The 8th Star, or is it? As those of us who wait for 2 – 3 weeks for final results on Cape Town Mararhon’s fate as a world major, we relish in the magnificent experience that was this race and this destination. I came to Cape Town with zero expectations and Cape Town overdelivered!
My journey began on Monday, May 18 with a flight to New York City after a cancelled Tuesday morning flight that would force me into going a day ahead to ensure my international connections. Jose went up with me because mom and dad have had NYC getaways before and mom lived there and it will be a forever favorite! Our trip started off with an item not on the itinerary, that is a forever grateful for. Jose mentioned that the TWA hotel was in terminal 5 and he had previously sent me a video on the entire experience. I had at that point vaguely remembered it and said, “Sure! Why not? Let’s go!”
From the moment we walked in I was stunned. This place, frozen in the 1950’s captivated my heart in such a special way. My husband and I have always had a shared affinity with anything from that era, which is why we have a lot of midcentury pieces in our own home and are drawn to the music from that time. Some past life stuff going on here? Likely so. The splashes of red, the old flight ticker making sounds as if it was still operating on that way, to the vintage-inspired merch at their shop, and cocktail bar whether indoors or outdoors on the now retired “Connie” could very well come with a swizzle stick.
There are many photo opps available as well, from a larger than life sized Twister room, to a vintage hair salon, vintage pay phone booths, and even a make-shift museum of all of the TWA flight attendant and pilot uniforms, with the luggage from the era to match. It was quite heavenly as Jose and I felt giggly having revived some part of our inner child for the hour we spent there.
Since the LIRR was out of service due to a strike, we took the Air Train to Jamaica, Queens and then transferred the E train all the way to the city just four blocks from our hotel. We checked in, dropped our bags off, and headed out for a quick stroll in the city. Since our time there was limited. After checking out some fares on canal street and stopping by a Himalayan gift shop, we came to one of my tried and true favorites, Yakitori Taisho. I cannot tell you how many times I had been here for the best Japanese food before living in NYC, during, and after. You can order so many plates of food and not break the bank, let’s say, $40 for two people and you’ll be stuffed to the gills. We ordered miso soups, chicken liver, pork belly, meatball, and quail egg wrapped in bacon skewers, the Tan Tan udon, and the egg. We had the desire to continue our journey but being as tired as we were we headed straight for the hotel and were in bed by 12:30 that night after chatting and etc. and agreed to be up super early to cram more sight seeing in.
We went to an old tried and true favorite for breakfast, Murray Hill Diner. I’ve been going there since 2004, took my parents in 2005, where it would become my dad’s favorite, and now it’s my son Jacob’s favorite diner in NYC. I got a delicious English muffin egg and bacon sandwich with a double espresso and Jose had egg and bacon sandwich with hash browns and his cafe con leche. We set off uptown on the 6 train to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for mass, to say a prayer to St. Therese of Liseux, and find the “confessional” bathroom, which funny enough I had never know about nor how long that had existed.
We walked across the street to find the penny press at Rockefeller Center to press a penny for ourselves and for each one of our boys. We made one slot stop at The Watch King, which wasn’t open, but was cool to see nevertheless, then headed back to our hotel for our bags, checked out, and made the the trek back to JFK. After parting ways on the AirTrain I headed to my gate in terminal 4, found an egg salad sandwich, two hard boiled eggs, water, and some peanut M&M’s and chilled for a few hours before my flight to Nairobi.
The flight to Nairobi was mostly wonderful as it was smooth and I made a friend named Sameer on the flight. Sameer was also en route to Cape Town to spectate his cousin at the marathon. He literally looks just like my brother, it was trippy to watch him and listen to him talk. I made sure to tell him too and I also told him he was my brother from another mother but Indian. The not so wonderful part was the screaming bratty child next to us that kept screaming for 10 out of the 14 hours we were in the plane. I want to feel bad but she was full on smacking her parents right in the face. I don’t know, each to his own, but my boys never did that. I came to find out later the mom is a running influencer online. Ugh.
Nairobi gave a 6 hour layover so after walking the entire airport and finding souvenirs for my boys, I opted for a massage and shower at the airport spa. It was really nothing to look at but the girl who gave me the sports massage had very healing hands and relieved my already tense and sore muscles. The shower I was able to take after was the icing on the cake. I boarded the Cape Town flight relaxed and ready to take a nap.
I got to Cape Town a bit late, 1030pm so I followed my roommate’s exact directions for hailing an Uber black for safety, straight to the resort. I made it, showered, and got right to sleep. We woke early to get the hotel breakfast, which was fabulous, and then walked downhill to next hotel our tour was at to catch the bus to the winery tour. We headed out about two hours to Stellenbosch. Already picked up that there’s Dutch settlement here. This would be the start of so much learning I’d do over the course of the next week. The wine tasting at with the different desserts was really nice at JC LeRoux. There was a kitty there that came right up to me for pet pets, she must’ve smelled my kitties on me. We got to see some of the grapes outside and then boarded the bus shortly after to the head to the next winery. This winery had lush green gardens and beautiful sculptures on quite a big campus. I didn’t try any wine here but the steak and risotto with vegetable lunch was delicious! I bought a pair of South Africa flag socks at one of the shops and we headed back to the hotel. Walking uphill back to our resort was so very hilly to say the least but looking back was the perfect preparation for what was to come not only all week but for the marathon as well. Candice and I made a new friend Bree, who is from Virginia, is in the military, and had given half of her liver to save a stranger’s life a few months ago.
Once we got back, we changed into our run clothes and went out for a shakeout run. Candice went in a trail-ish run and I went running downhill towards Maiden’s Cove. Although the visibility was not so great as the mountains were hiding behind clouds, it was still a beautiful sight of the beach. I made my way down the rocks to take my shoes off and stick my feet in the ocean. It was COLD but it felt so nice on my already achy and tired feet. I ran back to the hotel as we had to get ready for the welcome reception at Morea house down hill. The appetizers and food were amazing and my roommate and I agreed that the chickpea appetizers were the best and you couldn’t beat the view of the ocean! We walked back up hill to the resort, showered and went to sleep early for another early start for our city tour and expo stop.
The city tour started with a cable car trip up Table Mountain. Sadly, the visibility was 0 with the clouds but it was still a cool experienced. The floor of the cable car rotates as you travel up the mountain, cool but a little scary for quite a few of us. It started raining part way in so we sought refuge at the “Shop at the Top.” The tour continued throughout the city where we learned a lot about Nelson Mandel, The Apartheid, and so much more. The expo was fun, organized, and I was there for long, surprisingly. I got my bib and shirt packet, looked around a bit, but didn’t buy anything and walked back to the buses.
Candice and I got our Saturdays started with 90 minute massages and getting a massage before a race is now going to be part of my pre-race repertoire and I attribute a lot of my race success to relieving my already tense tendons and muscles. Afterward we headed back to our room where ww fired up our outdoor wood fired hot tub. It took a few hours but we got in nice and hot, just in time to add more relaxation and recover my before the big day. I then got my things organized for race day, and went outside to enjoy the sunset before getting showered and dressed for the pasta dinner at The Bay hotel. They had nice ragu and pesto pastas, caprese salad, bread rolls with butter, and brownies and mini pecan pies for dessert. The fuel was in the tank as we headed back to the hotel, prepared last minute things for the race, and got to bed at a decent time due to our 5am alarm clock. Luckily I spent all the time leading up to this moment relaxed and at peace for the race ahead. I remember in Sydney I was a total spaz, and for no reason in particular.
Race day! I’m up, I’m excited and still no presence of nerves. I get dressed in my race day fit and out on my throw away pants to keep warm. Candice forgot hers and luckily my mother-in- law had gotten me two for Mother’s Day. They fit her like a charm and we were off to breakfast and then the buses. I had a scrambled eggs, cantaloupe, a slice of flax-grain bread, some deli meat, and a double espresso to wash it all down. My how my morning race day repertoire has changed from the bag of Combos, a chocolate Cliff bar, and Vitamin water energy, for the better too.
Candice, Bree, and I are all set to start from the stadium side together and we sit and huddle down while we wait for our batch to be called. Candice was first, I went after, and Bree went right behind me. The music at the start village was on point and had me dancing and singing, especially when they played Toto’s Africa. I have played it all on the months leading to this race to get myself psyched up. They kept playing Fatboy Slim’s Everybody Loves a Carnival, another long time favorite of mine.
My batch is cued to the start and the excitement is palpable. It all happened so fast and just like that we were off. We immediately exited the stadium area and headed towards the northern end of Sea Point. Starting with a beach view ain’t too shabby! Shortly thereafter we were on a highway and now had a view of the mountains and we’d have them in our view almost the rest of the race. I found myself smiling the entire time, in awe of what my eyes were seeing. There were good size crowds cheering with great energy and once in a while some DJ’s or residents playing their own music on their speakers. Occasionally, there were patches of nothing and silence and I hadn’t experienced that before and it was so peaceful and beautiful.
Another very beautiful part of the course was whenever there were African dancers with drums! They got us all moving! One particular part was right before we entered the park by parliament and oh would we need it. It was a straight steep incline for an entire mile. I came out the other side with a few brain cells burnt.
At around 30 I ran into Chase the Cheetah and took a selfie with him after having met him at the expo Friday! Shortly after we hit the Pride section, which in my opinion was a bit underwhelming compared to the other marathons I have done. 2.5 miles out and we hit my favorite part of the course, Sea Point. Sea Point is all along the beach front and if you know me, the beach is my favorite place to be. The crowds here were big and loud and kept me going! Still smiling at this point and felt strong both mentally and physically but here is where my Achilles pain really started to act up. I pulled back in pace to insure I made it to the finish line. We make the final turn towards the stadium and my watch is already saying I’ve hit the 26.2 miles so I keep looking out for distance signs and spot 42K.
Althrouout this race I’m hearing my best friend Jocelyn in my ears via my AirPods giving me positive encouragement and she happens to tell me there’s a camera past the finish in the middle. Here we go I can hear the roar of the finish line, I put both my arms up holding my peace signs in the air, in true Teresa fashion, smile for the camera, and begin to cry. I find the video camera and blow it a kiss and Jocelyn caught it! What a moment, what a race. I keep walking and one of the volunteers places the medal around my neck. A few steps later they’re offering ice cream so I take the chocolate fudgsicle and start crying more. I waited for Bree to finish and then we took the buses back to the hotels. I was so sore I couldn’t make it up the hills to the hotel so I called an Uber. No judgment, lol! I showered, headed to get Bree and her boyfriend via uber to head to the post race dinner at a beach party. The food was great with the pasta ariabata, fried shrimp, feta cheese, and French fries and can’t forget the two glasses of Chenin Blanc to wash it all down with some strawberry meringue’s. We hurried back to the hotel to finish packing since we had to check out and I had to get going to my new hotel to drop off my bags and head onto the Safari tour with my friend Ligia.
My trip was originally to end on Monday but because Kenya airways doesn’t fly out of Cape Town everyday I got pushed out an additional two days, this would be the ultimate silver lining of my trip in getting to see more places in Cape Town. The safari tour was about a 2 hour ride out and Ligia and I made friends with two other guys that also ran the marathon. It was a small, private group that would join forces with a larger group on the safari van for the tour. We got to see the farm that provided the food for the Aquila reserve restaurant. It was full of spinach, Swiss chard, parsley, peppers, rosemary, and more. There were also two lionesses on the property, one which they were trying to rehabilitate back into the wild and an older one that was going to be staying there. The safari tour was bumpy and fun and we got to see ostriches, zebras, elephants, antelopes, rhinoceroses, lions, and giraffes. It truly made for an authentic African trip with seeing these animals in their natural habitat. Our tour guide Ian was awesome as he made our experience elevated with historical education and he even taught us some words and phrases in Afrikaans.
Ian had mentioned that he did a day Long Beach coastal tour that included a visit to the penguins so that’s what I signed up to do on Tuesday. Each beach in Cape Town is so unique from the next and just like in Sydney, there are tidal pools for public access everywhere. I wish we had these back home. We visited Table Mountain National Park to start, then Muizenburg Beach with the colorful huts, Fish Hoek where the fishing community is teaming with fresh caught fish and seafood, along with a very hungry seal that barks for the scraps. We then headed to Simon’s Town where the penguins live on Boulders Beach. They were so cute! Next up was Cape of Good Hope, which is a large nature reserve and park. Here we saw some wild zebras and climbed a cable car to the lighthouse. This view of the beach was one of my favorites, with the water a multitude of shades of blue and teal. The next favorite spot was Hout Bay where the mountains are tall and majestic and the coastal beach glistens like glitter alongside them. We also ate fried hake fish and chips at Fish on the Rocks.
We made it to Sea Point to see the Mandela glasses as the sun set and ended at the Victoria and Alfredo waterfront and shops. This is where the largest mall in South Africa is housed. There were a lot of performers here too. The tour lasted over 10 hours and was absolutely amazing. It was time to get back to the hotel, shower, and get in bed to begin my trek back home on Wednesday. I got to the airport super early in case there were any issues with traffic. I found a bookstore and bought a pocket guide called “Fynbos” with all of South Africa’s flowers. I was absolutely fascinated by the new and exotic flowers I saw alongside some regulars like plumeria, hibiscus, and variety of daisies from back home. My new favorite is definitely the different varieties of proteas. And that boys and girls is where I left South Africa, thinking of how that race had me smiling, the coastal beaches, and the pretty flowers I am now hoping to grow in my garden. We shall see where in the world I land and run next!
