TRAIL RUNNING
Fighting
Ashley in action at the Impi Obstacle race
FIT
He only recently took up competitive running, but Ashley Robinson is quickly making a name for himself on the trails, with various race wins and podium finishes to his name in both running and obstacle course racing. Seems the running bug has bitten this pro fighter, stuntman and personal trainer hard! – BY SEAN FALCONER
Having only decided to enter in order to enjoy his weekend run with a few more people, Ashley( 26) was rather taken by surprise when he found himself coming home first in the medium-length 10km race at the Fisherman’ s Friend Strongman obstacle course race in Paarl in October.“ I wanted to go for a run that day anyway, and I saw all the posters around town, so I thought OK, let me go run with the other people, and in my mind obstacles are like doing CrossFit, so I’ ll get a full workout in as well. Then I realised it was a big event with a lot of people, and it was a competition with prizes involved, so I could actually win something while having fun. Still, I was very surprised when I won it, because I didn’ t prepare to race and didn’ t prepare specifically for any obstacles, but my general fitness kept me going.”
Soon after the Fisherman’ s Friend event, he started winning various smaller trail running events in the Boland area, and then he finished second in the prestigious IMPI elite race in Stellenbosch in November, beating some of the top OCR athletes in SA on a very tough 20km course featuring 28 obstacles, including six elite obstacles. Ironically, he had planned to run the 10km medium-distance race on the Saturday, but at the last minute he was needed on set for stunt work in a film he had been working on, so he asked the organisers if he could move to the Sunday, even if it meant he had to race the elite race. And while many experienced OCR athletes failed to finish the gruelling course, Ashley once again found himself on the podium.
“ I was up with the leader, Anele Bans, for much of the race. He was leading until the 12th obstacle, and then I took the lead until the second-last obstacle, but I got stuck there for four minutes, because I didn’ t know how to get through the grip strength obstacle. I would get halfway through and my arms would fail, so I would have to start again. I then saw how
he did it and got through on my next attempt, but he was now too far ahead and I couldn’ t catch him again. Technique and strategy are important, not just strength, on some of those obstacles!”
FIGHTING SPIRIT
Ashley is actually a multi-talented sportsman. He took up karate at a young age and went on to earn his black belt, played soccer throughout school and after school, in between studying sport science at Stellenbosch University, has moved into professional Muay Thai, kickboxing and boxing.“ I started karate at the age of five, because at kindergarten I kept getting into a lot of‘ kiddie fights’ and had a problem with my anger, so my parents put me into a karate dojo, and it actually helped me to be more calm. I learnt to be a more disciplined kid, and with all the challenges that life throws at you, it’ s safe to say that martial arts
Images: BeSnapped, Chris Hitchcock & courtesy Ashley Robinson
22 ISSUE 102 JANUARY 2018 / www. modernathlete. co. za