Adventure Beckons, Answer The Call - Mike Els (22 September 2010)
Baviaans Trail Run
4:55am: Finally my clock goes off after a night that seemed to go on for ever! I laid in bed being nervous rolling this way and rolling that way. Thinking about my strategy and possible outcomes. Struggling with the absolute deafening silence brought on by being in the middle of no where. I hear the ladies in the other room getting up as well. They arrived at 11:00pm the previous night and did not have more that 5 hours of sleep. I feel bad for them.
5:30am: Down a quick breakfast while listening to the cars zipping past on the gravel road on their way to Geelhoutbos, it's still dark and the chickens start to wake up, I get in the car and follow suit.
6:10am: I turn off the main road and follow the other cars into the valley on jeep track towards Geelhoutbos. The valley walls is getting higher and the terrain rougher. I might have under estimated how rugged this race will be.
6:30am: Because this run is in a wilderness area they are super strict about litter, which is good! So there will be no cups at the one and only water point halfway at the highest point. it is compulsory to carry a 150ml cup with you. They check this before you enter the register tent. We received a huge goody bag!
6:50am: Race briefing! Last year a lot of people got lost on the final descent due to not listening to the race briefing. Everyone listened carefully this time around.7:05am: Go!!!!! It was a quick start with four of us leading a gap in the field. Kobus and Hylton soon disappeared into the distance. Christo and myself kept up a good pace while chatting and joked around that it felt like a road race. 4:16/km- way too fast! But I was feeling good and was able to talk so I stayed with it. We completed a 6km flat warm up before we hit the BIG climb. The climb would take us 800m up over approximately 8-10km. The jeep track was littered with egg size rocks. Very technical terrain. There were certain points where I thought how the hell did the water point crew get their vehicles up here. Christo looked strong and slowly pulled away while I took regular walking breaks up this monster hill. In the distance I could see Kobus and Hylton disappearing over the ridge. Looking back I had a glimpse of Andre in 5th. He was also doing much more running than me. I wasn't feeling strong up the hills like I would have wanted to. I think my mind was just not in the right place. The hill and continued and Christo started to disappear from view. It was time for some personal motivation, "Run what you can and walk the rest, the race is still young".
After the monster hill it was still some distance to the water point which was a couple of K's after halfway. We followed the ridge line over undulating terrain while steadily climbing to the highest point of the day. The views were amazing and the weather perfect. Overcast and no wind. Reaching the crest of each climb I had a quick glimpse back to see where Andre was. Jack joined him and this made me more worried.
Reaching the waterpoint at the highest point was great. The crew was friendly and filled my bottles. There was a variety of stuff to eat. I grabbed a hand full of Jellybabies and the marshall pointed me into the right direction. From here on we would follow a single track that disappears most of the time and some bright flags to keep us on track. The terrain was much more technical and I felt more at home. My stomach was cramping and it slowed my pace. I was hoping to go rather fast on the predominantly downhill second half, but my stomach wouldn't allow it. Although i was able to keep a steady pace and keep on jogging. Soon afterward I started to catch glimpses of Christo in the distance. Before long I passed him. My stomach started to feel better and I started to push the pace.We started to turn toward the left, toward the scree downhill where getting lost is a good possibility. At the top of the scree I passed Kobus, who was in second at that stage. With 4km to go, very technical terrain and downhill with the possibility of catching Hylton it was all systems go. If he was going to make a mistake I was going to capitalize on it. I went down the scree as fast as possible with near ankle twists and falling once. Hitting the last 2km of single track it was a full on sprint with the hope to catch Hylton. Running past all the cheering spectators was great.
10:40am: I cross the finish line in 3:35 and second place. Hylton finished in 3:30.
Big thanks to the organizers for a well planned event. Congrats to Hylton Dunn for a superb run making up 5 minutes behind first place at the water point to finish 5 minutes ahead. And big ups to the gentleman that ran with very old non running shoes! You my friend are an inspiration to us all!