Ma In The Lead
MUNGA
MARVEL
The experts will tell you that female long distance endurance athletes actually get stronger and more competitive versus men as the distance increases, but it is still unusual for a woman to leave literally all the men in her dust … and yet that is what Jeannie Dreyer came close to doing at the Munga MTB event in early December. – BY KYLE DEELEY
When it comes to South African endurance sport, Jeannie Dreyer is pretty much‘ Royalty.’ She has excelled in every sport she has attempted, with wins or podium finishes in such prestigious events as the ABSA Cape Epic( second in the mixed category), XTERRA triathlon SA Champs( second), Otter Marathon trail run( winner) and AfricanX Trailrun( winning team), Powerman Duathlon( winner) as well as numerous adventure races. |
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She also represented South Africa at the IAU Trail World Champs in running, and earned herself a slot at the XTERRA World Champs in Hawaii( finished 12th), as well as the Coast to Coast Challenge in New Zealand, the unofficial world off-road multi-sport champs, where she finished fifth. She even finished on the podium in several canoeing races, although she is quick to point out that paddling in tandem with her husband Martin Dreyer, the seven-time Duzi Canoe Marathon champion, did rather give her an unfair advantage …
With that incredible roll of honours in mind, it should come as no surprise that Jeannie’ s mom has always loved telling people her favourite story about her daughter’ s famous sporting prowess, specifically about the fist time she participated in a race at school.“ I apparently
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came home from playschool, saying I ran a race that day and won, and beat all the boys!” says Jeannie with a big smile. And with that in mind, it seems her second place overall in the recent Munga MTB race shouldn’ t really come as such a surprise, but don’ t let that detract from what was an incredible performance. In fact, she very nearly won the whole thing!
ONE TOUGH COOKIE
The Munga is affectionately known as the world’ s toughest race, a gruelling non-stop semi- supported 1080km race across the Karoo from Bloemfontein in the Free State to Wellington in the Western Cape. Some people have joked that overall it must be a downhill race, since Bloemfontein lies at a higher altitude than Cape Town, but ask anybody who has ridden this event and they’ ll tell you otherwise – and this year’ s race was still tougher thanks to pretty much constant headwind that the riders had to battle for three days.
Unsurprisingly, it is an event with a high rate of attrition amongst entrants, some of whom have technical issues with equipment that knock them out of the race, and others whose bodies or minds simply cannot go the distance. That’ s why of the 79 riders who started this latest Munga, only 39 finished. It is also an event that requires a long build-up of both physical training and mental preparation, and Jeanie says she actually felt undercooked before the start.
“ I was not as well prepped as I would have liked to be for the Munga. Suddenly it was nearing the end of November, with old school activities and new school organising to take care of, while Martin was away from home for a bit, but life happens and a mom’ s job is never done, and maybe being so busy was a blessing in disguise, as I started with no expectations,” says Jeannie.“ I just couldn’ t pass up the opportunity to take on a race like this. It was a great opportunity to be able to test myself and give it my all.”
Images: Courtesy Martin Dreyer & Jeannie Dreyer
46 ISSUE 91 FEBRUARY 2017 / www. modernathlete. co. za