I ran the Lion of Africa half marathon for the first time last year, I went into the race with hardly any running prior and since I had no knowledge of the route, I thought I would be ok……..boy was I wrong!!! This race takes place in Constantia and as any Cape Town runner knows, Constantia has a lot of hills. Last year I regretted not running the 10km with my colleagues instead, the last 5km of this race is the toughest.
So this year going into the race, I was haunted by the hills and the agony from the previous year. The difference this year, I started my marathon training earlier and I have been focusing on strength training days at the gym as well as the various hikes I have been doing with friends, my legs were stronger.
The race starts nice and flat, the first 3-4 kms is easy, then the hills start coming, I was pretty surprised at how the hills were not difficult for me and that I pushed through each of them at a nice pace and with not too much effort. My legs didn’t feel like jelly at all, I only used one pack of my USN Vooma energy gel at the 12km mark. By the time I reached the last 5km which has 3 hills, I still had enough energy and I could still push all the way to the finish line.
I completed this race in 03:00:56 in 2016 so I was really chuffed with myself to finish in 02:44:11 this year, 15mins faster J . Progress is an amazing motivator, so I will keep up with the training and keep tracking the progress. I am hoping to finish the next 21.1km race in 02:30:00.
This was a good race to check the fitness level, since the Berlin Marathon is a flat race, the hills are going to help me have a great pace in Berlin.
The next race will be the Cape Peninsula Half Marathon taking place this Sunday, 19 February
See you on the road
mdlalikazi 