ROAD RUNNING
Terrific Showing in Tshwane
The inaugural running of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY TSHWANE 10K on 27 August saw the elites posting fast times and the masses enjoying a day out in the capital city , but before the race could set off , there was another race to get things ready for the runners , and the organisers posted a personal best of their own ! – BY SEAN FALCONER with JACKY McCLEAN
In sporting terms , specifically baseball , a curveball is a type of pitch that puts forward spin on the ball , causing it to dip as it approaches the batter , and thus trick them into missing . When it comes to organising an event , a curveball is something completely different . In this context , it usually refers to something unexpectedly changing or going wrong , and a “ last-minute curveball ” means something changing or going wrong just before the
The leading men early in the race , with Precious Mashele , Mathews Leeto , eventual winner Kabelo Seboko-Mulaudzi and Elroy Gelant setting the pace
event . Unsurprisingly , event organisers do not like curveballs , and do everything they can to avoid them , but they also understand that curveballs can sometimes come flying straight at their heads . That ’ s when organisers need to think on their feet , and come up with a ‘ Plan B .’
That ’ s exactly what the Stillwater Sports organising team of the recent Absa RUN YOUR CITY TSHWANE
10K had to do , when they found out on the Saturday morning that the planned and approved start line for their new race the next morning , right in front of the steps of the Union Building , was not going to be allowed . To cut a long story short , they had been told everything was approved and had all the necessary paperwork , but somehow , an administrative step somewhere between the Municipality of Tshwane and the governmental department in charge of the Union Building had been missed , and not everybody at the Union Building was on the same proverbial page . So when the trucks with all the start line fencing , branding , tents and sound equipment arrived , they were promptly told to move on !
Between them , the Stillwater team have a ton of eventing experience , and they put heads together , worked out solutions , remeasured part of the route , moved gear and activations , and by the next morning , everything was ready when the runners began arriving for the race . The start line was now just below the Union Building , where the race finish was , and while that didn ’ t offer quite the same awesome setting that the original start would have , it still allowed a smooth and vibey start , as some 5000 runners lined up for the new race .
At the beginning of this year , it was announced that the Absa RUN YOUR CITY Series would grow from three races to five . The series was launched in 2015 in Cape Town , then Joburg ( 2016 ) and Durban ( 2017 ) were added , and this year saw the addition of the new Gqeberha and Tshwane races . The RUN YOUR
Images : Tobias Ginsberg , Charles Ndou , Felix Dlanga
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