[MARATHON #271 / UNIQUE MARATHON #165 / 24 August 2024]
When Dewey Bunnell, the lead singer of the band America, sang “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain”, I would not be surprised if he was inspired after experiencing a Cape Town winter.
I spent the first 21 years of my life in Cape Town before moving up to Johannesburg. People often ask, “Don’t you miss Cape Town?” There are definitely things to miss about the Mother City but a Cape Town winter is not one of them.
After a long, dry and dusty highveld winter, I decided that my shoes needed a wash. There is only one correct way to wash your running shoes and that is to go for a run in the rain. Therefore, I booked a flight down to the fairest Cape for the Blouberg Marathon. As you can see from the before and after picture below, my shoes did indeed go through a thorough rinse cycle.
I would be staying with my mother in the Mother City and she gave me regular updates on the weather. Ten days before the race, the forecast was for a wet and windy marathon Saturday. I thought that was a good thing because those meteorologists never get their predictions right so it would naturally change before the race. The only thing that changed over the next ten days was the predicted wind velocity and rain volume.
It was a long and dire drive through the pelting rain from one side of the Cape peninsula in Noordhoek to the other in Blouberg. The race starts a short walk from the Table Bay Mall so there is plenty of parking and good quality toilets in the mall (two very important logistical pre-requisites for a good race). There is a chaperoned walk to the start which I missed because I was taking advantage of the latter facilities so I made my way to the start on my own steam.
The day before at registration, I’d had a quick chat with Bruce Fordyce where he was selling his new book ‘Winged Messenger’ and he mentioned he’d be firing the starting gun the next day. I slotted into the back of the batch and, after a countdown there was an anticlimactic deathly silence, before Dean Hewitt on announcer duties exclaimed, “The gun didn’t fire in the rain but we have started!”
There you have it folks, Bruce Fordyce shoots blanks (in Cape Town anyway).
The race started at 6:30am with sunrise officially at 7:14am that morning. However, there was no official sunrise on the day that we were dealt. It just went from very dark to very gloomy to still very gloomy to slightly less gloomy to … I guess you could say it was 50 shades of grey and we got a thorough spanking from the rain.
Whilst many marathons disappeared after Covid, Blouberg Marathon is the silver lining to the Covid cloud. Explained race director Monique Martens from West Coast AC, “The marathon was started in 2022 when Comrades was moved to August and we couldn’t have our usual end of August spot for our regular 21km race. WPA gave us the first week in July, and when we realised it’s 7 weeks before Comrades and all 90km runners need a last long run then, we decided to have a marathon.”
The event has subsequently returned to the traditional August date but they have kept the marathon distance. This was also the first year that the race was able to secure a title sponsor, with Intercare Hospital claiming that honour.
The first part of the route seemed to be designed with the stealth of a perlemoen smuggler, gratuitously sneaking us up every hill possible before dropping us back to sea level and then repeating the process (up appropriately named roads like Ascension Drive and Hill Road). I was to learn later that this was in fact the only hill in Blouberg and is known as Perlemoen Hill. According to race director, Monique Martens, “it’s used constantly for everyone’s hill training and is a good place to meet other runners.”
Some people take pleasure from pain, I understand that they are called sadomasochists. Some people think that marathon runners are sadomasochists but this is not true. None of the marathon runners I saw were enjoying the brutal conditions on this bitter Saturday morning. There was however one group of people who seemed to be taking delight at the plight of being forced outdoors in the pouring rain – and these people are the true sados. They were all over the route, gleefully looking on at the suffering runners and cheering them on with joyful exuberance. Yes, the true sadomasochists were the marshals at the Blouberg Marathon. These people wielded their flag poles like a psychotic headmaster on the last day of school before corporal punishment was outlawed.
There is no other plausible explanation as to how the Blouberg marshals could have been in such good spirits in such terrible weather! Seriously though, the race marshals were absolutely fantastic – the running conditions were awful but at least we were active which helped to keep us warm. Voluntarily giving up your Saturday morning to stand in one stationary place for several hours deserves a special accolade. The marshals were everywhere, every single one looked happy to be there. Blouberg would definitely get my nomination as the best marshalled race that I have run.
I did also wonder what the rules say about using a lightsabre to cut corners…
Shortly after the halfway mark, during the delightful stretch through the Atlantic Beach Golf Estate, the Cape Town weather got over itself and we got some respite from the rain for the rest of the race. However, like a teenager that has just thrown a massive temper tantrum but now realises it wants something, the tears disappeared but the storm clouds remained.
This is a pity because on a clear day you will get brilliant views of Table Mountain for much of the race. The view is particularly good on the road home but sadly we just got lots of cloth and no table this year. However, we did get some great views of Robben Island over the same stretch.
Bloubergstrand is named after the 231m high Blaauwberg Hill and is a site of historical significance. During the Napoleonic Wars, ‘The Battle of Blaauwberg’ was fought here in 1806. A fleet of British naval vessels landed on Bloubergstrand and quickly overran the Dutch forces (who were aligned with the French). This short battle ultimately resulted in the British taking control and colonising the Cape which would ultimately result in them controlling the entire region until the Republic of South Africa was declared in 1961.
The route is a tale of three thirds. The first 14km are spent heading south towards Table View before turning around and heading back north again past the finish at the Big Bay Beachfront with much of this section hugging the coastline. You shoot past the finish for your second 14 kilometre segment until you reach the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and then the final third is back home via Melkbosstrand.
The overall climbing elevation is just 132m making this one of the flattest marathons in the country. The last half of the race is completely void of hills. I didn’t see anyone having a nuclear meltdown as we passed Koeberg but the unwavering flatness does leave one’s legs feeling like a generator or two is in need of urgent maintenance.
As a family we’ve been watching the Simpsons. My daughters have pointed out various similarities between myself and one Homer J. Simpson. I think this is grossly unfair as I don’t drink Duff, have (slightly) more hair and will only bear the same body type once I stop running. However, when running past the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, I did get the uncontrollable desire for doughnuts.
I was therefore delighted (and may even have given a little “Woo Hoo”) on seeing that there was an unlimited supply of Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the finish line (I was hoping to get a picture of a SAPS runner grabbing some doughnuts but luck was not on my side).
You run past many ‘bays’ during the Blouberg Marathon so I thought that it would be appropriate to apply some ‘Bayesian’ statistics to future events. In simple terms, Bayesian statistics are a way of making decisions or drawing conclusions by applying both prior knowledge and new evidence. There were 886 finishers this year – hopefully this report will provide the knowledge and evidence to increase the probability that the race will crack four figures next year.
As for me, you don’t need Bayesian statistics to know that there is a strong probability I’ll be back in Blouberg. The only question is whether it will be to give my running shoes another good cleaning or to get the picture postcard views of Table Mountain that I missed this year.
Looks like a similar route to when I ran it, many years ago. Great story, and pictures, but did not see you checking the bushes😂😂
Another fantastic post-race update.
I think you should pick the ones you like and make a book.