Race organisers have announced the new start times for the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon presented by Nike, which will take place on Easter Saturday, April 7, 2007. The 56 km ultra marathon and 21 km half marathon will both start in Main Road, Newlands, with the half marathon starting at 06h00 and the ultra at 06h20.
According to Jack Luker, the event’s route manager, there will be two separate sets of starting pens in Main Road for the ultra and the half marathon. “This will allow runners in both events to start lining up in their own time without having to wait for one event to clear the road, which was a frustration for many of the runners in the past.”
After months of careful research, which included route inspections, extensive feedback from runners around the country and input from the Traffic Department officials, the times were decided. The facts that played a role in the decision were traffic issues, inconvenience to residents living along the route and runners’ safety. Mother Nature also played a huge role in this decision – sunrise is at 06h32 on race day, which means that runners will not have to run in the dark for too long.
“The ultra is the flagship event and in order to accommodate these runners we have to start the half marathon first so that the slower runners have time to finish their race and are off the road before the front runners in the ultra come through,” said Luker.
The half marathon route has changed slightly and will now see runners turning off Main Road into Aliwal Road at the 3.1 km mark instead of continuing down to Gabriel Road at 5.8 km. This will ensure that the ultra runners will have a clear road when they start at 06h20.
The half marathon has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, attracts record fields every year and is now the biggest half marathon in the country. It is an integral part of the event and important to the sponsors, who aim to attract as many entrants as possible. “It is for this reason that we have kept the 3 hour cut-off for the half to accommodate both events as best we can so that all parties benefit,” added Luker.
Many of the half marathon runners go on to run the ultra and there is a large percentage of ultra runners who run the half if they are no longer able to run long distances, as they can still feel part of the event and enjoy the incredible vibe that is associated with this event.
The new start times have been discussed with Western Province Athletics, who play a key role in the event planning. WPA looked at all the issues, took into account the sustainability of Two Oceans as an event, particularly with regard to the runners, the city and the traffic authorities, and supports the changes to the start time and the half marathon route.
The city’s traffic department plays a huge role in the start time decisions, as it is important that the roads are not closed for too long on Easter Saturday. The later start time of 07h00 this year meant that roads were kept closed later on the day than in previous years, which caused problems for the marshals and officials out on the road.
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