City Run - Showcasing Johannesburg, South Africa

7:14am. It was a beautiful crisp spring morning, and the African sun felt gorgeous.

On Saturday, 24th of September 2016, myself and a friend of mine took part in an Johannesburg City Run. My first ever "race", and certainly my first in any city, and I am pleased that Joburg (shortened nickname) was my first. The city played a beautiful, colourful, and warm host throughout the morning. The length of the race was 10 kilometers / 6.2 miles.

The Race Route.

I took this when I collected the race-packs. The route went through as scenic as possible I think. Not too sure about the reasons this route was taken by the organisers.

The streets were also randomly lined up by a school band, even a cheer leading group, and a few other instrumental bands like trumpets and african drums. They had Evil Corp Cola and water at a couple of places along the route.

As the morning went on, more and more people lined the streets and took time to cheer us all on. That was pretty cool.

My Race Number.

I was also impressed with the organising of the event, and the race tracking. I have never been exposed to such technology, but on the image above, you can see a strange looking barcode near the bottom centre, underneath the race number, that code tracked the runner who was wearing it. I am sure this is a common, but was impressed me is that their system texted me a link to my race result and positioning.

8:00. Waiting for the start of the race, and race start

This area of Joburg is called Bank City. Should be called Evil Corp City, but I won't get into that for now. I am not much of an architecture type of guy, but the buildings are pleasant, and there is certainly a style to the buildings that I enjoy.

Random Photo.

The sun starting to beat down, but the air was just crisp enough to keep me cool. This was around mid-way the race. There were markers around the route that told us how far we had run. I was horrified to learn that it took us 15 minutes to get to the 1km mark! But then I realised that it was because of the crowds. Was very difficult to navigate other runners, and control my speed. I found it tough anyway.

Ponte, and the Johannesburg Sports Stadium

Ponte is the tall cylindrical building with the Evil Corp logo on top. A very iconic building in Johannesburg, and very much a land mark. I won't go into how the building is pretty much a city slum, but it is a landmark nonetheless.
Just beneath it is the Jhb Sport Stadium. I remember watching U2 perform their PopMart tour in the 90's there. It was also host to the All African Games in the 90's too.

The world famous Ellis Park Stadium is across the road from the Sports Stadium. Ellis Park is where South Africa famously won the Rugby World Cup in 1995, a year after the nations first democratic election. Nelson Mandela presented the trophy to South African Captain, Francois Pienaar after South Africa beat New Zealand in the final 15-12. Epic match.

Nelson Mandela Bridge, and the Final Turn

This was coming towards Nelson Mandela Bridge. It is a bridge that goes over the railway tracks below. At the end of the bridge, there was a right turn, and the finish.

My Race Result.

So, apparently that's not a bad time. I was a bit upset it took me over an hour, but I have been informed by people who have run races and marathons that for someone like me, who never trained for the race, and who smokes (I smoke "rollies" with hemp paper), it's not a bad time at all. I am keen to do another race, and hopefully get a time under 1 hour for 10km.

I jog around 7km at a time casually, and figured pushing to 10km wouldn't be bad. The one thing I did not take in to consideration were the inclines and declines, and Johannesburg surprisingly has a lot of them, and you notice them when you are running. Wow. Was really an eye opener and has stayed with me. Even the downhills were a pain because I found I lost control of my speed, and went far too quickly. We never ran constantly, and that was due to my thighs being in a bit of pain, so I had to take it easy.

All in all, we had a great morning. I had great support from my wife, who isn't a fan of the city, but I think she enjoyed being there more than previous occasions. She also had a good workout walking from the train station to the event and back. Enjoyed a good first city run, and will certainly do it again, and soon. It would be epic to do one in other cities, New York comes to mind first. Anyone wanna sponsor a trip? :)

Thank you for taking the time to read!