News

Swartberg Pass Half Marathon and 10km races and 5km fun run (May 16 2009)

We thoroughly enjoyed it, and are already planning the next event. We'd like to thank the runners from other clubs and individuals, the race referees, and our club members, who all contributed by their enthusiasm and enjoyment. We are also thankful to the Prince Albert community, the police, and our sponsors. Its just totally inadequate to attempt to express it on a web site.

See the photos here, and the results here.

The 21.1km route leaves Hoërskool Zwartberg and goes deep into the spectacularly scenic Swartberg Pass. Athletes ran in the cool of the morning, gently uphill, between the twisted and contorted masses of Table Mountain sandstone cliffs, then more steeply uphill past the start of the 10km route, and then out of the Pass downhill to Prince Albert.

The start of the 10km race is at about the half-way point of the 21km race, in the Pass, its gently downhill all the way out of the pass on a dirt road to the R407 (which is tarred), and then almost flat (or slightly downhill, if anything) into Prince Albert directly into the school grounds.

The 21.1km race starts at the school and along the R407 out of Prince Albert while its still twilight and into the pass along a dirt road. The road rises into the pass to the point where the pass just begins to become steep and a bit of a challenge to runners, then it turns back on itself and back out on exactly the same route to Prince Albert.

The hard slog was the first half of the race, and then whenthe sun was higher, we could enjoy the scenery and coast back "home" to the finish. Its all downhill from the halfway point, and really, the 10k'ers had it easy... they just got the downhill, and they were transported out to the start.

The stretch between the 9th and 11th km is steeper than the rest, but the course is fairly constantly rising about 10m every km up to the half way point, after which, of course, it is down hill.

The 21.1km race is a race not to be missed if you really want to get your teeth into something and enjoy it at the same time.

There were two photographers working during the event, and those photographs are available in high resolution electronic form delivered by email. Preview them here.

We had a live singers to entertain us: Therene Fourie.

We showed the Super 14 games Blues vs. Crusaders on a large screen.

There were good category prizes.