On Saturday, 13 runners braved the wet weather for a run on the face of Table Mountain. We met a the Kloof Nek car park, hoping that the rain in the suburbs would not be waiting for us here. Luckily, the rain held out for most of the run, but we did have to contend with the cold and the wind.
What was thought to be the main bunch of 10 started out up through the trees and soon became 8 when 2 dropped back to join Randolf. From Kloof Corner Gregg set a really nice relaxed pace which allowed the small group of 8 to stay together.
The contour path was (as usual) stunning with water running from every piece of the mountain and always great to run behind that one waterfall after the cableway. Lots of smiles and no complaining all the way up to the saddle where we found Tamsyn washing blood off her hand from a small fall, highly unusual for this lass. On the way to Oppelskop another stumble from another lass, luckily no blood, but definitely a bit shaken.
What was thought to be the main bunch of 10 started out up through the trees and soon became 8 when 2 dropped back to join Randolf. From Kloof Corner Gregg set a really nice relaxed pace which allowed the small group of 8 to stay together.
The contour path was (as usual) stunning with water running from every piece of the mountain and always great to run behind that one waterfall after the cableway. Lots of smiles and no complaining all the way up to the saddle where we found Tamsyn washing blood off her hand from a small fall, highly unusual for this lass. On the way to Oppelskop another stumble from another lass, luckily no blood, but definitely a bit shaken.
 |
| Meeting of the Main and Recovery groups on the contour path. |
Then we were reminded that we were going very slow because one of us - Sam I think, had forgotten to record the rugby, after which followed an explanation that waking up a teenager to try to start the recording was just not worth the pain. We lost another runner to the tar road with other time constraints, so the remaining 7 of us hurried in a leisurely fashion back along the contour, down under the cable way and back to the cars where Sam dashed off to the TV and unbelievably it started to rain on us in the car park, the forecast was pretty good, well done to Accuweather.
 |
| The main group |
The main group did the 12.5 in just under 2 and a quarter hours at a really nice easy pace - thanks Gregg. Also well done to Helen who was apprehensive of the pace at the start, she never dropped back at all, in summary a really great run.with zero rain and plenty smiles
 |
| The Main group loop - 12.5 km |
The recovery group did slightly different route than anticipated. We continued along the contour path, passing the base of Platteklip Gorge and took the Groote Schuur path towards the King's Block House. Before the Block House, we took a path to Tafelberg road, where we headed back towards the Lower cable way. We took the lower jeep track (also a mountain biking track) which pooped out at the car park.
The recvoery group ran 14.6 km in 3 hours at a manageable pace led by Randolph.
 |
| The Recover group loop - 14.6 km |
No comments:
Post a Comment