Category: Racing

Picture
this: A South African race has grown so popular that the organisers announce a
25 000 cap on entries in order for the venue and route to handle so many
athletes. Chances are you’d probably assume we are talking about the Comrades
or Two Oceans, but we’re actually talking about a Spar Ladies 10/5km event! And
that is because the various women’s races on our calendar, notably the Spar
Series races that have been going for around 20 years and the slightly younger
Totalsports Ladies’ races, are attracting an ever-growing number of women (and
quite a few cross-dressing men) to the roads.

SPAR LEADS THE WAY

It
all started in 1991 when the first Spar race was held in Durban, as Spar looked
for a way to give back to its customers, says original race co-ordinator Ian
Laxton: “Ladies only, no time pressure, fun, entertaining, and all lady athletes
get their value for money with a big goody bag! This formula has kept the
series going successfully and made the numbers grow dramatically.” That first
race had less than 500 participants, but by 2000 it had grown to 25 000! And
seeing how much fun was being had at the coast, Johannesburg got in on the act
in 1992, followed shortly by Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria and
Pietermaritzburg. Today the series boasts a collective 85 000 entries per
year, and also features the Spar Grand Prix, where top runners across all age
categories can earn points towards cash incentive prizes and a new Nissan Micra
for the overall winner this year.

Understandably,
the folks at Spar are proud of what they have achieved. “The Races are growing
each year, which is testimony that we are doing something good,” says Spar
Sponsorships Manager Belinda Nel. Echoing these words is Rob Philipson, Managing Director
of SPAR: “We are very proud of the enormous impact the series has on thousands
of women across the country, and are pleased to see that they are in turn
supported by a host of family and friends, in the build-up to the race and on
the route.”

TOTALSPORTS ON BOARD

The
TotalSports Ladies’ Series was launched in 2001 in Cape Town, but it was
originally called the Avon Ladies Race, with TotalSports as the presenting
sponsor. That first race brought 400 women to the roads of Bellville, and by
the next year the field had grown to over 4000! Then in 2003, with TotalSports
now the title sponsor, the race moved to picturesque Stellenbosch, and it’s
still growing in size today.

“Johannesburg
also needed a taste of TotalSports energy and therefore our second race was
launched in 2007, and in 2011 we added a third race in Durban,” says Jacky
McClean, head of PR and Communications at Stillwater Sport & Entertainment,
which co-organises the series in conjunction with another pre-eminent SA race
management company, Top Events. “Now the series boasts a combined turn-out of
15 000 lovely ladies each year, with the Stellenbosch and Johannesburg races
both on National Women’s Day. We always had it in mind to celebrate this day
with our races, and to focus on ensuring a super experience for runners, walkers,
sponsors and spectators.”

So this August, celebrate
Women’s Day (and month) with your feet by being part of one of the many
wonderful women’s races on the calendar:

Thursday 9 August

?        
Totalsports Ladies’ 10km & 5km Johannesburg, Central
Gauteng

?        
Totalsports Ladies’ 10km & 5km Stellenbosch, Boland

?        
Women’s Day Challenge 10km & 4.2km, Western Province

?        
Sanet Wentzel Memorial Women’s Day Challenge 10km & 5km,
South Western Districts

?        
Leading Edge Women’s Day 5km & 2km, South Western
Districts

?        
Women’s Day Ladies’ 10km & 5km Challenge, KwaZulu-Natal

?        
Setsing SuperSpar Women’s 10km, PLUS 5km Walk, Free State

Friday 17 August

?                    
Welkom Medi-Clinic Nite Women’s 5km, Free State

Saturday 25 August

?                    
Spar Ladies’ 10km & 5km Centurion, Gauteng North

(Turn
to our Race Calendar on page 36 for more details.)

For
most of us who take a sabbatical during the winter months, the motivation to start
training again comes when we wake up one morning and suddenly realise our
favourite outfit no longer fits, or our family and friends start remarking
about our “late growth spurt.” So we decide to start training again the next
day, carefully select our kit and put our shoes out, and set the alarm with
every intention of waking up and teaching the tar a lesson in the morning. But
something changes during the night…

The
alarm buzzes and as you slowly open your eyes, all snug in your warm, toasty
bed, feeling energised by a good night’s sleep, but then you recall the promise
you made to yourself only a few hours back. It’s amazing how many excuses suddenly
come to mind as to why it’s not a good idea to head out for a run. With that,
it’s a done deal: The alarm is reset for another hour, maybe even two, the
duvet is pulled all the way up and it’s back the beauty sleep that was so
rudely interrupted. The problem arises when you eventually do get out of bed
and walk past your kit and shoes, which seem to be sitting there with that
mournful look that says, “Why don’t you want to play with us?”

JUST DO IT

As
you go to bed tonight, put your alarm out of arm’s reach, so that you can’t
simply lean over and hit snooze. When it goes off, you’ll have to get up to
switch it off, and once you’re up, there’s less chance that you’re going to
climb back into bed and carry on where you left off. The toughest part of
training in winter is getting out of bed, but once you’re up and out on the
road, you soon realise that actually it’s not as bad, or as cold, as you
thought.

Suddenly
you’re feeling good and energised, and as you walk into the office, you hold
your head high, knowing that you did something hundreds of others were unable
to do today: You defeated yourself! But if you really can’t bear the thought of
heading out the door into the icy cold dark of the early mornings, don’t worry,
because there are other ways to keep your fitness levels ticking over in
winter.

1 Hit the gym: Do a
10-15min easy warm-up on a spinning bike, the Stair Master or the elliptical
trainer, all with low resistance gradually building up to a higher RPM. Next,
head to the treadmill, set the elevation to 1.5% (to offset the fact that
treadmill training is easier due to no wind resistance), and play around with
various 10-20min sessions of quality, for example:

?        
Run easy for 90 seconds, then hard for 60 seconds,
repeating 6-10 times.

?        
Increase the pace and elevation to 4-5% for 60 seconds
and then easy for 120 seconds, repeating 5-6 times to give you a great hill
session.

?        
Do a tempo session of 5min easy and then increase the
pace until you’re hitting your 5 or 10k race pace and hold that for 10-15min,
then easy for another 5min.

Be
creative and use your imagination. Once you’re done with your quality session
on the treadmill, hit the spinning bike once more for a 5-10 minute easy cool-down.

2 Join the class: Sign up for
one of the group classes for a spinning, aerobics or yoga class. It’s far
easier getting back to training when you know others will be slogging it out
next to you.

3 Hit the indoor pool: Do a few
swimming sessions, which are great for core muscle strength and builds your
cardiovascular system. The water temperature at most gyms is normally around 25
degrees – warmer than outside!

4 Skip the morning gloom: There is no
rule stating that to be a runner one has to train in the morning or evening.
Why not slip out for a quick 20-30min run during your lunch break? If that
doesn’t work for you, head out in the afternoon after work, when temperatures
tend to be around the high teens – ideal for running.

5 Give yourself a goal: Get out the
race calendar and identify a race to do in the next month or two, write it on a
piece of paper and put it up on the fridge, next to your bed, or some place
where you’ll see it often. Make it your goal and you’ll find all the motivation
you need!

When
Team SA was announced in June for the London Olympics, four badminton players
had cracked the nod, a men’s doubles pairing of Dorian James and Wiaan Viljoen,
and a women’s pairing of Michelle Edwards and Annari Viljoen. Dorian played in
the 2004 Athens Games, while Michelle went to Athens as well as Beijing 2008,
but for the Viljoen siblings, it will be a first taste of Olympic action, and
Annari is naturally even more excited to be going with her older brother: “Very few
people can say they went to the Olympics, even less with a sibling and both
competed.”

Both pairs won their African continental preliminaries
at the Thomas Cup (men) and Uber Cup (women) and played in the finals in China
earlier this year, having already won the All African Champs in Morocco last
year, and that saw them included in the SA team for London. “The day I heard I
had qualified was the best day of my life,” says Annari. “I started playing
with Michelle in 2009 and the last few years have been hectic as we’ve played
as many tournaments as possible to get a higher world ranking, because we had
to be continental champs with a world ranking in the top 50 to qualify.
Michelle has loads of experience, and I’m still learning from her each time we
play together.”

NEED FOR SPEED

Annari,
who is the current SA singles champion as well, works as a fitness manager at
the N1 City Virgin Active gym in Cape Town. She says her working environment
makes it a bit easier to build and maintain the running fitness that is an essential
part of her training, as she can easily training on the treadmills in the gym,
although she prefers getting outside in the fresh air. “In singles you need
more endurance, as you have to cover the whole court, but in doubles it is more
about explosive speed, so I need a combination of endurance and speed work.”

“Michelle
and I do long runs of 5-10km each Sunday in the off-season break in
December/January, to build base fitness, but then we focus on sprint and
interval work the rest of the year. A typical interval session is a hard run at 95%
intensity for 45 seconds, then slower for 15 seconds, and repeated 20 times.
That is like a badminton rally with a short breather between points to fetch
the shuttle. We normally do speed sessions twice each per week, plus we follow a gym
programme, and we train every weekday from 9am to 11am on the court to work on
our shots and combinations, as well as ‘sparring’ against other players.” This often
sees them playing against men in order to raise the intensity and speed of
their practice matches.

When
asked if she enjoys all this running, Annari quickly nods her head. “I do enjoy
it, but it is hard, because every time I run I put in 100% intensity. It is
always about pushing myself harder in order to help my badminton. If I can say
after a run, ‘well, that wasn’t too bad,’ then I obviously haven’t pushed
myself hard enough. One day I would actually love to just jog for a change!”

The MERRELL
Xtreme, Eastern Cape, 28-30 April

I
took part in the first running of the three-day MERRELL Xtreme trail run, slickly
organised by Liam Victor of Katliesure and Craig Muller of Backyard Adventures.
It took us 146km eastwards along the unspoilt Eastern Cape shoreline from the
East Pier in Port Alfred to Nahoon Beach in East London, stopping overnight at
Mpekweni and Kidd’s Beach. Our group of 12 full-distance runners was
supplemented by five “day trippers”, who each ran a stage or two. With
refreshment stations every 10 to 15km and carrying only what we wanted for the
day, the emphasis was on fun and finishing, rather than on racing, and with
Liam’s obvious delight in coming up with more goodies and surprises every day,
we ended up feeling like a bunch of spoilt kids out on the best seaside trip
ever.

The
run started literally with a bang in the teeth of a thunderstorm, with teeming
rain and a fierce westerly keeping us huddled in our cars until the very last
minute before the first 43km stage to Mpekweni Beach Resort. Fortunately, within
an hour the sky cleared, the rain stopped, the waves were sparkling and the
strong tail wind added an exhilarating touch to a beautiful day. Rising trail
star Hylton Dunn arrived first at Mpekweni in a blistering time of 3:36, with
the rest of us finishing within six hours. After an afternoon of rest and
recuperation, we came together again in the evening for a briefing of the next day’s
56km stage, dinner, lucky draws, and forfeits for “crimes” such as
lack of height, extreme youth, excessive speed, prolific chattering, even use
of hiking poles in a thunderstorm!

Day
two dawned fine and clear, and we set off towards Palm Springs Resort at Kidd’s
Beach. There was plenty to keep us interested between checkpoints: Wrecked
fishing boats, a couple of rivers to cross by jet-ski, one to swim, a massive
decomposing whale, seabirds, some intriguing mammoth winding gear rusting away
on the beach, and plenty of amazed holiday-makers asking us what on earth we
were doing. Hylton again showed a complete lack of respect for the distance, bounding
to the finish in 5:09, followed by the rest of us. Supper, prize giving and
forfeits took place this time at the vibey Beach House restaurant.

SURPRISE
PACKAGE

Day
three was full of surprises, starting with a full breakfast at the Beach House.
Obviously it was never going to be a racing day… except, of course, for
Hylton, who somehow missed that memo. Just outside East London we morphed from
a straggle of strandlopers to a platoon of urban warriors, running in a group
through the suburbs to the rowing club, where surprise number two awaited in
the shape of a luxury catamaran waited to take us down-river, where we invaded
East London in fine style, disembarking and jogging up the pier with Hylton
Dunn as our standard bearer, waving the MERRELL flag aloft. (He, just by the
way, had already run to the finish at Nahoon, and returned to the harbour to
fetch the rest of us.)

Surprise
number three was ice-creams at the beachfront Steers, owned by one of the
runners. As may be imagined, we were all feeling quite chipper by this time,
and the fun wasn’t over yet. Leaving the Esplanade and crossing the beach, the
MERRELL platoon trotted through the maze of cliff trails, along the tracks, up
and down steps, through the caves and coves and between the rocks and ridges
around Pinnacle Point to finally emerge onto the last stretch of golden beach
at Nahoon where a line of orange flags guided us to the finish and surprise
number four: Fresh, juicy Steers cheeseburgers, a cooler-box full of cold
drinks, and the presentation of our finisher’s jackets.

Hylton dominated the run whilst keeping himself
tightly reined in – it was, after all, a Comrades training run for him, and not
to be over-cooked! The rest of us were all winners. We left with our bags stuffed
with awesome goodies. We also left with our heads stuffed with wonderful
memories of a unique and Xtreme experience.

Race Walking
World Cup 50km, Saransk, Russia, 13 May

I
had pre-qualified for the World Cup after winning the South African 50km
Championships in Cape Town in October 2011, clocking 4:22:12. I set about my
training with a ferocious intensity, building up my strength and core stability
through a vigorous gym and cybex programme, coupled with core stability classes
and regular sports massages. I managed to clock over 2500km in 23 weeks from 5
December (averaging 110km/week), and in the final four weeks before the race, I
had recorded personal best times over 10km on road (43:14) and track (43:45) in
addition to 20km road (1:26:35). My training sessions were regularly at the
necessary race pace (4:46/km) required to achieve the IAAF A standard of 3:59:00,
as required by both ASA and SASCOC, so I was really confident going into the
race.

RUSSIAN
HEAT

I started off conservatively,
walking within myself and in a group that I felt was on course for the A
standard. We started increasing the pace from 10km in the warm conditions on a
challenging course in downtown Saransk, situated approximately 700km south-east
of Moscow. Our group of three went through halfway in 1:57:30 and I was on course
for a 3:55:00. We increased the pace slightly, going through 30km in 2:20:43,
which was also a personal best. The heat throughout the race was a constant
concern, though, and I regularly sponged my body, pouring bottles of water over
my head at each of the water tables. I owe a great deal of gratitude to my
experienced seconding team that supported me throughout the race, team coach
Carl Meyer and team manager Oliver Mundell, representatives of the SA Race
Walking Committee and veterans themselves of the 1993 Race Walking World Cup in
Mexico.

I suffered muscle cramps from 33km
and my pace slowed, so at 38km I had exactly one hour and five seconds in which
to complete the final 12km. I was encouraged by my team mates that were strewn
around the course in addition to my international race walking friends, and I
had to dig really deep for the final 4km after the leaders had lapped me for
the second time. This was my only chance for Olympic qualification and I had to
trust in my training and my mental willingness to embrace the pain and to take
my body to a new level of discomfort, whilst many athletes were suffering
around me.

MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED

I finished in 3:57:57 and 26th
place, recording 10km splits of 47:15; 46:50; 46:38; 48:09 and 49:03. I had
recorded a new personal best time, national record and African record, and in
so doing, achieved my first IAAF A standard, thus meeting the ASA and SASCOC
Olympic criteria! I also became only the second athlete from the continent to
break the four-hour barrier, and the first ever to record an IAAF A standard
over 50km. I was completely elated and tearful after the race, knowing that I
had just qualified. The realisation of a childhood dream is without description
and it is a moment in your life that you can never really prepare for.

It was surreal to arrive back in Johannesburg
to TV crews from the SABC and SuperSport, and then to be contacted by
journalists and radio presenters the entire week. I have never experienced this,
and it was truly fantastic. I am so looking forward to representing not only
myself but South Africa in London, and want to thank everybody that made it
possible for me to get there, my family, girlfriend, friends, training
partners, coaches, sponsors, employers and more. I think I’ll only believe it
fully when I am standing on the start line in London on Saturday 11 August.

FOLLOWING
IN FOOTSTEPS

Fifty-two years ago George Hazel
represented South Africa in both the 20km and 50km race walking events at the
1960 Rome Olympics. I hope that my participation in 2012 will kindle a new
generation of young South African race walkers that will aspire to compete on
the international stage. I later learnt that my performance in Russia could also
qualify me for the 2013 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow, so I am looking
forward to the coming years!

In 2008, while
out on a run with friends, Retha Schutte mentioned that she’d like to run for a
charity. The idea was left there, until last year. “In August, I knew I needed
to start the Lighthouse Run. Often, abuse is an issue left in the dark. We’ll
shed light on the issue, council women, men and children, and make abuse an
issue that is not hidden away,” she says.

Retha spent
most of her childhood witnessing her alcoholic father beat up her mother,
brother and sister, and says she now has the opportunity to speak out and help
turn the tide. “Now I have a voice. Now I can stand up. Every 17 seconds in
this country, someone is abused – whether physically, sexually or mentally. We
want to tell people its okay to speak out and get help. And we want to show them
that there is life after abuse.”

TOUCHING THE COASTLINE

Retha
shares not only this cause, but also a love of running long distances with her
friends Machelle Bremer and Sorita van der Walt. For six weeks, these three
intrepid women are planning to run a marathon a day, starting in Umhlanga, just
north of Durban, and following the coastline and
its lighthouses to finish at Cape Columbine in the Western Cape. The journey will cover roughly
2 000km and the team will reach communities along the way, spreading the word
and launching workshops en route. The Lighthouse team will also be accompanied
by a community service team in clinical psychologist Eugene Viljoen, life coach
Kudzai Shoko, and Herman Schutte, who will facilitate emotional intelligence
and conflict management.

Retha
explains why they chose to focus on lighthouses: “Every lighthouse has a unique
signal and rotation pattern every few seconds. Like abuse, the rotation happens
quickly. Now we want to fight against the issue so people can act against the
situation before violence spreads. We want to get the word out there because
little is done about abuse. We aim to council victims on recovery as well as
men who want to be rehabilitated. We will also give children a chance to speak
and give anyone legal advice when it comes to abuse.”

RUNNING IN HOPE

Retha and
her running team are ready to conquer the coastline, as they have a rich
history of running marathons and ultras. Retha has clocked four Comrades
finishes, with a PB of 9:38, as well as five Loskop Marathons. Some of Machelle’s
running highlights include six Comrades finishes, including a best time of 7:25
and 24^th position in the women’s race, as well as seven Loskop runs.
Back-up runner Sorita has been running since 2008 and has a number of half
marathons under her belt.

The Lighthouse
Run is set to start on November 19 and run through to December 27, which will
coincide with the government’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence
campaign. So far, South African celebs have taken to the project with musician
Elvis Blue and Comrades gold medallist Lindsay Van Aswegen already on board to
run some legs. Chevrolet South Africa has also
promised the Lighthouse Run transport to get the word out there and spread
light on the evil that is abuse.

At
the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a women’s competition was added to the modern
pentathlon for the first time, with the 24 top-ranked women in the world
invited to participate, including South Africa’s Karina Gerber. She finished 18^th
and was determined to get back to the Games to give it another shot, literally
and figuratively, making huge sacrifices along the way in pursuit of her sport,
but things have unfortunately not quite worked out for her. Thus she won’t be
lining up in London for the 2012 Games, having also missed 2004 and 2008, but
she remains upbeat about her somewhat unusual sport.

FIVE OF THE BEST

Modern
pentathlon is a five-discipline sport consisting of ?p?e fencing , 200m freestyle swimming, show jumping and a 3km cross-country run with pistol shooting mixed into it. The sport was invented in 1912 by Baron Pierre de
Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, and was
based on the ancient pentathlon, which consisted of running,
jumping, wrestling and throwing the spear and discus – all skills a soldier of
that time needed. The event was considered the climax of the ancient Games,
with the winner ranked as Victor Ludorum
(Winner of the Games). In the modern version, the Baron wanted to simulate the
experience of a 19th century cavalry
soldier trapped behind enemy lines: He must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight
with pistol and sword, and swim and run.

Originally the competition took place over four or
five days; but a one-day format was introduced in 1996 to make the sport more
spectator-friendly. That was the same year Karina became aware of the
sport and immediately fell in love with it. “I came from a swimming and running
background, so in 1997 I started fencing, shooting and horse riding. It was a
huge undertaking, but by 1998 I had competed in my first international
competition for South Africa and qualified for the World Championships in that
year. And after only three years in the sport, I was the first South African
woman to compete at Olympic level.”

“It’s
an incredible combination of physical, mental and intellectual aspects, as well
as adaptability, since we have to do the show jumping on a horse we only meet
20 minutes before riding,” says Karina. “It is also a most challenging sport,
as you have to find time to train for all five disciplines, then bring them all
together on competition day, which takes a lot of planning and determination.”

MAKING SACRIFICES

Karina (34)
hails from Pretoria, where she studied adventure tourism, and now lives in
Stellenbosch, but for the past seven years she has spent more time in London
than at home, training there while working to earn enough money to fund her
participation in the sport. “I wanted to qualify for the 2004 Games in Athens,
but couldn’t because my federation had no funding for me and I was already too
deep in debt to fund it myself. Competing in the 2000 Games had set me back
more than R60 000 and I was still working to get rid of that debt, so I gave up
competing and went to work on a cattle farm in the United States.”

“I tried to
make peace with the fact that taking part in the Games was something of the
past, but I felt I owed it to myself to try and compete at one more Games, and
before I knew it I was training full-out again for the 2008 Games. I have no
doubt that I could have qualified, but early in 2008 I fell off my bike in
London and tore the cruciate ligaments in my knee, so no more Olympics for me.”

LAST STAB
AT IT

Having set her sights on going to London for the 2012
Games, Karina was on track to qualify, but bad luck once again struck. “I ended
the past international season with a third place at the African Championships
in Egypt in July., but then
in my first international competition after that, in Switzerland in March, I fell off
the horse and fractured the radius of my right arm. Even though I had three
more qualifying competitions to go, including the World Championships in Rome in
May, there was no way I would be able to learn to fence left-handed in two
weeks and swim with just one arm pulling, so I knew my Olympic dream stopped
right there.”

Having now decided to retire from top-level
competition, Karina says she will now focus on developing the sport back home.
“I want to concentrate on coaching the next generation of South African world
championship contenders and hopefully Olympic medallists.”

Southern Cross
Trail Run, Sedgefield, Southern Cape, 27-29
April

It
didn’t take much to convince friend and fellow running junkie Sue to team up
with me as Team Femme Fatale (thanks for the name, Sue), but with Two Oceans
still in our legs, we decided to take it easy and be the social media queens,
taking pics and posting comments to Facebook and Twitter.

The
drive from Cape Town
through torrential rain to Sedgefield wasn’t great and we imagined similar
weather ahead. The race briefing and base camp was at the beautiful Pine Lake
Marina and race director
Hano Otto of Southern Cross Adventures wasted no time in warning us that day 1 would
be wet and muddy, with slippery rocks, a waterfall crossing and some hectic
climbs. We left the briefing suitably nervous.

Day 1 (Sue): It was
chilly and dark as we got ourselves ready for the day, expecting horrid
weather, so it was a nice surprise to see blue skies. The weather was actually
perfect for trail running, chilly but sunny, and things were looking up as we
boarded the bus with some 75 other nervous but amped runners.

Hano’s
warning of slippery mud made me jump for joy inside – the more technical the
better! Kath was a bit concerned about this, being the road machine, but I was
relying on her to pull my ass through the hilly stuff, and boy did she do just
that. We started at Karatara Forestry Station and followed the Outeniqua Mountains trails to Farleigh Forestry Station.
This 26km stage had 1400m of climbing on technical single track, and with two
river crossings and slippery, rocky conditions, concentration was needed at all
times. The steep climbs afforded us time to take in the panoramic views when forced
to walk or even crawl up the trails!

The
finish at Farleigh was a welcome sight, together with Hano, wife Sonja and the race
crew, plus delicious pancakes and an obligatory java. We were the first veteran
women’s team and second women’s team overall – things were looking good!

Day 2 (Kathy): The first
day had taken its toll: My quads screamed with every step and Sue’s ankles and
hammie weren’t too happy, either. But the prospect of a less technical day of
30km indigenous forest running, lifted my spirits, as did the sunny day. The
start/finish venue was the rather quaint coffee shop, Mother Holly’s.

Team
Femme Fatale started strongly as we tackled forestry roads, jeep track and
mountain bike trails up to the water station at 13km, and after a quick refuel,
we were back on spectacular single track. Some experienced trail runners described
it as the most exquisite forest running they had ever done. It was still a
tough day, with over 1000m of climbing and crossing streams and waterfalls – but
soul reviving stuff.

We
were doing really well until Sue’s wheels fell off around 20km. Pale, drained
and nauseous, she just put her head down and focused on finishing. Hano and
Sonja were waiting at the finish to welcome everyone – what a gem of a couple!
– and coffee, scones and some recovery time soon revived Sue. And we maintained
our position as first vets and second women’s team.

Day 3 (Sue): With aching
bodies, Kath and I hobbled to the start. I was feeling so much better, though,
and determined to redeem myself. This was the beach stage, 20km of technical
coastal trails, climbing 900m from Blue Whale Resort to Kwelanga Lodge just outside
Pacaltsdorp near George. The route was undulating through several forest
ravines, with steep descents to the coast, similar to sections of the Otter
Trail, but the views were so worth it!

Kath
and I worked well together, me leading on the technical downhill sections and
Kath taking over for the many climbs up to the trails along the cliffs, and a final
loop through a Milkwood forest took us to the Lodge. With three days of tough
trails behind us, the chilly swimming pool was a welcome ice bath for weary legs.
It was a bittersweet feeling, though – part of me was glad it was over, but
part of me just wanted it to carry on, because it was one of the best events we
have done. And the cherry on the top: Team Femme Fatal took first vets team and
second women’s team overall. Not bad for “just taking it easy!”

Cradle Mayhem
Three Day Trail Run, Magaliesburg, 4-6 May

While I was
preparing for my first trail race, trail devotees were geared up for the
weekend’s stage races. Highveld’s first and only multi-day trail race was set
in the Hartbeespoort area, overlooking Magaliesburg Mountain Range. Routes
stretched over 20-odd farms and entered the Cradle of Human Kind.

THREE-DAY ADVENTURE

The
weekend’s activities kicked off on the Friday night with a 10km prologue run
along the Scheerpoort
River. Around 40 runners
with headlamps took on the relatively flat but twisty route on, crossing rivers
and streams, and running through reed tunnels, which must have been quite
challenging in the dark!

The
three-day stage runners made sure not to overdo it in the prologue, as Saturday
saw the mammoth 35km second stage, which took runners through a technical trail
passing The Cradle of Humankind and turning back to soft sand, plus three steep
climbs and fast descents. One climb even took runners along historic ox-wagon
paths that were used for by miners more than a century ago.

The final
stage on Sunday offered a less technical, flatter 20km route, but with some
climbs, and the finish stretched out next to the beautiful river and reed
tunnels. That made for an overall distance of 65km, andfirst home overall was Jason
Sprong in the men’s field, finishing with combined time of 5:13:35. Next home
were runner-up Mazu Ndandane (5:28:18) and third-placed Nico Schoeman
(5:33:42). In the women’s field, Lindsay Van Aswegen claimed top spot in 6:13:42,
with Beverley Davey second (6:41:25) and Natasja Kask third (6:43:12).

MY RUN IN NATURE

The final
day also saw a single-entry 7km fun run and after watching the weekend’s
racing, I knew I had to grab the opportunity to run my first trail race with my
Dad. I wasn’t quite kitted out like the rest of the field, though – I didn’t
have a nifty backpack or fancy stopwatch – but I was fairly confident, despite
never doing trail before and having a wee bit of shin splint pain.

I started
off slow and took it all in: The bridge, the stream to my right and the
unspoilt path, the greenery and trees hanging above, and I realised why people
do this every weekend – it’s just you and nature! My Dad, being far fitter than
me, is an encouraging person to have around… every time I slowed down, he’d
keep me at it, shouting “Not long now! Keep the momentum!”

Around the
2km point, the flat course stretched to a downhill run which gave me an
opportunity to build up some speed and ease into a rhythm, but my shins kept
acting up, especially when going up the small climbs near the halfway mark. But
I took my Dad’s advice and made small goals for myself. At 5km, I knew I could
finish the run in under an hour – I am a novice, so that was my goal, and I was
determined! That saw me finish in 52 minutes.

The Cradle
Mayhem offers some of the most beautiful routes that cater for both the novice
and the trail expert. It is definitely an event to look out for next year.