Dear Seeff Weskus Marathon 2011 runner,
Firstly the organising committee wants to apologise again for the shortage of busses to take the marathon runners to the start. Not only have we been in contact with Isibane Bus Transport since January and three times during the week before the race, but we also received a fax on Friday 18 March confirming that they will supply 15 buses. Weskaap Bus Services had to supply the remainder of the total of 21 busses. All the Weskaap buses arrived first and then only 8 busses arrived from Isibane. Louis van der Walt eventually got hold of the owner of Isibane who then said that he has other work for his other buses and tried to convince Louis that he actually understood that there should be 15 busses in total and that he cannot send more buses. Although the committee is considering legal action, it will not change what happened on Saturday. For the terrible inconvenience it caused, especially to those who had to start 70 minutes late in the second marathon race, we want to send our sincere apologies . We have certainly learnt a lesson from this and will act accordingly for future races. At least we made the decision to divide the marathon into two races, and although it cost us nearly R10 000 extra, this is the least we could do to ensure that the second group could compete separately.
However, maybe even worse was the totally abnormal weather conditions you all experienced on the day. The temperature was 25⁰C at 05:30 at the starting point on the beach and by 09:30 it was 41⁰C on the route. At 12:00 it was 43⁰C on the route. This is probably the worst heat that you have run a race in and hopefully the worst you will ever run in. Those of you who bailed, probably made a better decision than those who finished, but it is understandable that many runners were trying to qualify for Two Oceans, and that is the only reason why the race was not called off at around 10:00, when the referees seriously considered to do it. In order to try and alleviate the situation we brought in another 1.5 ton of ice (all we could get in the whole Saldanha area), over and above the ice which Coke supplied and which melted quickly, to the last 5 water points between 09:30 and 11:30 and we moved water to every km for the last 10km, an extra water point between the existing water points which were 2km apart. We also increased the number of water sachets from 60 000 to 90 000 during the week before the race when it appeared that we will encounter berg wind and extreme temperature conditions on race day. This enabled us to provide runners with 6 sachets per 2km for the last 10km, which proved not to be enough, as we had to constantly bring water from the completed first few water tables of the race to the last few tables during the race to ensure that we do not run out of water.
We sincerely hope to see you all at the Seeff Weskus Marathon next year and be assured that we have done and will do for future races everything we can to make it a great experience. It did not just happen that you voted Seeff Weskus Marathon as the second best marathon in SA for the past few years and be assured, our aim for 2012 will be to be the best!
Langebaan Strandlopers
Firstly the organising committee wants to apologise again for the shortage of busses to take the marathon runners to the start. Not only have we been in contact with Isibane Bus Transport since January and three times during the week before the race, but we also received a fax on Friday 18 March confirming that they will supply 15 buses. Weskaap Bus Services had to supply the remainder of the total of 21 busses. All the Weskaap buses arrived first and then only 8 busses arrived from Isibane. Louis van der Walt eventually got hold of the owner of Isibane who then said that he has other work for his other buses and tried to convince Louis that he actually understood that there should be 15 busses in total and that he cannot send more buses. Although the committee is considering legal action, it will not change what happened on Saturday. For the terrible inconvenience it caused, especially to those who had to start 70 minutes late in the second marathon race, we want to send our sincere apologies . We have certainly learnt a lesson from this and will act accordingly for future races. At least we made the decision to divide the marathon into two races, and although it cost us nearly R10 000 extra, this is the least we could do to ensure that the second group could compete separately.
However, maybe even worse was the totally abnormal weather conditions you all experienced on the day. The temperature was 25⁰C at 05:30 at the starting point on the beach and by 09:30 it was 41⁰C on the route. At 12:00 it was 43⁰C on the route. This is probably the worst heat that you have run a race in and hopefully the worst you will ever run in. Those of you who bailed, probably made a better decision than those who finished, but it is understandable that many runners were trying to qualify for Two Oceans, and that is the only reason why the race was not called off at around 10:00, when the referees seriously considered to do it. In order to try and alleviate the situation we brought in another 1.5 ton of ice (all we could get in the whole Saldanha area), over and above the ice which Coke supplied and which melted quickly, to the last 5 water points between 09:30 and 11:30 and we moved water to every km for the last 10km, an extra water point between the existing water points which were 2km apart. We also increased the number of water sachets from 60 000 to 90 000 during the week before the race when it appeared that we will encounter berg wind and extreme temperature conditions on race day. This enabled us to provide runners with 6 sachets per 2km for the last 10km, which proved not to be enough, as we had to constantly bring water from the completed first few water tables of the race to the last few tables during the race to ensure that we do not run out of water.
We sincerely hope to see you all at the Seeff Weskus Marathon next year and be assured that we have done and will do for future races everything we can to make it a great experience. It did not just happen that you voted Seeff Weskus Marathon as the second best marathon in SA for the past few years and be assured, our aim for 2012 will be to be the best!
Langebaan Strandlopers