Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 43

That left Bennie’s plans in limbo, since the Ultra
Gobi was supposed to be his last competitive race
of the year. So, on a whim, he decided to enter the
One-Hour Challenge, an interesting event comprising
a 5km loop around a residential area in Pretoria. “You
run for 5km at a time and you have an hour in which
to do that 5km, so when you have finished the 5km,
you stop and rest. You then start again at the top of
the next hour, and you keep on going until you cannot
go on anymore, or you are the last man standing.”
must take all their gear with them, including a sleeping
bag, medical kit, clothes, and sustenance for seven
days. They must also self-navigate, with hand-held
GPS navigation devices mandatory. The only support
athletes get are water stations every 10km and rest
stations every 30km, where their pre-prepared drop-
bags with food and equipment await them, and where
they can rest up for a short while before pushing on.
While the elites take between 70 and 80 hours to
complete the 400km route, the backmarkers need all
of those seven days to get through the race.
but with
no luck –
the response
was always, ‘There is
nothing you can do’ – so that
cancellation was a huge stroke of luck.”
Bring on the Moab
Suffice to say, Bennie was the last man standing
after running for 37 hours! “Staying awake was the
toughest part,” he says... and yet, that “fun run” would
be of great value for Bennie’s next running adventure.
“It was during the run that I thought about the United
States again. I had approached some ultra trail
runners in the US a while ago, just to see what was on
offer in the States, and one of the events that came up
in the conversation was the Moab 240. So, while I was
doing the One-Hour Challenge, I remembered it and
decided to see if I could get an entry.” So, with visa in hand, Bennie started the long 22-hour
journey to get to the United States. He flew from
Johannesburg to Frankfurt and from there to Denver,
then made his way to Moab, Utah in order to start
the race on 11 October. The Moab 240 Endurance
Run is one of the more popular ultra races on the US
trail circuit, but is still limited to just 200 entries. The
organisers describe the 383km single-loop route as a
“240-mile footrace through desert, canyons, slick rock,
and two mountain ranges surrounded by Canyonlands
and Arches National Parks.” The race also features
8981 meters of ascent, with a highest point at 3225
metres, and an equal amount of descent! Runners are
given 112 hours to complete the distance.
However, that proved to be quite a challenge, because
Bennie needed a visa to get into the United States,
and had very little time in which to get this done. “The
process to get a US visa can take months, but I was
lucky, someone cancelled their appointment and I
got in, and two days later I had my visa. I remember
that the first application date that I could get was the
second of October, and I had to get on a plane on 6
October for Moab. I tried everything to get it earlier, Interestingly, while the race is a solo event, runners
are allowed to enlist the help of a personal pacer or
companion after the 55 mile (88.5km) mark. “A lot of the
runners use pacers, but for me that was a challenge,
since I could not afford to fly someone over from South
Africa, so I opted out of bringing my own pacer,” says
Bennie. “At registration, however, I met a local runner,
William Mitchell, who volunteered to pace me. At first I
wasn’t sure, as you don’t know how fast they are,
Hopes Dashed...
Sadly, Benny’s plans to run the Ultra Gobi had to
be cancelled at very short notice when the Chinese
military closed off parts of the route to all foreigners
on 1 August, just days before he was due to fly out
for the race! The organisers personally contacted
all foreign entrants affected by this, and offered full
refunds on flights as well as race and visa fees, but
it was still most unpleasant news to receive, says
Benny. “I was very disappointed, because I had
trained hard for this, and had to sort out visas and
search for flights. It was hectic, especially as I had
never flown abroad before, so I was both excited and
nervous.”
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