Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 66, January 2015 | Page 12

Ma

In The Lead

Ou Ballie Master

Blaster
He’s got a few nicknames in trail running
circles, most to do with his age, but none
of them have anything to do with being
slow. On the contrary, Noel Ernstzen is
still giving the 20 and 30-year-olds a run for
their money, despite being in his 50s.

I

t’s been more than a year since Noel
Ernstzen’s epic 2013 run at the Otter
Marathon, when he became the first
masters age-grouper (50 and over) to
break the five-hour barrier in the Grail of
Trail, but still people are talking about it. In fact, it
has been called the most inspirational run of 2013
by quite a few people in trail running circles. That’s
because Noel set out to do something that very
few runners were able to do, let alone somebody
in their 50s, and he brought the proverbial house
down in the process. Pandemonium broke out
when he popped out of the trees near the finish,
and with race commentator Altus Schreuder going
crazy and everybody cheering him on, Noel made
it across the final water crossing, despite a few
stumbles, to cross the line in 4:57:04. Then the
emotion got the better of him and he lay down
and had a little cry as his wife Meg embraced him.
There were quite a few other people wiping away
a tear as well.
“I did a sub-five and I think I was 17th or 18th.
Three years earlier I would have won the damned
thing with that time, but that 18th means more to
me than any of the first places I had run,” says
Noel. “The thing about setting yourself goals is
that you need to visualise that you can do it, so
I visualised breaking five hours a million times,

crossing the line, hitting the watch and seeing subfive, hugging my wife… I lived that moment many
times over. And then I did it.”

Never Too Old

Noel (54) only took up running late in life, which
makes his achievements in the sport all the more
remarkable. He had last done serious sport in

Noel mixing it with some of
the top vets of trail running

junior school when he started cycling and later
mountain-biking in his 40s, then also got involved
in adventure racing, and in 2010 he found himself
lining up for a five-day adventure race in the
Southern Cape that included a marathon-length
run on the first day, along the Otter Trail. “I had
to start running to train for that event, so I was
not as fast as the other guys and not very good on
the technical running, and I remember I was so
peeved that so many people beat me on that run,
because I am quite competitive. So, I decided to
train for it and see how fast I can do it.”
“When I did the Otter proper the first time, I
saw the top two guys doing sub-five hours, and
I thought it’s unbelievable to run a race like this
in sub-five, it must be such an achievement, so I
decided to go for it myself.” That saw Noel embark
on an incredible run of wins and podium finishes in
race after race, usually beating all (or nearly all) of
the much younger runners along the way. He raced
the Namaqua Challenge, ProNutro AfricanX, Table
Mountain Challenge, Fisherman’s Trail Challenge
and many others, getting fitter and faster all the

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ISSUE 66 JANUARY 2015 / www.modernathlete.co.za

Images: Jacques Marais, Cherie Vale/Newsport Media

– BY SEAN FALCONER