RACING » WESTERN CAPE
WALKER BAY
BIG 6 XTREME
26-28 April 2019
Hermanus, Western Cape
From hardcore openwater
swimming to fun children’s
events, there’s something
for everyone at the weekend
adventure sports festival.
TOP 3 WOMEN
1 Vicky van der Merwe
2 Georgia Grobler
3 Megan McCarley
DAY 1: FRIDAY
Last year the 20km trail run ended
the weekend, whereas this year it
was the start event. This changed the
dynamics completely. The route was also
completely different, taking us through
the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, followed by
a long climb up to the TV tower and back
down into Fernkloof. It was a tough run
to kick off proceedings, but beautiful! I
felt crap (high heart rate, sore and tired
body) right from the start and considered
pulling out, but tried to stay positive
and just get through the run, soaking
in the views. One of our Stellenbosch
Triathlon Squad (STS) athletes, Georgia
Grobler (also a Big 6 contender) had a
phenomenal run and beat me by eight
minutes, making it a clean sweep for STS
girls as Anna Olivier came in 3rd. I now
had my work cut out for me if I wanted to
defend my title!
A few hours later was the Mile Sprint,
which was almost harder than the trail
run! In fact, most of the Big 6 athletes said
it was the hardest event of the weekend!
Lactate for days… The mile goes along
Marine Drive in Hermanus, and once you
get to the Windsor Hotel, it’s 400m until
the finish. It feels like the longest 400m
ever! The mile ends right in the centre of
town, which is always buzzing on a Friday
afternoon, making it an exciting finish. I
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TOP 3 MEN
1 Michael Ross
2 Riaan Shaw
3 Jonathan Jones
had a good run and managed to win the
event by 32 seconds (average heart rate
of 202!) which put me in the lead for the
Big 6 due to the scoring system. My legs
were already hurting and we had only
done two out of the six events!
DAY 2: SATURDAY
Day 2’s first event was a 35km mountain
bike race that started with a nice 3km
tarred-road climb up Rotary Way that
split up the field before we headed into
the beautiful Hemel-en-Aarde valley. For
such a short event, I think the organisers
did a great job with the route. It had a nice
variety of climbing, flowing singletrack
and stunning jeep track between the
farms. It wasn’t a very technical ride,
which made it do-able for all levels, but the
variety of terrain made it anything but boring!
I didn’t feel great, but thankfully slightly better
than the day before. I rode a smooth and
controlled race, placing 2nd overall but 10
minutes ahead of the next Big 6 contender.
Event 4 was only two hours later – the Sea-
and-Sand Xtreme and my least favourite of
the six. I have serious vertigo and really don’t
like jumping off cliffs! You start off with a
short 400m swim, run 1.5km (in your wetsuit)
along the cliff path, jump off the infamous
Dreunkrans, swim 300m, do some rock
hopping, run 800m, jump off a cliff in the old
harbour and finally swim into the old harbour.
Last year there was a nice little ladder for
me to climb off the rock at Dreunkrans, but
apparently this year it had gone missing,
through surf-ski and SUPping races to
fun runs along the Cliff Path. You can
even jump off the cliff if you do the Swim
Run Jump event.
The main attraction is the Big 6
Xtreme. As its name suggests, it
comprises six events. This year we
did the Blue Mountain Xtreme 20km
Trail Run and the Marine Mile Xtreme
Sprint on the Friday. On Saturday, we
competed in the Valley Xtreme 35km
MTB and the Sea & Sand Xtreme Swim
Run Jump. Finally, we rounded off our
three-day weekend with the Walker Bay
Xtreme Sprint Triathlon on the Sunday
morning, followed by the Open Water
Xtreme 2.5km Open Water Swim in the
afternoon. Athletes score points out of a
100 for each race, and these are added
together to give everyone a very fair total.
My lead-up to the event wasn’t great
as I was in bed with bronchitis for
10 days, and only ended my course
of antibiotics the Wednesday before
travelling to Hermanus.