Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 63, October 2014 | Page 30

Ma

my goal

Chasing a Year’s Goals
As soon as I heard of the Ultimate Trail du Mont Blanc, a 160km off-road ultra in Europe, it went straight to the
top of my bucket list. To qualify for the UTMB, you have to accumulate eight points from a maximum of three
qualifying races, so I started last year when I finished the Skyrun Lite 65km in the Witteberg Mountains. Two
points in the bag, two runs left to get the other six points needed to qualify. – BY JAMES ‘JAMO’ DAVIS

Setting my goals

for 2014 was done
at 11:45am on 30 December 2013 in a
tweet: “Goals 14: 1 Enjoy, 2 Finish. Sub-3.30
marathon, Sub-4 4Peaks, Sub-18 Skyrun,
Lettierun, TwoOceans, Valleyrun, Comrades.”
Then entries opened for the Puffer & Tuffer
Puffer Trail Run and I applied for the Tuffer,
a 160km mixture of trail and tar, and was
accepted. It was only later in the year that I
found out that the Tuffer Puffer would give me
three points, the same as Skyrun, meaning
that if I completed both runs, I would have the
eight points needed to qualify for UTMB.

RUNNING FOR LETTIE

Running through the year I have been very
lucky to join in the Lettie Run (Puffer route
from Cape Point Lighthouse to the V&A
Waterfront) and then running the Two Oceans
Ultra the next day in my pink tutu, and then I
also completed the Wartrail the next weekend

“Now I run for fun and
for causes, so I’m either
in my red speedo for
the DaREDevil Run or
wearing pink in support
of the Pink Drive “
30

Jamo in his pink rabbit onesie,
bouncing around the mountain in
the 4Peaks Challenge

“All that mattered was that finish line and
getting there, not only to get the three points
for UTMB, but to finish for Lettie.”
(65km mountain run, 135km mountain bike
and 65km canoe paddle). So my goals were on
track, having got my first Sub-4:00 marathon,
finishing the Lettie Run and Two Oceans.
That meant next up were the Valley Run and
Comrades. We did the amazing 110km Valley
Run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg for the
Mamu Loman Federation, and a few hours
after 24 of us finished that, Guy Allen led four
of us to take on the Comrades. The first 16km
of the Big C was all I could do, having had a
great run the day before. It was my first DNF
of the year and meant missing one of my
goals.
Then in ѡ