Two Oceans Marathon (56km)

Without doubt, the course is amazingly scenic and other runners and spectators are fantastic. However, for a race to change course on the day prior, that not only removes an iconic section, but also adds significantly higher elevation climb (+120m more in first major hill, but at over 300m it is no longer a hill but instead a mountain) is beyond frustrating and even more so when they're out of water atop this first summit. I understand this had been done in prior years due to fires and such, which I'm forgiving to as that is purely out of man's control, but the reasoning this year was due to potential for protest along the route. How are the local forces not able to corral protests? Safety for all is number one, but I just don't think this organisation is deserving to be recognised as one to travel long for if you can't trust what you're training for to happen. It's just not worth the time and money it takes to get here from places like North America if you get sideswiped with new condition only a day before. The hills here are intense and are outside of what you see in most other large international marathons and thus challenging to train for if you're not familiar with the local topography. As much as I'd like to, I would not recommend travelling across continents to run this race if you can't trust the organisers.

I still get chills when I think about crossing the finish line at Two Oceans. I came from NYC and spent a week exploring Cape Town and had a fantastic time. The course is tough but stunning and the support is excellent. There are videos of the course online and I would encourage folks to watch those in order to be prepared for the fairly substantial hills. There were water shortages on Chapman's Peak this year but it sounds like they are taking steps to fix that, and I loved the little plastic packets of water you got along the course  much easier to drink from than paper cups, and I wish they had these at US races. Overall, this race is worth the training and travel required and a definite bucket list must.

It took me about 30 hours from Los Angeles to get there. The run was well worth the efforts. In the same event, we ran along the beach side of Indian Ocean; and we ran on the cliffs over Atlantic Ocean. It is a tough course. Right after Marathon distance, there are a few miles of up hills, then, down hills almost all the way to the finish line. The event was well organized although some water stations ran out of water very early. The distance between water stations are about 2~3km, which made the lack of water situation manageable. The coke only stations were really bad idea. When you are in dehydrate condition, drinking Coke does not help, at least it were not helpful to me. Locals are very enthusiastic cheering for the runners. I had muscle cramping on the way. A lady offered me magnesium pills from her own medical box. International runners get some special treat  to have a 5K run one day before around some Cape Town landmarks. It was fun.