Cape Town Tales

All those cold and dark Wednesday night runs with Fife Athletic Club paid dividends when I went out for a year working in South Africa. I arrived in Cape Town in September 1992 and almost at once got involved in the ‘running scene’.

My first run was a 6km Fun Run, which I’d found out about through a teacher at the school where I was working. This was a memorable run that set me up for the whole year - I won a five litre bottle of washing up liquid that kept our dishes sparkling for months and months!

The race was organised by a small club called Southern Striders. It was more of joggers’ club but there were still training nights every weekday except Friday. There was also the long Sunday run for those training for half marathons and longer - so of course the numbers would rise dramatically before a big race and fall off immediately after. Sunday runs were very civilised. A volunteer would do ‘Coke Truck’ and drive ahead to provide coke every few kilometres. The runs were very early to avoid the heat, and afterwards everyone would go somewhere for breakfast and it would be late in the morning by the time we finished.

The year saw a steep rise in my racing distances. It started after New Year with a couple of 15km races. Not too hard, so I doubled it in the next race. This made my first half marathon seem easy, so it was only two weeks later that I ran the big one - Peninsula Marathon. After plodding round in 3½ hours I decided against advancing to ultra marathons and concentrated on races up to half marathons.

The cross-country season in Cape Town consists of about eight league races, mostly around playing fields and not terribly interesting. Nevertheless, I managed to make them more interesting, for example one time by missing the junior race and having to run a 12km race over soft sand dunes!

One Saturday there was an easy cross-country race in the afternoon, but also a 16km up and down Table Mountain. My intention was to do the cross-country, so I phoned up a friend to see about a lift. It was only when I was wakened at 5.30 a.m. that I realised my mistake - I hadn’t specified which race! So that was how I got into my first hill race and needless to say I was still pulled into the 8km cross-country in the afternoon as well.

I lost count of all the races I ran while in South Africa. Like Fife AC, Southern Striders was a big-hearted and sociable club and I enjoyed my time there. Apart from the British weather, it is good to be back. Nevertheless, I hope to get back to South Africa sometime if only to have a go at the two big races - Two Oceans and Comrades.

Daniel Leggate