Thanks Hillbillies for your great company on this killer route!! I hope you guys enjoyed the run as much as I did, despite all the downright evil hills we climbed.
We started off on a high note: UP Dean Street!
From there we had a breather along Newlands Avenue, Jen flying along, setting a blistering pace. It looks like your holiday did you loads of good, you're running stronger than ever, Jen!
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| Route Profile |
Downhill along the M3 towards Shell for water, as our next water stop would only be at Kirstenbosch, Jen left us here to do a somewhat saner route. Charlene, Dy and I we just insane enough to continue along the planned route - which I found out later the others hadn't really checked out in detail in the email, and actually had no clue what they were in for this morning!! But sometimes surprise is a good thing. This morning was one of those times - if the others had known what was planned for this morning, I might have found myself running alone!!
No, that's not true - us Hillbillies eat the hills for breakfast!! Thanks guys for braving the hills, especially so close after Bay2Bay!!
Okay, so on we went from our water stop - along scenic Fernwood Ave and up good old Boshoff. Down Rose a short ways to Kirstenbosch Drive, and there the real climb started - 2km up Bishopscourt/Canterbury, all the way to Kirstenbosch [Top Gate]. Here we stopped for some much-deserved water and a short breather. I tossed my tap water that I'd been carrying along in my water bottle, and filled p with fresh, clean Kirstenbosch water - always something to look forward to!
From Kirstenbosch we reversed our usual route and ran up Klaasens towards Monterey. At the intersection Dy was okay with tackling Monterey, Charlene had no clue what this 'Monterey' was all about, and when they looked to me to make the call between Moneterey and Gloucester, their fate was sealed: we'd be going up Monterey Road!!! I love those hills, and will never turn down the opportunity to tackle them if I'm in even half-decent shape!! If I turn down the Bishopscourt hills mid-run, then you know I'm really not doing well...
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| Route Map |
Upper Primrose is nasty road, in that its deceptively flat and easy at the start. And then you round the find bend in the road, and realise that you're climbing. Then you look up and see the climb ahead of you to reach the intersection!!! If you're not expecting that short but steep climb, it can really knock the wind out of your sails!!
But we're Hillbillies, this was just another breakfast-snack for us. So up the hill, and over, for a much-deserved and eagerly-awaited descent along Gloucester Ave, and then back onto Canterbury, for a steepish drop (we often run UP Canterbury, and it's definitely a challenging climb, but it honestly feels steeper on the DOWN!)
But no worries, because we soon reached Hillwood Ave, where we climbed again for a short bit, before getting back onto Forest Ave (very very close to where we left for Upper Primrose) and decending all the way to the M3.
By this point we'd been without water for 5km, so decided to head down to the Shell again for water instead of following Bowood. We'll tackle that one next time.
From the water stop, it was same-old-same-old back home: Alster Ave (where I forgot to restart my Garmin after pausing it for water, so I apologize for the 'short' log here, we actually ran a good 500m further than the recorded distance); Kildare Road, Mains Street; and a few meters down Dean Street.
All in all a challenging but refreshing run. My quads are a little annoyed with me now, but they'll get over it. The rest of me loved the run!!! Thanks for your awesome company this morning guys, I would not have survived those hills alone!
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Dean Street Hillbillies
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