At 6 am on a strangely warm May morning, forty-six runners set off on an extreme mountain race in the Natal Drakensberg.
Only two of them returned.
The other forty-four went all the way and completed the route successfully.
Originally an informal challenge organised by trail-running legend Bruce Arnett for a handful of friends, the 38k Water for Africa Mnweni Marathon has grown over the past five years to become an established and much-anticipated fixture on the trail running calendar. This year the race was held on 17 May, and formed part of the Montrail Ultra Cup, a series which brings together South Africa's top trail races and runners in a championship league table format.
The circular route starts and ends at the Mnweni Hospitality centre near Bergville. It consists mainly of donkey trails and hiking paths, with 2000m of climb taking the runners up the Mnweni Valley to the Lesotho plateau. The source of the Orange River marks roughly the half way point. 2000m of descent returns the runners to the Hospitality Centre via the Ntonyelana
Valley.
In many places the path is loose, rocky, and very steep, and there are several river crossings to make. The path is not marked, and runners must navigate using map and compass, and carry all the food and kit they need for a day in the mountains - however, the Drakensberg streams are clean, and there is plenty of fresh water available from Mother Nature. No seconding or
support other than emergency medical services is possible along the route, although a marshal is posted at the cut-off point at the foot of the 1000m Mnweni Pass to ensure that all runners are in good shape to begin the ascent within 5 hours of setting out on the race, or else turn back to the start. There is no vehicle access to the route after it leaves the dirt road at
approximately 5km, until it rejoins the road with only about 4.5k to the finish, so emergency medical and rescue services were co-ordinated from the plateau by Rob Thomas of MCSA, and on the route by race sponsor (and marshal) Stephen Mallory, and Vandre "the Hiking Medic" van Vuuren, of SAS Medical Services.
After a hard fought tussle for the lead, the winner, Gert Forster (no relation to the writer!) stormed home in 5 hours 1 minute, with race organiser Bruce Arnett a close second only 3 minutes behind. Englishman Trevor Hughes took third in 5 hours 8 minutes.
First woman Lisa de Speville frisked home 17th overall in 7 hours 58 minutes, with a clear margin over the second woman, (yours truly :-)) who arrived several places later in 8 hours 32. A couple of minutes later, third woman Geraldine van Tromp was the next runner in, having diced for second woman for most of the race.
The safety team dealt extremely professionally with the only major incident of the day. Rob Andrew took a nasty tumble whilst boulder-hopping just before the Mnweni pass, resulting in a suspected broken arm. Stephen and the MCSA team kept Rob comfortable until he was attended to by Vandre. Once the last group had gone through his marshalling point, Stephen Mallory walked Rob back to the start, together with Bernie Shiller who was feeling the altitude, and had wisely decided to take Vandre's advice not to continue up the Mnweni pass. Vandre hiked through to the finish with the tail enders to ensure that no-one was left behind or without medical care if required.A broken finger later in the race (and a few scuffed knees!) completed the roll call of injuries for the day.
The last group of five runners arrived in darkness with Vandre, just in time for prize-giving, after 13 and a half hours, which gives a good idea of the rugged nature of the terrain. The fact that they were all smiling gives a very good idea of the calibre of people who take up this challenge!
Thanks to generous sponsorship from Water for Africa, Salomon, Sweat Shop Southdowns Centurion, AR.co.za, TMS and others, every runner left the event with a spot prize from the raffle, a reflective snap-on wrist-band, a teeshirt and a medal. The general consensus seemed to be that 2009's date will be inked into the race diaries as soon as it is released. See you
there!
Laura
Only two of them returned.
The other forty-four went all the way and completed the route successfully.
Originally an informal challenge organised by trail-running legend Bruce Arnett for a handful of friends, the 38k Water for Africa Mnweni Marathon has grown over the past five years to become an established and much-anticipated fixture on the trail running calendar. This year the race was held on 17 May, and formed part of the Montrail Ultra Cup, a series which brings together South Africa's top trail races and runners in a championship league table format.
The circular route starts and ends at the Mnweni Hospitality centre near Bergville. It consists mainly of donkey trails and hiking paths, with 2000m of climb taking the runners up the Mnweni Valley to the Lesotho plateau. The source of the Orange River marks roughly the half way point. 2000m of descent returns the runners to the Hospitality Centre via the Ntonyelana
Valley.
In many places the path is loose, rocky, and very steep, and there are several river crossings to make. The path is not marked, and runners must navigate using map and compass, and carry all the food and kit they need for a day in the mountains - however, the Drakensberg streams are clean, and there is plenty of fresh water available from Mother Nature. No seconding or
support other than emergency medical services is possible along the route, although a marshal is posted at the cut-off point at the foot of the 1000m Mnweni Pass to ensure that all runners are in good shape to begin the ascent within 5 hours of setting out on the race, or else turn back to the start. There is no vehicle access to the route after it leaves the dirt road at
approximately 5km, until it rejoins the road with only about 4.5k to the finish, so emergency medical and rescue services were co-ordinated from the plateau by Rob Thomas of MCSA, and on the route by race sponsor (and marshal) Stephen Mallory, and Vandre "the Hiking Medic" van Vuuren, of SAS Medical Services.
After a hard fought tussle for the lead, the winner, Gert Forster (no relation to the writer!) stormed home in 5 hours 1 minute, with race organiser Bruce Arnett a close second only 3 minutes behind. Englishman Trevor Hughes took third in 5 hours 8 minutes.
First woman Lisa de Speville frisked home 17th overall in 7 hours 58 minutes, with a clear margin over the second woman, (yours truly :-)) who arrived several places later in 8 hours 32. A couple of minutes later, third woman Geraldine van Tromp was the next runner in, having diced for second woman for most of the race.
The safety team dealt extremely professionally with the only major incident of the day. Rob Andrew took a nasty tumble whilst boulder-hopping just before the Mnweni pass, resulting in a suspected broken arm. Stephen and the MCSA team kept Rob comfortable until he was attended to by Vandre. Once the last group had gone through his marshalling point, Stephen Mallory walked Rob back to the start, together with Bernie Shiller who was feeling the altitude, and had wisely decided to take Vandre's advice not to continue up the Mnweni pass. Vandre hiked through to the finish with the tail enders to ensure that no-one was left behind or without medical care if required.A broken finger later in the race (and a few scuffed knees!) completed the roll call of injuries for the day.
The last group of five runners arrived in darkness with Vandre, just in time for prize-giving, after 13 and a half hours, which gives a good idea of the rugged nature of the terrain. The fact that they were all smiling gives a very good idea of the calibre of people who take up this challenge!
Thanks to generous sponsorship from Water for Africa, Salomon, Sweat Shop Southdowns Centurion, AR.co.za, TMS and others, every runner left the event with a spot prize from the raffle, a reflective snap-on wrist-band, a teeshirt and a medal. The general consensus seemed to be that 2009's date will be inked into the race diaries as soon as it is released. See you
there!
Laura
