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Washer's Blog: Ocean2Ocean - From Muizenberg to Camps Bay over the mountains
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Last year the Ocean2Ocean was run twice. Once in April, under very hot conditions, and once in June when it was cold, misty, wet and windy. This year was perfect, blue skies, a warm sun, a slight cooling breeze and views in every direction. Nice.

The O2O was originally conceived as the Real Two Oceans, a tongue in cheek reference to its more famous and popular long distance cousin, the Two Oceans Marathon, the 56km tour of duty for any road runner worth their sweat. It was originally also run on Easter weekend (although not on the same day as the marathon) and on some occasions runners have run the 56km tar version on the Saturday and then the 50km off road version on the Monday. This year we ran a week after Easter so the tar bunnies had a week to rest up and get their mountain legs in shape.

The run, now called Ocean2Ocean, is led by my mate, Dirk. I had run the 50km twice with him before finding myself at the back of the back in 2008 and in no mood to catch up. At the first seconding table at Silvermine, fellow runner Winston and I decided we weren’t going to play catch up all day and we would do our own route, a slightly shortened one to the finish, and so we did. The next year I suggested to Dirk that we offer a 42km (approximate) route to those who don’t want to go as far and as fast, he agreed and the shortened version was born.

We ran the 42km twice last year and once this year on April 10. Make no mistake the 50km is the tougher one, its longer and faster and comes with the added bonus of being a Puffer qualifier. The Puffer, for the unaware, is the grand daddy of Cape Town trail races. It starts at Cape Point and takes in 80km of mostly mountains (barring the chunk of tar at the start and bits here and there) ending eventually at Ferrymans at the Waterfront.

But Dizzys was our target for this year’s run. Dirk led 20 runners on the longer route and I had nine in mine, I had five pullouts in the week, but a small group works well. We started at Muizenberg and ran along the dark and empty beach, the tide low and the wind still. We made our way to St James where we headed up through the sleepy suburb and onto the mountain. We ran/walked through plenty Fynbos, an indigenous forest and some single track before hitting the jeep track back to Ou Kaapse weg, crossing the road and running via the River Trail to the waiting snacks and drinks at the Silvermine car park.

With the sun warm but pleasant we headed up to Noordhoek Peak, along the roller coaster route that is the skyline panorama before stopping for a rest at the Hout Bay lookout. We spotted Dirk and his crowd well on their way up to the Constantiaberg mast but we headed down and around passing the abandoned manganese mines and stretching our legs on the flattish slightly undulating path before going up and over Vlakkenberg to our next seconding stop at Constantia Nek.

Having refueled it was a hop, skip and a jump over Table Mountain to Camps Bay, where we enjoyed cold beers and pizzas at Dizzys. 10 hours and some change to cover about 42.km (and some change) but its not about numbers, nor speed, its about spending a day out on the Cape Mountains enjoying nature at her finest and Cape Town at its best.

The 50km crowd arrived an hour and a bit later looking tired but happy and the following week Dirk led another 50km run which I joined from Constantia Nek to sweep the last leg. We might run another this year - watch www.ocean2ocean.co.za for details.

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