Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 121, August 2019 | Page 59

TRAIL RUNNING
commendable 41st amongst a field of international
superstars. “With it being my first 100-kay, 13 hours
was my realistic time goal, with 12 hours being the
best I could expect on a good day. I finished in 13,
and felt I pretty much ran the race to perfection, just
as I planned it, and it opened my eyes to the level of
competition on the world stage. I’m going back at the
end of August to run the CCC again, and the goal for
this year is to do as well as I can.”
“All ultra runners that want to make a name for
themselves will enter UTMB, and from what I’ve
seen, I think this year’s CCC is going to be the most
competitive event at the festival. I know it’s going
to be tough, but I’m just going to run my own race
and see if I can hang on. I learnt a lot from last
year, especially that I need to train for long downhill
sections. That’s where I really lost time and positions,
on the 20km-long downhill section that you get
between 30 and 50 kays. We don’t have that kind of
terrain in South Africa, so I have had to be creative in
training. Obviously, my dream is to one day finish on
the podium at UTMB. I don’t know if that’s achievable
this year, but I’m going to certainly give it my best
shot.”
orrie’ Sche f f er
n
S
‘
y
Ror
Rory is known for his boyish young looks, and admits that he still regularly gets asked for his ID when going
out, even though he is now 27, and is wearing a wedding band after getting married to physiotherapist
Michelle in March this year! So, in an effort to look a bit older and stop people asking him to prove his
age, Rory decided to grow a moustache. “My dad and many in my family had beards or some sort of
moustache, and I think having one is quite quirky. I enjoy it, and my friend Grant Harper has actually
dubbed me ‘Snorrie.’ So I want to keep it, but my wife hates it. I’ll try to grow it on the sides so that I can
twirl the ends, but I’ve woken up twice to find Michelle trying to trim the ends with scissors!”
Having a mous
tache-related lau
gh with
fellow South Af
rican elite trail
runner
Naomi Brand be
fore the Dodo
Trail
RECURRING HEALTH ISSUES
Earlier this year, however, things were not going to
plan for Rory. It started when he was due to run the
Hout Bay Trail Challenge at the end of March, which
would serve as the qualifying trials for the SA Team
due to go to World Champs later in 2019. Rory caught
the flu a week prior to the race, but felt he was OK
by the time race day arrived. “I still had a good shot
at making the SA team, thanks to my Otter result,
so there wasn’t too much pressure in that regard – I
basically just had to finish the race in order to make
the team. But I had to pull out after 14 kays because
of the effects of the flu.”
Rory still made the reserve list for the SA Team
(which was subsequently cancelled by ASA, and
unfortunately did not attend the World Champs), but
says his training over the next two months was badly
affected as he caught the flu twice more. He was then
offered the opportunity by sponsor Salomon to go
race a 28km Skyrun event in Romania, with 2500m of
steep ascent, and unfortunately, once again was hit
with a bug just two days before the race. “I made it
four kays in and I just couldn’t breathe, because my
chest was so tight. I could have still finished, but if I
had carried on, I may have really done damage. I was
disappointed to bail a second race in two months, but
it was still a good learning experience.”
DEALING WITH THE DODO
Then in early July Rory was flown out to Mauritius as
one of the elite invited runners for the Dodo Trail 50km,
along with fellow SA elite Naomi Brand, and admits
he was a bit worried both about his body holding up,
and the difficulty of the route, with its 3500m of ascent.
“There was a lot of hype around the race, and if I’m
100% honest I thought it had been exaggerated, but
it is as hard as they say. It was definitely the most
technical race I’ve done, but also one of the most
enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the extreme downhills,
even though I got a bit of rope burn on my hands
Upbeat and ready to race the Dodo Trail
because I didn’t wear my gloves, but those sections
were quite short, so you just dealt with it.”
After a good start, Rory was lying second until the
halfway mark, but then he suddenly began vomiting.
“My body felt fine and I wasn’t nauseous, but literally
every time I took in fluid, it would come straight back
up. I could still eat, so I felt I was able to carry on,
and I didn’t want to pull out of another race this year.
I decided that even if it took me 10 hours, I was going
to finish the race! Looking back, I think there were a
number of factors that resulted in the stomach issues,
starting with coming off the back of three months
of flu and inconsistent training, plus the heat and
humidity in Mauritius. Also, we started on a flat 6km
section before they threw us up the first big climb,
and I think I overcooked it a little bit in the beginning.
I felt fine for 25 kays, but in the last 25 kays the vomit
count was 30 times! It wasn’t great, but I felt good
enough to push through.”
Rory eventually finished eighth, and says he was
happy with that, considering how his race went. “I
consider it a victory, and a mental win, because I
found out that my body can push through adversity.
The guy that finished ninth, just a few seconds behind
me, had overtaken me with 10 kays to go, before
the last big climb up Tourelle, before you hit the final
four kays of steep downhill to the finish. He opened a
100-metre gap on me, but I caught up to him again on
the first part of the climb. We ran together for a bit and
then he pulled away again when I stopped at the last
water point to lie down for five minutes and compose
myself. As far as I knew he was gone, but at the river
crossing just a few hundred metres before the finish,
I came around the corner and saw him just ahead of
me, so I sprinted as hard as I could and passed him.
If you look at the splits, I think my last kilometre was
sub-four minutes!
BACK IN BUSINESS
With his mind-over-matter performance at Dodo
still fresh in his mind, Rory came back to South
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