Katrina's reflections on Cape Town

A week from today, I’ll be getting ready to hop on an 18 hour plane ride back to America. There are definitely things I’m looking forward to, seeing my family and friends, driving, taking a bike ride, non-instant coffee; but I can’t help but feel so sad to leave this place I’ve come to think of as my home. I never thought I’d be able to say that about a place, after just a few months, and I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’ve loved this place as much as I do.

 My first inclination is to think about the natural beauty of Cape Town as well as South Africa. Table Mountain is one of the world’s 7 wonders of nature, and it seems that everywhere you look around you is from a national geographic magazine. Half of my pictures look completely photoshopped and even then they barely do the views justice. Everything from Cape Town, to Mpumalanga to the Garden Route have made me speechless.

But beyond the natural beauty, it also seems to be the most fun place in the world. Between the beaches, the adventures, the hiking, and the buzzing downtown Cape Town there is ALWAYS something to do, maybe that’s why we never sleep? There are fun restaurants, bars, and plenty of places to listen to some live jazz or go to a music concert on the green.

But what I realized this weekend as I hung around UCT after running the Two Oceans Half Marathon was while all these things have been great, it’s the people I’m truly going to miss. I’ve made roots here, even just through something as seemingly simple as running. When we walked into the expo on Thursday, the first guy we saw working there was one of the guys we met at the Constantia 15k some weeks ago. He gave us a HUGE hug and proceeded to give us awesome advice on completing the half. Before and during the race we met more people, and watched in admiration as we spotted people with bibs showing they’d run over 10, some over 20 and even one who’d ran the Old Mutual Ultra marathon (35 miles) 31 times. After the race we ran into Joy, the woman who completely took us under her wing back at the Koeberg 15K, in which we had no idea what we were doing or even how we were going to get home. Since then we’ve run into her twice more, once at a race on her birthday. This time she made sure we didn’t leave before we planned a time for her and her husband to take us out to dinner before we go home. As the morning went on we moved from being cheered on and encouraged throughout the half marathon, to joining the crowd in cheering on the ultra marathon finishers. Watching the elite athletes cross the finish line brought tears to my eyes, especially the first female finisher. The accomplishment is unthinkable, and the amount of hard work and dedication those athletes put in is inspiring. After watching for a while, Melanie and I headed over to the grass area where many of them were sitting. We people-watched and listened as they limped and hobbled around, nursing their sore legs. 

Melanie & Katrina after race with Elias

One of runners, a very elite looking athlete, sat somewhat near us, and eventually we nervously asked him how he was feeling. He gladly opened up to us, and we quickly learned his name was Elias, an elite ultra marathoner, from a rural area near Kwazulu-Natal. Even as a top runner, and after running the whole 35 miles at around a 6 minute per mile pace, he was about to head back on a 12 hour cramped bus ride. He told us all about the school and church he works with, at giving youths in his area more opportunities, and wanted more than anything to welcome us into his village and have us meet the kids. There’s a million more people like this we’ve met, and I could write an essay about each one- their friendliness and hospitality, their inspiring stories, their love of running. And this is only in the running community. I get sad to think of seeing Joy for the last time, or running to our favorite street fruit vendor for the last time, and saying goodbye to these people that have left such a mark on me, in a way I never would have expected. 

I can’t even think about leaving Sister Castle, the head nurse at Tafelsig that we’ve all become so close with. I feel just as at home with her, crammed into “Gracie,” her little buggie, driving the roads of Cape Town, as I would with anyone at home in America. I hope I can bring what these amazing people have taught me back home, and spread a little of the love I feel here. We’ve seen a lot of terrible and tragic things in our time here as well, but I’m leaving with a sense that humans have a great capacity for love, that overrides the evil we see in our world today. I’m so inspired by people- what they’ve done, what they’ve been through, and what they’re passionate about. And I’m weirdly excited to meet the many other people that I’ll cross paths with in my future. I’m so sad to leave my home at Loch Road, and all the amazing people living here with me that have come to be something like a family as well. So come this following Sunday, I’ll be so excited to see all the people I love, sad to say goodbye to Cape Town, but overall just so thankful for this incredible opportunity that I wouldn’t trade for the world.

Katrina & Sister Castle