Training Log Archive: nmulder

The Schaap River Canyon Ultra - 100km race in Springbok, Namaqualand.

Ran the 3-day in 2017 and returned to run the inaugural 100km race. Started in the dark following the old rail line from Jakkalswater Lodge into Nababeep. One guy took off fast at about 4:15/km. I settled down with 3 other guys in the chase pack. Nice comfortable pace. After town we turned onto some private farms, with undulating jeep track. I got into the first waterpoint in 4th place at about 28km, but caught Franco soon after leaving. At the same time the guy in 2nd started pushing the pace and the gap opened.

We dropped off the escarpment where we crossed the Kleinsee pass road and then crossed it again to start climbing up the Schaap River Canyon. WP2 was at the bottom of the canyon. Wasn't feeling great here and 2km later I was throwing up. From here on though I improved throughout the day, but probably lost about 30 mins in time from feeling bad.

The Canyon was sandy, with a lot of micronav needed to find the best route through the canyon bottom. Lots of thorn bush, rock and sand. WP3 was 15km up, also an official assitance point. Thereafter another 10km further up the canyon, closing in a bit more. Eventually popped out at WP4, then had a monster slow, rocky climb up an old jeep track for a few kms to get over a ridge. Beautiful downhill on the other side to WP5, then another nice dirt track gradually climbing back up to the Nababeep road and the last assistance point. From here it was another up and over of a spur of the Toringberg mountain, with the final WP on the other side. Got here with about 1 hour of daylight left. Still 3rd, with no-one behind and the guys ahead 45 and 75 min.

The final section was all track I knew from last year (Days 1 and part of 3). A nice loop of a valley with the old railway embankments, then a gentle climb into the next valley where it got dark, just as I got to the old golf course. Ended up doing the final 20 mins in the dark, with the last loop around the lodge cut-out for the race.

Overall a great course and my fastest 100km time ever. Very well stocked WPs. We were flying in the early stages, got to 40km (WP2) in 3h50. Getting ill cost me 30 mins but that wouldn't have been enough to catch 2nd place, who probably would have run faster had I caught him in the latter stages anyway. Highlight was definitely the canyon but overall the Namaqualand is stunning. More flowers than last year.

Easy run around our lodge just outside Springbok. Lovely trail loop.

Fourways Gardens loop with new Salomon running pack.

Drove out to Standerton for their parkrun. Cold frosty morning. Nice double lapper along the Vaal River and over the old bridge. 50th different parkrun!

68/50

Lap of the block

Took a wrong turn on 2nd lap but made up the distance.

Scatterrun # 2 at Groenkloof.

Team up with Ryno for this. Been a long time since we last ran together. I wasn't too sore from the day before, but body was tired and still dehydrated / overheated. Managed to hold it together at a constant pace until the end and Ryno was a great assist.

Headed out north first on the same route as Cobus. We did almost the identical route as him for 90% of the route. We did #85 first, he did it a little later on the return, which probably helped us by about 60s. We struggled to find #96, eventually finding the tag. Cost us only about 60s and then we were sitting about 100m behind Cobus for quite a few controls after that. Had a problem finding the canal at 181 which brought us together again.

We finally did different routes at 178, with 6 controls to go. We went high to 113, then dropped to 176 (Cobus the opposite), which meant we only had to climb 1 big hill from 97 to 160. We did this at 100% effort, but thankfully only downhill to the finish from there. Got in 8 mins ahead of Cobus with Craig M a few minutes further back. Luckily the course wasn't a few kms further as I would have started getting into trouble.

Otherwise another great Scatterrun event and very happy to be racing with Ryno again.

Salomon Magalies Challenge (formerly Crazystore Challenge)

First time I've run the 50km. Took an easy pace up Hospitaal Pad and then had a good section across the top, with a nice cool breeze in our face. Lots of vultures. We descended just before Piesangsnek and then got our first proper waterpoint as we got down to the tar road at 27km. Running in 22nd position here. I probably didn't take enough food / water here. Should probably also have doused my head.

A bit of running along the road and then a loop into one of the reserves at the bottom of the mountains. Back out and alongside the tar again until we started doing a loopy climb up to the gully and the Greek Church. I was feeling great at 28km, but then threw up at 29km. Heat stress and stomach shutting down again. Luckily there was a waterdrop 50m later so I could refill with some cold water. Struggled on the gully again as per every other Magalies Challenge race I've done and started loosing positions on the way down. Two cokes at the Greek Church waterpoint and then a decent jog down to the river. Didn't feel great here, but was running better at this stage than previous years (on the 30km race). In the end, caught 1 guy, but 4 came past, so ended 25th at the finish. A few new route changes right at the end meant I just didn't go under 7h15.

Nice run, but very frustrating to have ended up sick again.

Easy TT running with Alex and then Steph. Nice and quite due to the holiday.

Organized the Cyanosis Midlands AR with the rest of the team.

Organizer's Report

The Cyanosis team were very excited to get back into race organization when approached in 2017 to be part of the new A1 South Africa series. It has been 9 long years since we last presented a race, that previous instance being a 320km race in the northern Berg region between Memel and Newcastle. (And there were 7 competitors from that race who were on the start-line for the Midlands AR!).

Hilary Bruss was very quick to nominate her backyard of Greytown in the KwaZulu Natal Midlands as the venue for the Cyanosis race, and we soon decided 160km was the ideal race distance for teams to test their mettle over a weekend. With her and husband Deon's local knowledge and landowner contacts the race route was quickly put together. We had great support from not only the landowners, but also various venues, the local police and municipality. Our team sponsors (Salomon, First Ascent, Petzl, Fluid Kayaks, RaceFood) were fully on board for the race and were soon joined by some additional local sponsors (Ivala Lodge, L'abri Adventure Camp, Moo2u Dairy) as well as series sponsor KeyHealth.

We tried to make everything as easy as possible for teams prior to the race. This included a wide registration window the night before the race, superb meals for those who wanted, a campsite right on the start / finish line, waterproof race booklets and custom maps (with pre-plotted points), bike and box transport between transitions, and free boat-type choice for our 'token' 8km flat-water paddle. To make it easier for navigators, map hand-out was only 30 minutes before race start, allowing them to get a good night's sleep with the rest of their teams. We also allowed a generous 33 hour cut-off as well as a short-course option, which meant any slow teams still had time to finish even 3 hours after Sunday's midday prize-giving!

The race started at 06:00 with a trekking leg. This meant teams had about 20 minutes of darkness to deal with. The race was fast-paced to start, with quite a high number of challenging and fun check points close to Greytown, including finding a large tree (in a forest!), navigating to the centre of a hedge-maze at the Tranquili-tea tea garden, getting to practise their golf swings at the Country Club and then finally a #$#%! of an uphill to the top of the mountain overlooking town. We encouraged spectators and team supporters by giving them various GPS locations where they could watch the race unfold, but the highlight for them was a route choice across or around Merthley Lake just after this climb. A fleet of cars (including the mayor!) assembled at the edge of the lake, lined up in a row like the old drive-in theatres. With a strong Berg wind blowing across bitterly cold winter waters, eight of the twelve teams chose the 100m swim crossing whilst the remaining four teams chose to take the 2km route around, loosing about 15 to 30 minutes in doing so.

The overall aim of the race course that we designed was that it should have constant changes of terrain, direction and navigation technicality. This kept things interesting for teams and it seemed to work well in the race. After running around the forests of Greytown, teams were soon heading down the dry semi-desert Mhlopheni valley towards the Mooi River. What had been a cold, chilly morning soon turned into a hot, dry and sweaty affair in this sheltered valley. Arriving in Transition 1 after this monster 42.2km first leg, most teams were taking strain from the distance and the heat, just a few hours after emerging shivering from Metherly Lake.

Teams left on their bikes through the Mooi River valley before starting a never-ending hill back up to the forests. The strong Berg wind was now at their backs and with only moderate navigation required to traverse the rural settlements and kraals dotted around the hillsides, most teams made a good job of it despite the 700m elevation gain.

The lead teams arrived in the 2nd transition for the paddling on Craigie Burn Dam slightly ahead of schedule. This meant they just had enough time to complete the 8km paddle in day-light. We had expected this to be an easy 1-hour affair when designing the route, but the weather had different plans. The strong Berg wind was blowing at about 30-40km across the dam and creating very choppy conditions, with up to two foot of swell in the centre. Although the 7 checkpoints in the dam could be collected in any order, every team soon chose one specific route that allowed them to visit all the points with the least amount of wind interference. This worked well for the early teams, but as darkness descended teams struggled more with the strong winds. In the end, we took the decision to cancel the paddle leg for the final three teams before they had even arrived at the dam, allowing these teams a good sigh of relief.

We had to put in an easy 'transport' leg to get teams from the dam to L'abri Adventure Camp, a 22km bike leg along a district road. Initially we thought this would be too easy for the teams, but the report backs suggest the teams actually thoroughly enjoyed this 'break', with a strong tail wind up the slight climb and a long winding downhill with surrounding indigenous forests as night fell. It was a good mental break as teams arrived in Transition 4 to pick up gear for the toughest section of the race, a 2km kloof followed by a 19km trek over the Blinkwater mountain.

We expected the kloof at L'abri to be the toughest section of the course, but in the end the same Berg wind that caused havoc on the dam came to the teams' rescue. Berg winds bring significantly warmer air with them and thus teams found that although the water ponds in the kloof were still bitterly cold, the air temperature was a good 10'C warmer than expected. The approach was preceded by a slippery bum-slide down a gully that led to a cliff edge where we had a harness and ladder system in place. From the bottom, the teams spent about 1.5 hours in the kloof first checking in at a waterfall and then progressing slowly down the wet, narrow and sometimes overgrown valley. Our media crew waiting at the exit of this kloof confirmed that teams were getting cold and sleepy by this stage, a factor that would have a big impact shortly thereafter as some teams got lost in the surrounding forests as they tried to find the correct forest tracks to the Douglas Smith Cottage, Rainbow Lake and then up through indigenous bush onto the Blinkwater mountain grasslands.

The tough navigation in the darkness saw the final shake-up of the leaderboard. By the time teams checked into the final transition on the other side of the Blinkwater at Lion Match Dam, Jabberwock had consolidated their small lead into a 3-hour gap with some solid navigation. Team Muscle Memory, four KZN-based racers who came out of 10-year retirements for this race had shown the benefit of experience and a slow-and-steady approach to racing to come through the field into 2nd place. Meanwhile, Red Ants had had an up and down leg, getting lost in one section and then recovering well to run out into transition in 3rd place, just 10 minutes ahead of Team Merrell who had had a nightmare in the dark. Overall, teams were about 2 hours slower on this leg than we estimated, mainly due to a slower-than-expected climb up the Blinkwater in the darkness and on overgrown trails.

The final 27km bike leg back to the finish didn't see the team position changes, although the route did provide a few tantalising short-cuts that may have mixed-up team orders under other circumstances. Jabberwock took the win in a time just inside 22.5 hours. This was 2 hours slower than expected, but still within our advertised winning time range. They were welcomed home to bean bags in front of a roaring fire, chocolate milk, a hot dog, and a few hours later after the sun rose, an egg and bacon roll! In the end, 6 teams (of the original 12) completed the full course whilst one team finished on the official short course. A couple of other teams were probably able to finish as well, but a few navigation errors in the middle of the night where they went round in circles saw them pull out. Maybe waiting for daylight and then re-orientating and pushing on would have been a better solution; they'll need to chalk that one up to experience! The remainder of the fields were taken by injury and illness, but had had an enjoyable race up to those points.

Overall the race ran smoothly. The only downside was when some trouble-makers started throwing rocks at two teams as they passed a settlement in the dark on their bikes. We quickly dispatched an organizer to the point and soon thereafter there was also a police presence. We even appointed an escort for the remaining teams past this junction but the perpetrators were never seen again.

One of the big changes since we last organized a race 9 years ago is the advent of GPS tracking of the teams. It was great support for us as organizers to always know where each team was and when they could be expected in the next transition. This, together with lots of social media reporting during the race meant that not only the spectators in Greytown, but also anywhere in the world could follow the latest twists and turns of the race. We had some very big hits on the various videos, interviews and updates that we posted on Facebook.

A very big thank you from the Cyanosis team must go to the various people who assisted us in organizing this race as well as our sponsors. There were at least 27 landowners, 6 transition marshals, 8 other marshals, truck drivers, ropes officials, etc. etc. And then there were our sponsors: Keyhealth, First Ascent, Salomon, Petzl, Racefood, Fluid Kayaks, Moo2u Dairy, L'abri Adventure Camp, Ivala Lodge. They provided not only prize money, spot prizes, surprise race snacks for you in transition and the finish, but also beautiful venues and adventure experiences for the race. A big thank you to everyone involved!

Easy run with Mac from the Bruss house down to Metherly Lake and then the Trail club house.