This morning was the long-awaited and much-feared 'Rhodes Memorial Run'
Dy, Jen and I were the only Hillbillies insane enough to tackle these hills at such an early hour, when most people are still at home, dreaming of sleeping late during the upcoming December holidays...
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| Route Profile |
We set off down Main Road (nope, once again no Dean Street - we'll have to reclaim our namesake soon!) at a fair clip, eager but a little nervous for the mountain ahead. Jen had a busy day ahead of her delivering mouth-watering cookies she's spent so much time and effort baking these last few days and weeks. I'll be exercing all my self-control not to dig into my batch - they're Christmas presents not lunch!!! Christmas presents, NOT lunch!!! So far so good, this evening I hide them away or wrap them up so I won't be tempted.
Back on track, the thought of cookies kept me moving, because yes, I will most likely end up keeping at least one pack for Chris and I. Sorry, but I haven't got the willpower to give away ALL of my cookies as gifts...
Okay, try again - back to the run...
Starting to warm up, we hit the first hill going up Grotto Road. And steamed up strong and steady. At the top of Grotto Jen said goodbye to complete a slightly less insane route (although the hill ahead of her when she turned back was quite something!), and Dy and I headed onwards towards UCT and the M3 subway.
We managed to (kind of) keep talking up the UCT path, kept running all the way to the subway/M3 underpass (and thinking back to my first few Rhodes Mem runs where I was reduced to a barely-moving walk by the time we reached the first campus-road!) and had a walk-break and much needed breath-catch heading under the M3 and up the stairs towards the UCT sports fields. We hit the sports fields running, nice and flat, before hitting the stairs up to the main campus ring-road, yes, running all the way. On towards Rhodes Memorial, a bit more climb before a very welcome downhill towards the gates at the bottom of Rhodes Memorial access road.
Here we stopped for our first water break - you may not feel like you need water at this point, but trust me you'll appreciate the hydration before you're half-way up the next 'hill'!!!
So off we went, through the turnstile, as the main gates were closed (no cars and less cyclist-traffic, brilliant! Although we did dodge a few mountain-bikers charging down the hill, and later a few struggling up).
We'd barely started up the hill when we heard a couple of bangs that sounded scarily like gunshots in the not-too-distant distance. A couple of singular pops, one after the other, a short break, then a few more pops - what was going on???? I'll admit that I was a little freaked out here, Dy and I both eye-ing the trees around us in case we had to dive for cover. I kept an eye on the road to make sure the source of the noises didn't appear behind us. Silence. Then suddenly a few more 'pops' but the source of the noise had moved beyond us by this point, probably on the M3, heading towards Town from the sounds of it. *phew* relief!
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| Route Map |
And wow, we're nearly at the bend in the road, which means not that far from the top!!! And we're still running. And sort of talking. The kind of talking where you gasp in a breath of air and puff/speak on the exhale. Then suddenly the gradient lessened and we could see the first little downhill ahead, followed by another gradual uphill, then parking lot, water and awesome view!!!
Once at the top of this daunting climb, you realise that it isn't actually all that bad. It's survivable (and that includes dodging speeding mountain-bikers) And the water at the top is so cold and sweet and refreshing, you almost forget about the long climb just barely behind you.
Heading back down we faced a fairly strong head-wind, but it soon died down when we reached the more sheltered lower-lying roads, running next to the M3, past Newlands Forest/Reservoir and beyond the Newlands Avenue traffic lights. Light traffic let us cross to the other side of the M3 quickly and easily, so that we were ready for some more water when we reached the Shell.
From here we detoured via the Liesbeek River Trail - just a short stetch at this point, coming out close to Protea Road. Up Protea, past our Engen-water-point and over Main. We were passed by 2 guys really motoring towards the cricket grounds - both doing their own thing but running pretty much the same pace. They were flying! We weren't doing too badly ourselves at this point either, and as Dy so rightly pointed out: neither of those guys had Rhodes Memorial in their legs! We were doing extremely well, clocking fairly comfortable 5m45/km pace.
Short-cut through the dead-end road that eventually reaches Campground, up into my neighbourhood (but not quite past my house - I didn't have my house keys on my anyway, so I didn't have to option to run home and catch up on some sleep!) and towards Belmont Road. We raced over the railway bridge and survived a sharp turn into this end of the Liesbeek River Trail - a lovely long stretch that would take us all the way back to Great Westerford. We only had to dodge 1 cyclist today, and he was taking it slow and enjoying the fresh air (we've had some close calls in the past with cyclists speeding along the very narrow trail).
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| Splits |
The last kay or two was hard work, we'd been running hard since we reached the flats and were ready for a break. But so close to the finish we kept pushing, somehow clocking consistant 5m30-5m40 pace, with a few dips into the 5m15 region. Don't ask me how, but we did it!! We didn't even have to stop to dodge the 2 guys pushing their shopping cart along the path - I noticed the guy not pushing was moving alongside the card, and started yelling "excuse me, can we squeeze past please, sorry, excuse me, thank you, thank you" with Dy joining in as we squeezed past the cart, the second guy having heard us and quickly jumped back behind the card to make room for us. I wonder what they must have thought seeing us sprinting down the path, just for fun!
Then suddenly the Main Road subway was looming ahead. Under the road, then push up the very last hill into the Great Westerford parking lot. It took a few seconds for us to catch or breath again, but wow did that feel great! 14.6km of awesome running!!! Now that's how to start your day!!
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On Thursday I'll be running slow and flat, a bit of a taper for Sunday's long run along on of my favourite route out in Bellville/Parow area. 5:30am, probably 8-10km.
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Dean Street Hillbillies
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