Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 112, November 2018 | Page 15

THE RUNNING
MANN
By Stuart Mann
LEGACY OF A SCHOOLBOY DARE
It was in the mid-1990s that a small group of 11 matric students from Amajuba High School and three of their teachers
sat around a campfire, discussing the future, when one student wondered aloud whether it was possible to walk between
the towns of Memel (in the Free State) and Newcastle (in Kwazulu-Natal). One thing led to another, a dare was unleashed,
and in small towns your word is your bond, so a few weeks later the same 11 boys and three teachers successfully
completed the 50km ‘Memel Walk.’
I
n fact, they enjoyed themselves so much that they
laid out the grand plan for an annual event to raise
money for charity, which quickly grew into a major
local cultural and sporting event that now benefits
the South African National Blood Service, and this
year saw the 24 th walking (and 5 th running) of the
Vlam Panelbeaters Blood Buddy Ultra, on Women’s
Day. It was only five years ago they decided to allow
runners to join in the fun, and the most popular event
is the walking relay, which attracts 140 five-person
teams. They are joined by 30 running teams, about
200 individual walkers and 100 individual runners.
Wee Bit Cold
Memel is a tiny town, so we just followed the lights
and located the start easily enough. This is one of
those events where the whole town gets involved and
local families had each brought a plate of eats for the
walkers and runners. As we entered the church hall, a
magnificent culinary exhibition unfolded and I liberally
tucked into the homemade breakfast buffet.
The temperature gauges in Memel are usually a
couple of degrees lower than anywhere else in the
country. Apparently, this is due to the geographic
anomaly of the town being in a slight depression
at high altitude (1750m), combined with being the
perfect distance from the surrounding Drakensberg
escarpment and accentuated further by lying
alongside the Klip River. Luckily, I was warned about
the cold start – it was -4°C in 2017 – so I had raided
my jumble shelf for several layers of warm tops that I
planned to peel off and discard as the sun came up.
Sadly, although the low cloud cover meant we
had the warmest start in many years – just above
freezing – it stayed at that temperature the whole
way to Newcastle, with a few rain showers thrown
in for good measure. In fact, I kept all four layers of
clothing on most of the way, and the main reason for
eventually discarding the outer layers was that they
were so waterlogged
that they were weighing
me down! However,
the water tables kept
everyone in good spirits
– and if you asked
nicely they would share
a glass of their good
spirits with you, Old
Brown Sherry being my
beverage of choice on
this sodden morning.
Party Points En Route
The refreshment stations are a real highlight of this
race. Businesses pay to host a station, with the
money raised going into the charity kitty, and many
have been involved since the inaugural event, and
are thus very attached to their favourite spot on the
route. This posed a bit of a problem in 2017 when the
organisers decided to move the finish venue to cater
for the growing number of participants, resulting in the
rather odd official race distance of 51.2km.
You see, the marker boards count down and were
located at the support tables – and the support tables
did not want to move to the new kilometre to go points.
Thankfully, with a bit of trigonometry and calculus, this
problem was easily solved: The boards were ‘adjusted’
to two decimal points. Now, if you want to check how
accurate your GPS is, you can calibrate it with the most
precise marker boards in the country!
Not All Downhill
I am glad that the original participants had some
sense when choosing which direction to walk: The
finish in Newcastle is about 550m lower than the start
in Memel. However, the first 17km is a steady climb
all the way to Botha’s Pass on the KZN border. The
downside of the misty conditions was that the brilliant
views normally on offer over the 6km descent that
follows were largely obscured. After hitting the bottom
of the pass, 5km of undulations lead to another gentle
7km downhill, but just in case you are feeling the cold,
a nasty 2km climb gets your blood pumping again.
This is followed by a flat section to the marathon
mark, and then a lovely 4km downhill to the lowest
point. Then there is a long, ‘slow poison’ climb to
the “Welcome to Newcastle” sign, but don’t let the
sign fool you… there are still 5km to go as you wind
through town and up one final hill to the finish. The
temperature was still just on the positive side of zero
when I finished at lunchtime, and all in all, this was
(quite literally) a super chilled run!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stuart’s lifetime goal is to attract a travel sponsor through his running blogs, so
that he can run more races and share their stories. Read his full blogs at http://runningmann.co.za, and
follow him @runningmann100.
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