Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 111, October 2018 | Page 19

PJ’S PIECE
By PJ Moses
TRUE SA ADVENTURE
A finsihline
hug from
team
manager
Nick
Bester
W
e South African runners are a strange bunch. We flock to KwaZulu-Natal
en masse each year to do Comrades, and then we encourage others to
put themselves through the same ordeal, because as runners, we see
it as our duty to “run it at least once.” I have been there twice, and my two small
medals fill me with immense pride.
This strange phenomena is not just a road thing, though, it happens in trail, too.
The difference is that for the ultra trail races, the numbers of participants are
usually very small, either by design of the organisers or limited by the SANParks
permit issued to the event. This makes it even harder than Comrades to get an
entry, and thus makes it more sought after. You put your name on a waiting list
and hope to get that e-mail to say that you have made the cut.
the press conference that saw the team off, and as Team Captain she was
expected to say a few words. Despite the evident emotion and maybe a hint
of stage fright, there was no mistaking her confidence in both the team and in
herself. “We have a strong team. Everyone has prepared really well, Athletics
South Africa has been very supportive, so we should be able to give a good
performance.” Asked about her own expectations, she said she was hoping for
a 7:30 finish.
The Peninsula Ultra Fun Run in Cape Town, or PUFfer for short, is one such race.
It mixes 80km of a bit of road and spectacular trails into a bowl of ecstatic running
achievement that only the great Comrades can overshadow. And you don’t need
to spend your money on fancy kit. Trail is not about fancy kit, it is about the test.
The test to see that you haven’t gone soft as a human, to prove that you haven’t
lost all the wildness that our ancestors had. Proper mountain trail is about the will
to overcome the fear of the wild unknown, the fear of not being in control of our
environment and pushing ourselves beyond our self-inflicted artificial limits.
Counting the Laps
In Croatia, the four South African women ran together as a team for the first
60km and were lying 16 th , 17 th , 18 th and 19 th ,but then Salome surged as she
began to reel in several women who had gone out too hard. She gradually
moved up the field to 12 th , then 10 th and finally into seventh, crossing the line in
7:51:13.“We decided to run as a team