Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 44

William and Bennie at the finish
how fit they are and so on, so it was a bit of a gamble.
In the end, I decided it was a good idea, and William
became my pacer. It was a really good move though.”
This saw William run with Bennie through the nights
and then rest up in the day, then rejoin him the
following night. As the route was a loop, William would
be met by his girlfriend at designated points on the
route, and she would then drop him off later to meet
Bennie further along the route. “Having William actually
turned out to be a good thing. You get so tired that you
actually start to sleep walk. He would speak to me and
next thing I knew my head had bobbed. It was amazing
that I didn’t ever actually fall. I did stumble, but it could
have been quite serious had I fallen properly.”
Tactical Switch
Besides using a pacer for the first time, Bennie also
decided to employ different tactics to those he used
in the Munga. In the Mpumalanga ultra, he slept for
longer stretches of time, whereas in the Moab he took
only two ‘sleep breaks’ along the way, a 30-minute
nap at halfway, and another 40-minutes around the
280km mark. “The adrenalin helped me to stay awake,
because I was in full racing mode, but the longer the
race went on, the tougher it became to keep my eyes
open. The last night was really difficult for me, and I
could feel my eyes shutting.”
It was then that the companionship of William was at
its most important, and Bennie says he is well aware
of the role the American played in helping him earn a
podium place. “William would encourage me, and tell
me how far ahead or behind the other runners were.
This made a huge difference for me.”
“It is such a competitive race – every one of the top
10 finishers, on their day, could have won the Moab.
But I have no regrets about settling for third, because
it was still the most incredible experience. In South
Africa we are not used to anything like the countryside
we went through on the Moab. It was canyons, desert,
single track, and more. The closest we have to it in
this part of the world is maybe the Augrabies and Fish
River Canyon races, but nothing remotely close to the
scale that the Moab is.”
Lasting Memories
Of course, with Bennie being in full racing mode, did
not take a camera on the route, but says everything
is etched into his mind. “Sure, I do not have photos
to go back to and look at, but I will remember the
sunsets, the reflection off the rocks, the rugged
terrain. It is all embedded in my mind.” He also says
he may go back in the future and give the Moab
another go, and if he does, he will be better prepared.
“The MOAB was a great learning experience for me,
too. When I do something like the Munga again, I will
sleep less. I learnt that on the Moab. What I may do
different if I race the Moab again, is take a couple of
10-minute power naps. I did consider this, but it is a
gamble. I might have been able to go an hour faster
and that would have meant finishing second, but you
never know how that would have affected me, or the
others. If I had been napping and they passed me,
would that have spurred them on, and what would it
Bennie eventually finished third, crossing the line in
70 hours and 22 minutes. At one point he was lying
second, but he was caught and passed with just
7km to go. He did try to rally and fight to hold on to
second, but his not knowing the route played into his
opponent’s hands. “I did not know how much farther
it was, so wasn’t prepared to push too hard. Had I
known it was only 7km, I would have given it a harder
go. In the end, though, I was dead tired and could
sense the fourth guy closing in, so it became more
important to hang onto third than to try get back into
second.”
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ISSUE 124 NOVEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za