recent marathons (like Barcelona or Vienna!)
We picked up our race packets quickly and then bought some of the official race merch. There were loads of other vendors and merchandise to peruse. After we had our fill, it was an easy walk back to our hotel.
The night before the race:
Dustin found a great pizza place called Lievita, which was delicious. I would definitely recommend!
I had my standard pre-marathon dinner of a margarita pizza and plenty of fluids, and then an early bedtime.
Race morning:
We brought bagels and peanut butter from London, though it would have been easy enough to source some in Cape Town. But makes it easier to have them with us as we’ve run marathons in places where they are more difficult to source, so you never know! I ate one, drank some liquid IV and coffee and was ready to leave the hotel around 5:15 am.
I brought a bottle of Liquid IV with me to the start line that I drank as the start approached and took a GU gel about 30 minutes before the race.
Dustin was in one of the first waves at 6:15 am, whereas I was in Wave H (estimated finish of 3:40-3:45), which started promptly at 6:31 am. The start line was very well organized with plenty of porta potties and clearly marked starting corrals.
It is rare that non-US races sing their national anthem at a marathon start lin; I actually don’t think I’ve seen it at international races. Have you? But Cape Town did play the South African national anthem- and everyone was singing along! It was lovely.
Also just a note that a large part of South Africans speak “Afrikaans”, and I was surrounded by people speaking in that language, more so than English it seemed, though any signage was in English or in both.
The start of the marathon course includes some exposed highway bridges; the wind during these early miles was INTENSE. I felt like I was working really hard against it and decided pretty early to ease up rather than blow up! Its never a good strategy to go out hard in a marathon!
Mile 1: 9:16
Mile 2: 9:03
Mile 3: 8:40
Mile 4: 8:55
Mile 5: 8:27 The wind had finally eased or at least we were blocked from it
Mile 6: 8:55 The course was hillier than I had expected!
Mile 7: 8:30
Mile 8: 8:42
Mile 9: 8:43
Mile 10: 8:43
Mile 11: 9:50 This mile included a quick bathroom stop. My watch said I had 50 seconds of non-moving time.
Mile 12: 8:44
Mile 13: 8:43
Mile 14: 8:59
Mile 15:8:38
Mile 16: 8:27
Mile 17: 9:21 It was quite sunny and hot, but there were very frequent aid stations with plenty of water and occasional electrolytes.
Curious about narrtjie flavor? “The flavor of a naartjie is sweet and tart, similar to a mandarin orange. Naartjies are a type of citrus fruit that are small, round, and easy to peel.”
They also offered Coca-Cola at every aid station, which is more common at ultra marathons vs. road. I did see several people vomit and it seemed to be a lot of coke coming up…eew! I tried it a few sips towards the end of the race since I know it can help to settle the stomach, but it’s not something I would normally drink throughout the race, though I do like a cold coke at the end as a treat sometimes.
Mile 18: 8:44
Mile 19: 9:11
Mile 20: 9:38
Mile 21: 8:36 There were only kilometre markers at this race, no mile markers, but I really like that; it mentally seems shorter to break the race into four 10k’s and the k’s do click by much faster, which is helpful mentally!
Mile 22: 8:58
Mile 23: 8:45
Mile 24: 8:59
Mile 25: 9:38 There was a pretty mean out and back at the end of the race; it seemed to go on FOREVER. I kept my eyes peeled for Dustin, but he would have been long done by then (he finished in 3:11)
Mile 26: 9:13
Finish time: 3:57:16
I knew that I was getting close to the 4 hour time in the final mile; I was still ahead of the 4 hour pace group, but I didn’t know which corral they had started in. I dug as deep as I could in the last mile to try to keep it under 4 hours.
Sub-4 hours was an arbitrary goal, as no one really cares about my time, and my goal going into the race based on my training was more like a 3:45, but I was still happy to achieve the B goal of sub-4.
By the time I found Dustin, he had already showered (seriously- there were showers in the international tent at the finish, so he took a quick shower and then came to the finish line to cheer for me.) He had hope to break 3 hours again (he’s broken it a handful of times) but had a little tummy trouble himself (which is incredibly rare for him), which cost him some time. I think the heat and the wind also affected him.
But a 3:11 at his age would still get him into Boston (3:15) but not London (3:05.) <– kinda wild London qualifying is actually faster than Boston for a male, but slower for a female!
I made my way through the finish to get my medal and some more fluids, and then hobbled over to the international tent. There are so few international marathoners that they have a whole private tent for them with food and drink (and showers mentioned) and separate a gear check. If this race becomes a major, I would imagine it will become more popular with international runners, so they probably won’t offer this forever, but it was nice!
Dustin and I hung out there for a bit and chatted with a few Americans who were there with Marathon Tours before walking back to our hotel. I love a somewhat looped course like this one, where you can walk to the start and the finish- no need for long shuttles like a point to point course!
I’m always proud of myself for a marathon finish, no matter the time. I’ll get my London “good-for-age-as-a-resident” soon! I had trained pretty hard for this and I know my coach is still trying to figure out what went “wrong”, but I don’t blame him or my training. I think I put in the work, stayed injury free, and did my best on the day. It just wasn’t the perfect weather or course for me to acheive my A goal. It happens!
Celebration!
The Radisson Blu offered a post-race beer for all runners; we enjoyed one on the (windy) outdoor seating with other runners and watched the dolphins off the coast.
Later that evening, we had a cocktail at the Silo Hotel rooftop bar; it was sooo windy up there that we didn’t last long and took a quick uber to a different restaurant for some refueling.
Overall, I had a very positive experience at the Cape Town marathon. It was a memorable experience.
Positives:
Organized
Plenty of aid stations
Best course available for the city (some hills, but could have been way worse!)
Early start time to accommodate the warm temperatures in Africa
Lots of perks for international runners
Plenty of goodies at the finish
Finisher’s shirts
Easy expo
Looped course, start/finish close together
Plenty of bathrooms on the course
Lots of spectators
Decent tour of central Cape Town
Simple but nice finisher’s medals
Cons:
Windy, hot (out of the race’s control)
Originally Dustin and I were both put in the wrong corrals even though we submitted support online of our times; this was quickly corrected though
Dogs-per-mile DPM was lower than some other races, but we did see two vizslas!
Annoying out-and-back at the end of the race
I’m glad I ran the Cape Town marathon, especially because I really enjoyed Cape Town as a place to visit.
I love to see how far apart in the world our last marathon (Tromsø, Norway) was from this one! It’s wonderful how running can really show you the world.
I’m linking up with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner; check out their blogs to connect with other fitness bloggers for workout ideas and inspiration!
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