Stats: Wednesday, 10 November 2010, 05:15

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/56176666

Wow, what an amazingly fabulously stunning run!!! Thanks girls for your awesome company, I hope you enjoyed the run as much as I did. I'd definitely like to run this route again!!! It was fairly long at 17km (just a few km's shy of a half marathon, as Linelle pointed out) and hilly, but the scenery was awesome, and there was only one big hill.

Route Profile

We started off following our regular route along Dean and Newlands, but then quickly veered off down the M3 to hit Boshoff Avenue via Fernwood - a quiet, tree-lined detour. From there we did everything in reverse pretty much - headed the wrong way down Kirstenbosch Drive, to hit Bishopscourt from the bottom and head back up. We hit Canterbury Drive and started the long, long climb up to Kirstenbosch Top Gate (we'd usually get there via Glastonbury before hitting Bishopscourt Drive from the top)

By the time we reached Kirstenbosch it was going on 7K and we enjoyed the sweet, fresh Kirstenbosch water and a well-deserved break. Then we were off again, heading down Rhodes Drive for a short stretch, but there wasn't much by way of traffic on the roads yet at that time of the morning. Reverse-direction of a portion of the Two Oceans route. Around 1km later we turned onto Hohenort Avenue and enjoyed relaxing cruise through another beautiful suburb, reminiscing on running these same roads during the Hohenort 15K race earlier this year and last.

Route Map

Then we hit Contantia Main Road, and had to return to reality for a while. Under the M3 bridge, we climbed up Alphen Hill Road, stopping briefly for water at the Victoria Hospital tap. We had a bit of a break from the climbing, going down Wolfe Street past Maynardville, and along Aliwal. A small climb back up to Main Road (another chuck of Two-Oceans-In-Reverse route), then a gentle downhill cruise down Main Road. The exhaust fumes smelt worse than usual after 14km of pure fresh air, but we survived and arrived back at Great Westerford, tired but happy.

All in all an awesomely amazing run, one I am very keen to repeat!!!

Tomorrow (Thursday, 11th Nov) we'll take it easy with a flat 8-10km cooldown around Rondbosch (take note, 'flat' includes a short climb up Dean Street at the start, but thereafter the only 'hills' are railway bridges)Is anyone keen to start the Thursday runs earlier, say 05:45 or even 05:30??
For the time being, start is 6am in front of Great Westerford, but I'm keen to start a littl earlier if the rest of the Hillbillies are. I will send out an update later on today to confirm start time, once I have a few responses.

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Dean Street Hillbillies