THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
Sean Falconer
THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
Business as Usual
I
have to be honest , the past month and a half is a bit of a blur for me . Since the last time I sat down to write an Ed ’ s Letter for the mag , I have done commentary at the three-day Pickle Juice AFRICANX Trailrun , the Tyger Run Half Marathon , the new Absa RUN YOUR CITY Gqeberha 10K , the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon , the SPAR Women ’ s Challenge in Cape Town , and the Safari Half Marathon .
The Ed creating some vibe during the new Absa RUN YOUR CITY Gqeberha 10K
Also , our Modern Athlete team produced the official digimags for the above-mentioned RUN YOUR CITY , Two Oceans and SPAR events , as well as the Two Oceans Media Guide , and we did official media work at Two Oceans , SPAR and a few other events . And somewhere in between all of that , I vaguely remember running one or two races myself , but to be honest , I can ’ t actually remember the specifics now …
So , am I complaining ? Oh , hell no ! It ’ s fantastic being so busy , because I still vividly remember the COVID lockdown period all too well , when there were no running events , and we were desperately trying to find any way we could to keep this business running . Being so busy now is what I ’ d like to think is just reward believing in the brand , the team , the sport , our supporters ( readers as well as advertisers and partners ), and the running community in general .
Thoughts on Recent Events
As a commentator or journalist , I often get to see events from a behind the scenes perspective , so I tend to have a different experience to the runners taking part in these events . For example , the runners who lined up for the new RUN YOUR CITY event in Gqeberha wouldn ’ t have seen just how much work went into growing the RUN YOUR CITY Series from three to five events , and then launching the first new one . I have to take my hat off to the team from Stillwater Sports for pulling off such a brilliant first edition of the race !
Similarly , the 2023 Two Oceans was a major step up on the 2022 event , and not just because the number of entries was so vastly greater . In 2022 , as we came out of COVID , the event had just under 16,000 entries across the two main races , whereas in 2023 it had closer to 27,000 – and the Fun Runs , Trail Runs and
The commentary team for the Totalsports Two Oceans Ultra Marathon , from left : Sipho Mona , Cato Louw , Altus Schreuder , Harold Berman and Sean Falconer
International Friendship Run aren ’ t even back yet . Sure , there were some issues with queues at the Expo , water table during the races , and crowd flow at the finish , but from my perspective , heading up the commentary team this year was miles better than last year . Still , it was a massive job , including two complicated starts , three press conferences and two prize-giving ceremonies . I needed a good sleep after all that .
One of the big challenges of Two Oceans was the batch starts that the City of Cape Town is insisting on for the larger events , for health and safety reasons , which also affected the SPAR event a few weeks later . Normally , we just start the whole race with a single shot of the starting pistol , but at Two Oceans we had 12 batches in the Ultra and 18 in the Half , and at SPAR we had a total of 11 batches to get going . Since the commentators use their voices to build hype and then start most batches , it ’ s little wonder that our voices are a bit kaput by the time we get everybody going !
Welcome Return to Normality
Once again , though , I ’ m not complaining . It really is terrific to have the big events back at full strength – or just back on the calendar ! I say that because this was the first year since pre-COVID that the Safari took place ( as was the case with the Dis- Chem Half Marathon in Joburg in January ), and the first time that the SPAR was open to mass entries again instead of just being run by a small number of elites and age contenders . Also , the Two Oceans was nearly back to pre-COVID numbers for the two main races .
It may seem that ‘ life ’ returned to normal more than a year ago , when lockdown restrictions and mandatory masks were finally discarded , and events came back , but in the world of running events , we are actually only now seeing the return of business as usual . Long may it continue .
Sean Falconer
Image : Tobias Ginsberg & courtesy Sean Falconer
6 ISSUE 158 | www . modernathlete . co . za