Dave Spence Memorial run

After Dave Spence race with nuclear power plant and table mountain

Hirsh and his boss share a love for running. He passed on some information to us about the 'Dave Spence Memorial Run' in Langa, a township just outside of Cape Town. Dave Spence was apparently a coach who did a lot of sports-development stuff in townships of the Western Cape. We knew we had the car for a 24 hour period, so we went out there. It was a 4k and an 8k race- strange designations- but we all ran the 8k. We did two laps through the township, amidst some squalor and past some very confused-looking locals. At some point, cows were actually driven out into the road ahead of me as I ran. There were lots of children who were part of an athletic club, a bit like the YMCA youth initiatives. There were some REALLY fast runners there. The guy who got second, with 26:40 or something like that, was a runner for Notre Dame. There was a bit of shock about the fast white kid.

It was refreshing to see the township after the fairly glossy presentation of the World Cup. The final was that day, so we wanted an early start. We had a delicious brunch. Hirsh and I returned the car- the rent for which included 200km-with 199km.