{"id":435,"date":"2017-05-03T12:16:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T12:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/?p=435"},"modified":"2017-05-03T12:16:32","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T12:16:32","slug":"30-years-celebrated-at-safari-half-marathon-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/news\/30-years-celebrated-at-safari-half-marathon-2017","title":{"rendered":"30 years celebrated at Safari Half Marathon 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SAD<\/a><\/p>\n

Safari Half Marathon – Thirty years of sponsorship is a momentous achievement and Safari are congratulated on supporting Wellington Athletic Club and the community since 1988. <\/p>\n

Safari Half Marathon, the toast of Wellington<\/h3>\n

Back then Federated Timbers was the premier half-marathon in the Western Cape and Safari broke new ground\u00a0 by marketing the 21 km on a level with the full marathons.<\/p>\n

Subsequently the Gun Run, Two Oceans half and Landmarks have followed suit as large events.<\/p>\n

The May Day holiday drew about 7000 to the country town for the three distances.<\/p>\n

We ran the inaugural Safari with helicopters beaming footage to Good Morning South Africa<\/a> television and distinguishing promotional wristwatch sweatbands, which actually worked for a decade.<\/p>\n

Celebrating the 30 th edition could not have been done in better conditions.<\/p>\n

Overnight rain left a comfortably cool cloud cover and oxygen rich rural air.<\/p>\n

The Wellington Traffic Department have smoothed access to the event and the town was traffic free fifteen minutes before Mayor Conrad Poole set the runners up the short sharp hill.<\/p>\n

It was good to see one of the top runners from those late 80s grace the start with 50 age tags.<\/p>\n

That was the last I saw of Isaac Opperman as he blazed a 1 hour 19 minute category victory.<\/p>\n

After one kilometre runners experience the essence of the Safari as the tour of the farmlands begins.<\/p>\n

Gently undulating tar rollers turn into a gradual gravel climb bordered by orchards and mountain vistas from 5 to 9 km.<\/p>\n

The return to road commences with a steep descent into the picturesque valley which quickly morphs into a long testing climb from the 10 to 12 marks.<\/p>\n

The twist back to the residential outskirts of the town provides respite with a long downhill stretch and a turn at 13 testing uphills on the circular detour above the finish.<\/p>\n

The last 4 km afford the fit an opportunity to recoup lost time with a gradual drop to the finish.<\/p>\n

Support along this finale is aided by the music and atmosphere emerging from the stadium immediately below.<\/p>\n

The testing nature of the race is reflected in Gautenger Mbongezi Nxazozo’s winning time of 1 hour 8 minutes 11 seconds.<\/p>\n

These efforts were handsomely rewarded as Jessica Pollock collected R 5 500 for a perceived training run as she clocked 1 hour 24 minutes 52 seconds to win the Women’s race by over 4 minutes.<\/p>\n

Sponsored events are reliant on the big numbers for the success of the event and the satisfaction of these happy customers to return for their entertainment.<\/p>\n

Reports have been very complimentary with attention drawn to portable loos provided at every 3 km water table, Cape flavoured bands, music and the rural folk supporting\u00a0 in numbers along the quiet rural roads.<\/p>\n

Kids high-fiving and chanting “Hou bene hou” enhance the race with a flavour distinct from the urban program.<\/p>\n

Enough attraction to ensure\u00a0 runners make good on the widespread post-race “definitely returning next year” comments on social media.<\/p>\n

With the continued support of Safari they will be able to in 2018.<\/p>\n

contributor: Peter Wrensch<\/em><\/p>\n

Safari Half Marathon Top 3 Men<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Mbongeni Nxazozo BP AC 68:11
\n2. William Kaptein\u00a0 Maties 69:49
\n3. Akhona Mdaka Elgin 70:11<\/p>\n

Safari Half Marathon Top 3 Female<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Jessica Pollock UCT 84:53
\n2. Jeanetta Kohler West Coast 89:02
\n3. Sophie Cope Spartan H 94:48<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Safari Half Marathon – Thirty years of sponsorship is a momentous achievement and Safari are congratulated on supporting Wellington Athletic Club and the community since 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,54,1],"tags":[156,157],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-featured","category-half","category-news","tag-156","tag-safari-half-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":438,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions\/438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/capetown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}