Gugs 10km Road Race

I just ran the Guguletu 10km Road Race, and it was really fun!

I had been worried that it would be a long, hot, dry and dusty race, but it was completely the opposite. It started raining in Cape Town last night and hasn't let up since, so it was cool/cold, wet and muddy. It was long however! Yoh!

Despite many people claiming to be 'too scared' to venture out to Guguletu, I have no such qualms and was happy to not only attend the race, but to do so on my own. Honestly I don't see the issue with venturing into townships, they are fun and characterful.

When I got there I registered and got my temp licence etc. I enlisted a guy standing next to me to help me get my back license pinned on by saying 'I'll do your back, if you'll do mine...?' To which he replied, 'Ok, I'll try not to prick you!'. I think we both blushed, and had a little chuckle


Then I bumped into none other than one of our new neighbours, who is also dad of one of Quinn's school friends since Grade R! We chatted about people's reactions to us venturing out to Gugs - Richard had said to me 'Just run FAST!' ;) - and I laughed at him for having arrived with just the clothes on his back and not even a car, he had got his security company to drop him off.

So I told him I'd take him home, and did.

When I got there at 7am it was pouring with rain, but luckily by the start time at 7:30 it had died down to a drizzle, else we would have had a very soggy and squelchy race.

The race started and off we went. It was great that it was cool, and the first part was quite pleasant. As we moved along to the poorer, more shanty, section of Gugs the street-side supporters started coming out. There were kids on the side of the road and all sorts of people cheering us on. Some of the runners had sweeties to hand out to the kids. About 2 km in we passed a Shebeen where things were quite festive. Some guys were standing holding out high ball glasses and shouting 'water... water'. The glasses clearly contained a shot of whiskey! Tee hee... had we been further into the race I might have been tempted. I gave them a thumbs up and they broke into giggles.

I have been to Gugs before a few times and we passed most of the areas I had been ... the taxi rank, the cemetery, and the road side meat market. There was a guy holding a bunch of still-live chickens by their feet. I yelled 'Nice chickens' and he grinned at me.

We passed several more Shebeens, and were offered quarts of beer. These people were obviously still going from last night!


By the time I got to the second water point I was MOEG. There were no distance markers on this race, I was starting to want it to be over. I asked the water station guy how far along we were, and when he said 7km. I was SO thankful!

The last 3km were pure will power, and luckily there were some great supporters on the last stretch, although I was too tired to chirp back at that stage. I just wanted to get it over.

I finally got back to the stadium, and I finished 156th in 54mins 25secs. So slightly slower than the Spar Ladies Race (54:19).

I had been hoping for a personal best since it was such cool weather and it was such a flat course, but my time was quite good anyway, so I am happy with it.

So that was my morning.

Update: The results are out.

I came 156th out of 394 finishers.

The fastest at 30:50.
The slowest at 159:10

I finished officially at 54:27.

I just noticed that my gynae ran the race too and he finished 9 seconds after me and 2 places behind me. I didn't even notice him back there! ;) :P