From Hilda Coulsey…

Cape Town was hosting the Abbott World Marathon Majors World Championships and aiming to become the eighth World Marathon Major.

They put on an excellent and wonderful experience for us internationals, including inspirational speeches from Eliud Kipchoge and Francois Pienaar.

Their aim was clear, Africa needs a designated Major marathon. Africans win all the major marathons and they deserve this to inspire and encourage young and old in the continent. Eliud started his speech with quotes by Nelson Mandela and his own philosophy reminding us that “pain is part of the process” and “keep pushing forward no matter how tough it gets”.

Eliud didn’t win but was waving and taking selfies with the crowd and to be fair this was an undulating course with many twists and turns, not suited to his talent. His wife, Grace, took part too, running her first marathon.

Course records were broken by the winners Huseyidin Mohamed Esa in 2:04:55 and Dera Dida Yami 2:23:18 both from Ethiopia.

I had qualified last year at Abingdon with 4:44, having been felled by a cyclist crossing my path, both of us falling in a heap. I’d hoped to run at least that time but it wasn’t to be. I was struggling to get long training runs done, I struggle in the heat and humidity and I am useless at pacing always going off too fast.

I pushed forward, ‘accepting the pain’, smiling at the very African entertainment and stunning views, finished, got the medals (for the race and the world champs) and continued on my journey of collecting marathon majors stars. I have the original 6, added Sydney in 2024 and hence this would be the 8th.

I finished in 5:12:02, 42nd in the over 70s (the race listing combines over 70, over 75 and over 80) hence I’m not yet sure what my actual position is in the FV70-75 category which was won by Andrea Simmons in 3:41:52. The winners of the age categories across the board have astounding times illustrating the gap between these elite, world record performances, and us also rans.

Discussions afterwards confirmed that this was a tough race, the course and the weather, with many experienced runners cramping and struggling and I was in good company in that respect. Also no world records were broken by the age champs (despite the shoes).

There is obviously much poverty and unemployment, however this is a beautiful city and country and the overwhelming feeling was how welcoming it was.