The Cape Academy of Maths Science and Technology
Firgrove Way
Constantia – 5km, 10km or 21km
Hosted by the Olympic Spartan Harriers Athletic Club
The venue and start of the Firgrove Challenge is just 37km’s from Sunningdale. A mere 48 minutes. And that’s travel time. One has to prepare however beforehand to actually get up, get dressed and be out of the door in order to leave at 04h30 as the 21km starts at 05h45. The extra time given is for anything unforeseen on the road and a definite visit to the ladies. Heidi collected me and off we went, parking her car at Total in Blouberg then car sharing with Paula, Issie and Sonja. At that time of the morning there seems to be a strange element hanging about and nine times out of ten making a bee line in the direction of our car! Issie was the driver with Paula as her GPS and front seat wingman. The five of us chatted away and before we knew it, we had arrived at our destination with parking being the priority.
We crossed the road to the start line but firstly of course the all important stand in the longest queue ever for a visit to the ablutions. Fortunately there was a chap/marshal who made sure that everyone stood a fair chance and he directed each and every person to an available empty portaloo. I was super impressed to find that they had organized a cleaning lady to pop in to the loo with a disinfectant spray before the next victim took their seat. I found out later that the cleaning lady’s name was Tobago and that we would meet again shortly.
After some serious posing and snapping away with the phone camera’s it was count down to the gun going off – just like us. Going off. Such a glorious morning in the very finest part of our glorious city. Wow there’s some posh places out there in Constantia. None of which I’d sneeze at for sure. Any one of the would suit me quite nicely thank you. The route was a relatively simple one and described as moderately hilly. Well I suppose that depends on who ran it and who wrote it? Plotaroute described it with the lowest point being at 1.44 km and the highest at 11.25km. Uphill 9.90 km and downhill 8.46km. Flat 2.97km. Steepest uphill at 10.89 km and steepest downhill at 11.70km. Longest uphill 1.26km and longest downhill -8.9km. So there’s a few figures to mull over and make sense out of them if you will.
And so we ran Soetvlei and crossed over into Welgelee, then took a left into Marlbrook and into Porter. A right into Firgrove then Spaanschemat. Then Nova Constantia and into Klein Constantia. What a pleasure it was to actually run down Southern Cross for a change. A few more in and out roads then on to Alphen Drive. Into Ladies Mile and finish off in Firgrove where this ever popular race finished. Hats off to the organizers. Yes hats off! The marshals were super friendly and more than accommodating. The water tables were evenly spaced and well stocked with both water and yes my favourite drink of all time – Coke. I fail to fault this race. It was a sheer delight to run it amongst hundreds of other hopefuls aiming for a good finish. This club certainly didn’t disappoint and quite honestly some other clubs out there could learn a thing or two from the Spartan Harriers.
With our Sonja crossing the finish line in just over two hours which I deem as fantastic, Issie and Paula came in after her. Next was moi with Heidi running in with Haba Manjoro. The later the day got the sun’s heat did too. Our gazebo was present which was really nice and sliced watermelon was readily available. It was a good one! So after downing a couple of cokes and taking yet more photo’s we decided between the five of us that it was time to depart from Constantia and head on back to Sunningdale – the real world. On our way out over the field before the old tennis court I noticed a woman tidying up in and around the bins. It was non other than my new found friend Tobago. There she was as large as life doing her thang picking up after those who had failed to reach the bins? I took a photo of her and said I’d post it on the web. Such a nice friendly soul. I had such a good day and must thank Spartan Harriers for this. You did brilliantly. Thank you!!
I didn’t know this but the Firgrove Challenge was previously known as Lion of Africa? I’ve some homework but couldn’t find any details about why this happened? Anyone out there know more – please let me know.
Take good care out there peeps. Stay on two feet – Gill x