Up where the sky is clear

I had the great fortune of running the Salomon Skyrun at the beginning of December with two AR Club friends, Tony and Ivan. This race is, without doubt, one of the most challenging off-road running events in South Africa.

Adrian Saffy took over the organisation of this event, from Skyrun's creator John-Michael Tawse, in 2005 and this year the race received record entries with 67 runners. The route starts in Lady Grey and runs over the mountains along the SA/Lesotho border, down into Balloch, back up and through to Ben McDhui and finishes at the Tiffendell Ski Resort. The race can be run over 2-days or non-stop.

We opted for non-stop, which is not necessarily the best idea for first timers. Although I'd been there in '99, I hadn't gone past Balloch, and neither had Ivan, who took part last year. And, as fate would have it, this is where we lost some 5-hours; unable to find a mountain pass in the dark.

Nonetheless, the weather was perfect, the temperature warm - with a slight cooling breeze - and there was water in the mountains, thanks to recent rains. The scenery up on the ridge is spectacular as the mountain sides drop away either side into South Africa and Lesotho.

Photo by Stephan Repke, the "German Skyrunner".

Stephan is a photographer and runner and has been visiting SA.

This is a small section of the Skyrun route.

What really makes this race challenging is that, although there are a number of trails, the terrain is rough going. Your feet and ankles get worked left, right, up, down, forward, back and all possible positions inbetween. I haven't had blisters for a long, long time (touch wood) but I succumbed to a couple during the race. Aaarrggghhh... I hate blisters!

We reached Tiffendell after fighting the morning gale (the wind was blowing so strong from Breslins to Tiffendell that I was using my trekking pole to keep me upright and we could barely hear each other even when shouting!) some 29-hours after we'd started at 09h00 on Sunday morning.

Would I recommend this race to you? Of course... BUT, I would recommend that you run/hike with someone who knows the route or do the race in 2-days, sleeping over at Balloch. The section through to Balloch (about 56km) is a very decent race in itself, without the Day 2 section. This is very do-able as a first timer to go straight through if your navigation is reliable (and next year the route showing the mountain pass will be correct). If you'd like to race this route to win? Oooohhh... I'd put my money on it to say that a first timer will never win this race unless they traverse the entire route prior to the race.

Andrew Porter (2nd in 2005) worked hard this year to take victory from Bruce Arnett, who has won the race since its inception in 1998. Both of these guys are exceptional runners. Andrew set a new course record of 15h03. Wow!

Salomon Skyrun is an incredible event. It is tough, challenging, scenic and inspiring. In Adrian's capable hands it is well organised. The comraderie of the marshals (farmers/land owners) and participants is magical and it is a race I'd go back to (now that I've had a week to think about it *grin*).

(click on pic to see bigger image)

How did you get into AR?

One of the most common questions I get asked is, "How can I get into adventure racing?". It's a question too that has directed much of www.AR.co.za's content. This week I attended a celebration of Runner's World SA's 150th issue. Did you know that this was how I got into AR?

Runner's World SA was the first international edition of the magazine and it was launched in May/June 1993. South Africa set the trend 14-years ago and the publication is now available in most countries and in 11 languages.

I became a regular reader in early 1999 after receiving a copy in my goodie bag from the Bedfordview 21km (now the Dischem 21km, held early January every year), my very first half-marathon.

About 3-months later I got a call from my underwater hockey friend (I was playing Provincially at that stage) asking, "Have you got the new issue yet? Go get it. There's something in it that's just up your alley." I shot off to the shops and snapped up a copy. It was the May 1999 issue and the "something" was a double-page on the new Old Mutual Hi-Tec Adventure Racing Series.

Too soon to assemble a 4-person team to enter the first 180km race in early July '99, I targeted the 250km race at the end of July '99. Hooked, we lurched to the 500km at the end of September '99...

Where www.AR.co.za is now an introduction, guide and reference to adventure racing for so many, Runner's World was my introduction.

And, I would never have guessed 8-years ago that I would become a regular contributor to what is my favourite magazine. I'm proud and honoured to be part of their family.

Runner's World SA, congratulations on this milestone. Thank you for your support of adventure racing and a toast to many, many more years of issues and kilometers.

This 150th issue is exceptional. It's a whopping 144-page publication with loads of great content. Go get it.

Put your foot down

I've been training consistently (5-6 times a week) for about 15-years now. I also always train in the evening but the main problem with training in the evenings is d.i.s.r.u.p.t.i.o.n.

Talks, dinners, functions, socials... these things always happen at night. If I've got to be somewhere at 19h00 I probably have to leave around 18h00. This crunches into training time and I find that I keep compromising on my training frequency and duration to do x, y and z. Training in the morning? I'm an owl, not a lark, and I realised more than 10-years ago not to even attempt the morning training thing. It is just never going to happen for me.

Over the past 5-months (new job, many social functions, juggling AR.co.za....) I've allowed too many disruptions. On Tuesday I finally said, "Enough!".

We diarise business meetings, birthday parties and races and we should treat our training schedule in the same way. I used to do this but somewhere along the way I lost my rigidity and became more... flexible. I'm returning to my old ways.

My fitness, health and sanity is my top priority and it is something that it important to me in terms of pure enjoyment and pleasure and as a mechanism that allows me to compete in anything that catches my attention regardless of distance or duration.

Pumpkins, join me and climb aboard this bus for a trip to Focusland. Focus on you. Focus on your exercise, activity and nutrition. Focus on things you want to do and focus on those things you want to achieve. Your company (or the one you work for) is not going to collapse on the ground in a crumble of rubble. In fact, I can guarantee that your dedication to you will make you more efficient, productive and happy. And that's really what it is all about eh?

Rogaine: How to get up a waterfall

What an awesome event this weekend! Of the 4 Rogaine events held annually this was certainly the best in terms of strategy and difficulty.

At previous events it was possible for all controls to be collected within the time period. But this year... it was impossible to run (and bike) this entire area to locate all controls. So, decisions really were about going North or South and how far you would be prepared to go to efficiently collect as many points as possible in the event time period (8hr for foot and 6hrs for bike). And, the best thing is that we barely saw any other pairs the whole time because the route options were not clear and defined. It was wide open. So, only when you got to the end could you find out where people had gone and how you'd done.

The Kaapse Hoop area is mountainous and the terrain - inside and outside of the forests - is tough. Aside from a couple of older, smooth forests, the rest was damn difficult going and much of the time you were either ascending or descending.On Saturday Tania and I had a fabulous and challenging route. If you're still wondering how we got up the waterfall... path to the valley floor, rock fall that Tania cunningly spotted and a body-width crack in the cliff that I fortunately found... phew!

Must say... we made a bloops in the beginning (at least we didn't run 180° in the wrong direction like we did last year) and got trapped by fences and vegetation but then warmed up, then took a dodgey route into the ravine and thought we'd lost loads of time. But we hadn't done too badly. A highlight of the morning was seeing a caracal catch a little buck (maybe a duiker? Couldn't see it clearly 'cos the caracal had wrapped itself - and its jaws - around the little thing). First time I've see a caracal up close in the wild. We walked far more than last year and so it was only when we got to the finish that we realised that we'd done ok in terms of route. Those that went North did a lot of running.

On Sunday it was the mountain bike Rogaine (3hr and 6hr options), which I did with Tim. I'm a lazy mountain biker so the mountains we'd covered the day were additionally daunting; it's one thing going up on your own, it's another pushing your bike up too.We did well for the first 3rs and then tried to take a ride indicated on the map up the side of the mountain from #2 to #1 - big points controls. We were ok for a while and then the trail fizzled and we were in bush. We hunted around, couldn't find access so we backtracked. We probably lost about 30-mins. We nabbed the next two controls and from #7 decided to head to the road end in the valley and bike-carry up the valley side (southern) to the road. We actually did pretty well until confronted by a cliff wall. Soooooo close to the road (probably about 50m) but we just couldn't get through. We tracked downwards again, sliced by vines and fallen branches. This was a strategic move that didn't pay off. That was a whack of time lost and we ended up flying back - on the main road - in the pelting rain, to finish late. I think we lost something like 175 points!

If this move had paid off... oh well... all part of the strategy eh?

Pieter, George, Joan, Botha family and all the other helpers and assistants who hung and collected the 80 controls that were spread around this massive area... thank you for putting this wonderful event on. Rogaines (and other orienteering events) are that much more intensive because of the mapping that has to happen. Pieter put in weeks of work in creating this map.

Tania and Tim, you're wonderful teammates and I thoroughly enjoyed our adventures.

Adventure racers... diarise the Rogaine for next year. It is the best way to really work on your navigation and is an exceptionally challenging orienteering discipline.

Pieter, consider my entry already in for next year. x