Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 120, July 2019 | Page 42

we didn’t know that at race briefing... we just smiled
and waved, and joked that as the only women’s team,
we would win, even if we came last. Race organiser
Andrew Booth of KZN Trail did try to impress upon us
that we shouldn’t get hung up on positions, times and
the absolute certainty that we would finish, because
anything could happen out there. And boy did it.
MY
STORY
Carla: Anyway, being aware of the fact that this route
was self-navigated, we downloaded the route onto
the GPS, found a little yellow line that showed us
the exact path to take, and were excited when we
found the blue dot showing us our location. We were
hundreds and totally good to go. See you before
sundown, we yelled to Andrew with a wink and a
wave as off we set to conquer Pondoland.
Pondo Ultra
Misadventure
(A Lesson in Being Better Equipped)
DNF... Those three letters cannot even begin to describe the emotion, the
adventure, the highs and the lows that Team Challenge Accepted went through at
the inaugural Pondo Ultra Trail Run. Did Not Finish, but oh what a day. And at
least we are alive! – BY CARLA FARINA AND SU-YEN THORNHILL
Pondoland here we come!
42
Carla: We ran the first 30 odd kilometres at a
comfortable pace and were lying in third place. There
was a point where a river crossing meant I almost
got washed out to sea, and had to be rescued by the
team right behind us, but being the only women’s
team, I feel the guys were not too put out by having to
save me. However, it was soon after this that things
really started to fall apart at the seams. But being us
– stubborn, competitive and completely clueless as
to how much trouble we were actually in – we didn’t
think much of it.
Carla: On the first of June, Team Challenge Accepted
set off on the inaugural Pondo Ultra Trail Run, which
began in Port Edward and ended in Port St Johns.
The goal was to run 103km along pristine coastline,
crossing some rather large rivers, and every so often
exploring a cattle path that should have taken us up
and over relatively small mountains and back onto the
beach. There was just one problem… This was a self-
navigated race, and while Su-yen usually has pretty
good directional abilities, I get lost going to the toilet
in my own home! Su-yen: The first stretch was along the beach – easy
to navigate, as we just had to keep the sea to our
left and the sky above us. How hard could this really
be? With infinite stars giving way to dawn, it really
was breathtakingly beautiful, and with the sun on
our backs, we felt hundreds as we consistently ran
for eight minutes and walked for two. Our first error
came when we somehow missed the turn-off to the
first water table and after much bundu-bashing and
getting stung by something (I later discovered that it
turned my second toe into a sausage), rock climbing
and scrambling to get off the rocks and inland again,
we came into the checkpoint in reverse, meeting our
fellow runners who were just leaving. In fact, retracing
our steps became a regular pastime throughout the
day.
Su-yen: At race briefing we were told to make sure we
had the route downloaded on our phones and smart
watches and sat-nav equipment. I can safely say that
we definitely did not have the right equipment to go
into unmarked, lonely territory with just Google maps
as our guide. For the most part there was absolutely
no cellular signal out there on the Pondoland trail,
and after a while all cow paths looked the same. But If we were perhaps more intelligent humans, we may
have questioned our sanity and safety, but being
largely daft, we pressed on. Between water table 1
and 3, we weren’t actually doing that badly, in so far
as we were lying third, and even though our detours
added many kays to our race, our spirits were high,
as we could still work out pretty much where we
were. The one tricky section, which involved routing
ISSUE 120 JULY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Su-yen in Pondo-
conquering mode
Su-yen: Race morning arrived, a 4am start at the
Wildcoast Sun resort, with 14 brave (or stupid)
warriors heading down to the beach. Within 2km we
had to swim across the first river – and these are not
play-play, ankle deep bodies of water, these are all-
engulfing tidal swamps of death, and the first crossing
certainly brought it home to us that this was not going
to be an easy day out with a bit of time on the legs.
The second river was even more hair-raising, as the
tide was going out and the drag was severe. Carla
and I felt the tug, and if it hadn’t been for Steve who
grabbed her, our race would be have been cut short
before it had even begun. At least our adventures
with SwimRun races prepared us for the shock of
swimming and running drenched, something we can
hand-on-heart say was probably our only advantage
out there.