Two Oceans Ultra Trail race 2011

After having used last years race as a trial run for a prologue to the Two Oceans race on the Saturday, the Two Oceans Trail race has become an official fixture to the weekends festivities. There are two versions of the trail race, a 10km trail and the longer 22km trail race.

Route description:

This should be done by experienced trail runners, rather than beginners. The route is quite tough, with exposed cliff sections and one tricky downward scramble (marshals were present). The first km is the UCT ring road loop, which takes you up to Rhodes Memorial. A gentle uphill to meet the Plumpudding track heading north around Devil's Peak towards Cape Town. These first few km's are very run able, with electric views of the harbour, Robben Island and the city. The romance is interrupted with a nasty uphill grind (this is trail running after all), which meets the start of the short bundu bash – an unfinished road. This scratchy scramble takes you to the jeep tracks again, and your legs can calmly rotate until meeting the long uphill to the cannons. This lung buster has you reaching Tafelberg road and some emergency water. The route crosses the road and takes the diagonal trail up to Oppelskop, where all your effort is rewarded with awesome views of Table Mountain. 

Swinging left, you are on the Middle Traverse, a pleasant contour that loops you around Devil’s Peak to the blockhouse. The scramble down to the Block House is to be done at a slow and gentle pace, but you can speed up again once meeting the jeep track. A nice shady downhill is next, followed by 'bastard hill' - an old trail that heads straight up the mountain.
 ref: Two Oceans Trail Run

5th position overall
Photo courtesy of Chris Hitchcock

Having negotiated the early climbs, I found the technical parts of the course which consisted of single track with loose rocks rather tough. At times walking/climbing was the only option to ascend almost vertical heights to get to the higher contour paths on Devils Peak. The views were breath taking and it was a pity that I couldn't just stop and take in the views, after all it was a race!

Newlands Forest was more familiar territory to me and negotiating some forest running, under the dense canopy of the tree's, led to some faster intervals. Not knowing where I was in the race, until my fiance mentioned my position at the finish line, I knew I had to keep my foot down on the pedal until I had finished. 5th position overall was very rewarding and my pre race nutrition tactic of taking my PVM Octane XTR with my gels instead of just water, worked like a charm. Using my 310 XT Garmin Forerunner also helped with altitude and its digital compass which I don't normally use, so navigating the course for the first time also became that much easier.

The weather played its part to perfection and a fantastic start to the Two Oceans weekend was had by all 800 athletes who took part. It must be mentioned that the online entries to this race were snapped up in just 3hrs earlier this year, showing the popularity of the sport and interest of incorporating this fixture into the Ultra running weekend.