Tag: Sean Falconer

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Peninsula Marathon (Naval gazing in the Cape)

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[MARATHON #245 / Unique Marathon #144 / 20 February 2022]

Running marathons is hard but organising them is much harder – and post-Covid events have additional challenges like reduced field sizes, staggered starts and a plethora of government regulations to comply with.

However, the Peninsula Marathon takes compliance one step further. Most marathons give you an actual map or road names and local landmarks to ensure that you make it safely to the start but Peninsula ensures that there was no danger of breaching Covid regulations on the maximum size of outdoor gatherings by only providing a suburb name (rather than a specific location within said suburb) as the race’s starting point. Continue reading “Peninsula Marathon (Naval gazing in the Cape)”

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When a Push Comes to a Shove, Constantia Nek is the Toughest Hill in South Africa

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Inspiring OMTOM Stories: Hilton Murray & Anita Engelbrecht

I’ve been gathering Two Oceans advice from a number of different athletes of all abilities. There is one common answer across the spectrum – take the first half of the race easy because you’ll pay significant interest charges over the much tougher second half.

Therefore, I wanted to make sure we got some input from the person best qualified to inform us what happens on race day when “a push comes to shove” – and that person is undoubtedly Hilton Murray.

Team Blitsie before the 2018 Two Oceans Marathon.

Hilton will be piloting Anita Engelbrecht in a “wheelchair jogger” that they’ve named ‘Blitsie’ for the fourth year in a row at the Two Oceans Marathon. Team Blitsie have traversed the country but there is one hill they fear more than any other – an “absolute killer” that they dread more than Polly Shortts or any of the ‘big five’ hills at Comrades. According to Hilton, getting to the top of Constantia Nek stands out head and shoulders as the most difficult hill in the country when pushing a wheelchair jogger. Continue reading “When a Push Comes to a Shove, Constantia Nek is the Toughest Hill in South Africa”

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Jacaranda Marathon (Purple Rain in Pretoria)

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[Marathon #196 / Unique Marathon #108 / 13 October 2018]

Opening Chords

Once a year Pretoria turns purple as 65,000 Jacaranda trees go into bloom and herald the start of summer. The impact of the trees on South Africa’s capital city is immense. They’ve resulted in Pretoria being nicknamed “Jacaranda City” and prominent purple branding adorns everything from the regional Tshwane municipality to the local radio station (which is of course called Jacaranda FM).

The Jacaranda City Challenge is perfectly timed to capture the trees in full bloom. Prince sang about Purple Rain – but if you really want to see the phenomenon in real life you should run the Jacaranda City Marathon. Running a marathon under a constant florid canopy is quite an experience. This year an overnight thunderstorm meant that we were also treated to a luxurious carpet of petals, whilst every gust of wind brought more purple blossoms raining down.

Continue reading “Jacaranda Marathon (Purple Rain in Pretoria)”

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PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (a win-win-win Winelands scenario)

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[MARATHON #191 / Riebeek BERgmarathon #2 / 4 August 2018]

Marathons are in short supply after Comrades. After two long months in the barren running wilderness, I was finally able to fall off the marathon wagon on the first weekend in August with the 33rd running of the PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (my second). Although I am currently on a mission to run every marathon in the country, I don’t mind doing a few repeats here and there – and this marathon through the heart of the Western Cape’s Swartland is definitely worth a repeat visit.

The Riebeek Bergmarathon starts and finishes at the PPC Cement Factory. Whilst the factory itself is very Dickensian, the beautiful grounds include a working vineyard and have historical significance as the birthplace of Jan Smuts.

Continue reading “PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (a win-win-win Winelands scenario)”

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