KALMER’ S
CORNER
Our Modern Athlete Brand Ambassador’ s Blog
By Rene Kalmer
MOTHER CITY MARATHONING
On the 17th of February, Christine, Karli and I took the red eye flight to our favourite city in the country, Cape Town, to take part in the Peninsula Marathon, and I realised that I definitely want to run the Two Oceans Ultra some day!
Marathon at the start of the race and en route to Simon’ s Town.
Bay, to experience the breathtaking views of the Two Oceans Marathon, and I now know why it is called the world’ s most beautiful marathon.
The Peninsula Marathon, with its spectacular views over False Bay from Muizenberg to Simon’ s Town, has always been on my local marathon bucket list, but in the past, I had been in training for international marathons in Prague, Nagoya, Boston, London and Vienna at this time of year. Because I was invited to those races as an elite runner, I was not allowed to run a marathon three months prior to those events, not even just as a training run, so I had to skip the Peninsula each year.
Our two hubbies, Andre and Aiden, were more than happy to let the Kalmer sisters go off for a“ girls’ weekend.” Personally, I think they were just scared that they would also have to run a marathon … and Andre was also probably happy, as he could catch up on some lost sleep whilst not having Karli at home to wake him up at sometimes inconvenient times of the night.
The race was dominated by the girls in blue and it was great to run side by side with my KPMG teammates Ulrica Stander, Danette Smith and Michelle Dreyer. I had a good run, but mentally had to dig really deep the last 12km of the marathon. Spotting my parents on the route with Karli also helped me to keep pushing till the end.
Hats off to Ulrica, who won the race in a new personal best time of 2:53. I was more than happy with second position and my first sub-3-hour marathon postpregnancy. Granted, that 2:55 is still a long way from my personal best time of 2:29, but I’ m grateful to be back on the road and enjoying every moment of the new journey. I have learnt over the past two years to appreciate every pain-free run and not to be too hard on myself to clock good times all the time.
TWO OCEANS VIBES
Karli and I stayed the week with my parents in Cape Town, camping in Kommetjie. Luckily, we only realised after the week that we shared our tent with a little striped mouse! While we stayed in Kommetjie, I used the opportunity to run over Chapman’ s Peak to Hout
The Two Oceans Marathon is definitely on my bucket list, too, but unfortunately not this year yet... Although I have made a good comeback so far, and am happy that I have progressed to running a few marathons again, I have realised that I need to get fitter and stronger before I toe the line to compete in the 56km. I am, however, really looking forward to running my ninth Two Oceans Half Marathon this year … and spending some more time in Cape Town!
PS: Some tips for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Novices reading this just before their big race:
1. Get to the start line early. 2. Cape Town weather is unpredictable at the best of times, so be prepared mentally and physically. 3. Keep your eyes on the road: Watch out for cat eyes and stay towards the middle of the road to compensate for the camber. 4. Don’ t waste water and remember to aim for the bins. Always # runclean. 5. Enjoy every moment of the world’ s most beautiful marathon!
Meanwhile, my parents, newly become pensioners, saw this as the perfect opportunity to road-trip down to Cape Town with their caravan, to look after Karli while Christine and I ran the marathon. So Karli had her first sleepover that weekend with Ouma and Oupa in the caravan, while I enjoyed an uninterrupted night’ s sleep prior to the race. Not even race day nerves could wake me up every hour!
GOOD DAY’ S RACING
It felt good to go through all the race day motions with Christine, as it’ s been a while since we travelled and roomed together for a race. Still, 5:30am was a pretty early start for the race, but it was lovely to spot Stefanie Schultzen from the Old Mutual Two Oceans 12
ISSUE 105 APRIL 2018 / www. modernathlete. co. za
René, Ulrica and Danette Training run on Chapman’ s Peak
Images: Courtesy René Kalmer