Dean Barclay, Nicky Booyens, Peter Purchase, and yours truly spent five days on the trail from Pietermaritzburg to Rhodes village. In that time, South Africa had reacted decisively to COVID-19. The afternoon of Saturday 21 March was a reality check. Lockdown was going to happen – and soon. With 360km behind us, 120km to go, 36 hours left on the clock – anyone would have fought the odds for a chance to finish, or let the clock run out and cut in the field.
Except we didn’t. We made a safety call. It was time to go home. The adventure was over. It was fortunate that we had friends in the area who had the ability to extract us. ‘In the area’ required a 12-hour round-trip drive for Paul and Kelly Freeth, arriving at 3 am on Sunday at the support station.
No precedent for failure
Nothing in life had prepared me for that moment. I cannot recall any situation where I have elected to quit or to voluntarily be removed from an environment. No appeasement offer sounds like anything but excuses for the DNF. But still, I believe we made the correct call.
By 6pm Saturday, after five and a half days of trekking and trotting, we had traversed 400km in total, 360 on the actual route, and estimated our sleep at under 10 hours. At that point 120km may have taken closer to 48 hours, and it appeared that we were not going to beat the clock, unless a miracle happened. We had run out of miracles.
After we left Malekgolonyane support station, we missed the trail down and to the left. We missed the next turn, and the next. Dusk settled quickly, and with it, a sense of panic.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 36 من TRAIL.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة Issue 36 من TRAIL.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Heat Cheat
In his How Or Why series, coach SEAN TAIT, founder and Running technique coach at Off the Mark, digs deeper into specific issues troubling TRAIL readers.
Pacing The Way To Change
Seeing a need, Jo Keppler ran 130km to raise funds for the Southern Lodestar Foundation breakfast programme on Saturday 6 November 2020.
Die Ander Tafelberg(e)
Dalene van Staden developed Die Ander Tafelberge* project, recruiting Caro Jordaan and Magan Hanekom to summit all 15 Tafelberge in the Western Cape, ending with Cape Town's Table Mountain.
Dodge The Super Plods
We all want to get faster, not slower. But the plods are real – if we overdo our training. Stay fast with Joburg-based coach Neville Beeton.
Grounding Is It The Missing Link?
Durban biokineticist Stephan Terblanche has been in private practice for almost 25 years. One of his biggest frustrations is that some patients do not get better, regardless of treatment, for unknown reasons. He believes that a lack of grounding is a major factor.
THE ALIENS ARE HERE
Why do we run? There is no simple answer.
Meeting Rona
Being young and fit doesn't faze COVID-19. Salomon runner THABANG MADIBA (36) experienced this for himself.
For the Love
RACHEL MANYATHI is an ultra runner and high school teacher whose life centres around kindness, and mountain adventure.
Cultivating FLOW
High-performance coach CRAIG CAROLAN shares the Tao of Mike and positive psychology to help you reach maximum gratification on the trail.
Bites & Stings
Life support medic ALET MAARTENS is a Gauteng-based trail runner with a few tips to keep you safe against summer bugs with big appetites or short tempers.