Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 60, July 2014 | Page 13

had to pull out just as they started day four, then
Hazel’s ulcer began bleeding, forcing her out as
well after six days. She decided to rest up for race
day and went on to finish comfortably in 8:36:00.
(Lizet also ran the race, but found that seconding
duties had sapped too much of her energy and
she decided to bail at 53km when she realised she
wasn’t going to make the cut-off.)
That left Hilton to run alone from Harrismith, and
he says day nine was emotionally the toughest
of them all. “We would have run a loop from
Estcort, but at halfway the road got very busy
and there was no shoulder to run on, so I decided
to rather backtrack for the rest of the distance.
The problem was, that morning I had a visit from
clubmates at the start, and we took pics running
together in the mist, so I didn’t realise it was all

He adds that he was blown away by the amount
of attention the challenge received, both in
mainstream media and social media. “I was
totally oblivious to all the hype at first, I was just
running, eating and sleeping, but after the fifth
day I realised something was going on. I was
getting over 100 SMS messages and another
100-plus Facebook messages per day, and I simply
couldn’t keep up – I would type an answer and
get three new messages in the meantime! Even
then, I didn’t realise how big it had grown, until I
heard people along the route calling my name as
I passed, ‘Penguin Man, Hilton Murray, Ten10, go
for it.’ A huge thank you must go to Patrick Devine
for handling the social media side of things, and
to Gerald Yapp for designing and hosting the
website.”

Vital seconding by loved ones made
the challenge possible.

LET’S DO IT AGAIN

With the success of the 2014 Ten10 Challenge, the
intrepid trio have already committed to repeating
the run. “The Ten10 Challenge is going to happen
again, and Hazel and Carlo want to try again, but I
will only be involved in organising and seconding,”
says Hilton, adding that they have big plans for
2015. “It is an excellent platform to raise funds
for charity, so we’re thinking of having eight to 10
runners, and we want corporate sponsors to come
on board. We think we have established a nice
base to work from and are hoping to make this an
annual event as part of the run-up to Comrades.”

The placard that brought in the money.

downhill. When I got to the last four kays, and
it was uphill, I had to work really hard to come
in under 12 hours. I made it in 11:56, but I was
totally wasted – not exactly tapering before race
day!”

Hazel adds, “A huge thank you needs to go to
the Bedfordview Country Club members who
sacrificed their time, effort and money to create
the event infrastructure for the Ten10 Challenge.
Without their dedication and commitment, my

Smile if you like running!

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