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31/07/2009: South Africa
Rhodes 2009
By Dion Middelkoop
Now where does one start this story? I would say I must start back in about ‘94/95 when I had friends running and they told me that I must run this race, so when Leo dropped me an email and said he had a couple of entries, I was there…
For those of you who don’t know, Rhodes is a 52km trail race high, 1800m, in the Eastern Cape Mountains, so a month after Oceans (I need the time to let a dodgy knee recover.) I started training. Things were going well till the 2nd day!!! When I pulled / tore / stuffed up, my calf!!! It wasn’t till 4 weeks before the race that I could start running properly, so with 2 runs over 2 hours and 3 over 1 hour (since Oceans) I packed the car with Dawn and the dogs and headed to the mountains.
Yes it’s difficult to get an entry for the race, but it is even more difficult to find accommodation so we were staying 30km out of town (if you can call Rhodes a Town) and after a cold night’s sleep we drove through in the dark to the start.
I moved to the front of the field so when the whistle set us off I didn’t have any further too run than needed… The starting pace was easy and I joined Bruce Arnett and some others at the head of the field. Through the 1st water table I only stopped to have a couple of drinks before heading out again. The Gravel road we had been on headed on up the valley. Either I slowed or the others sped up, but our little group of 4 was no more… As the kms ticked away I last another place and at ‘feeding’ station 2 where I stopped to take off my long sleeves, yes at -6 even I started with long sleeves… I lost a couple more places having my drinks and putting my top in my pack, not racing meant I was in no rush to set off and chase down the guys in front of me.
The road was a thing of the past, the 13.5km had taken me 70mins and now the real race started. This 2nd stage of the race took one up the valley of ‘Mavis Bank’ to the Lesotho border road. Well cattle don’t leave the best of paths to follow and without the help of the route marking I would have lost the path a number of times. I slowed to cross the 1st Real River, and 2 guys court up to me. We ran together with me setting an easy pace trying to remember that a) I wasn’t racing, b) it was still a long way, c) I wasn’t very fit, and maybe most importantly it’s nice to run with other guys. Maybe 45mins into this stage we reached the feeding table (these guys had camped out over night to set up this table, mad I tell you. Since the Schnapps was already set up I had to be the 1st to knock back a couple of tots!!!
Things weren’t warming up as it was now -8, and the only way to keep warm was to keep moving, so on we headed up the valley. Not only did I lose one of the guys I was running with, but I also lost the flags marking the route!
I stopped to look around and saw where to go… I didn’t see the flags, but I saw 2 guys half way up the mountain. We had reached the ‘Bank’ of Mavis Bank… This km up the side of the mountain was going to be a hard slog as all you are doing is picking your way through patches of snow, ice and bushes as you, at times, pull yourself up the fence!!! Yes it’s that steep.
I didn’t quite catch the guys I saw from the bottom, but I did drop the guy I had been running with. The top isn’t really the top, the mountain does go on, but we had reached the Lesotho Border Road, 2500m, and it was time to turn left and head to Tiffendell. The last +_ 8km had taken 74 ½ mins, so now we were on a road and it was time to stretch the legs… I didn’t stop to stretch like the guys I had been chasing, so I caught them and we headed on down / up the road. The running was easy for about 100m, then we hit the snow!!! I haven’t run in real snow before and it’s not the easiest thing. With the snow being a few days old it had a slight ‘crust’ and if you were lucky you could take a step or 2 before your foot would disappear knee deep into the snow. So for the next 8.5ish km we walked / ran and stumbled along the road. Now you can’t be in all snow and not have the child in you come out!!! I just had to stop and fall into the perfect snow to make a ‘Snow Angel’ but it wasn’t the best of snow angles as my arms got cold!!! I was on my own as I got close to the feeding table and there was a TV crew filming us, I don’t know if the camera was running, but I picked up some snow and like any self respecting guy I threw a snowball or 2 at them… the 8ish km had taken 55 ½ mins.
At the table I stopped for hot chocolate it just seemed like the right thing to be drinking in the snow!! You could have stayed there all morning eating potatoes, chocolate, jelly babies and I think one of the tables had RIBS!!! All that said I couldn’t hang around I had a lovely Wife and 2 puppies waiting for me back at Rhodes. So I waved good bye and took to the road. With the snow being so heavy we didn’t run the ‘ridge’, but stayed on the road. This was going to be fast, 22ish km on a road and down hill at that! Only problem, I wasn’t very fit, I was at altitude, and I was buggered from the 3 ½ hours I had been on the go. It was really a case of one foot in front of another, and then just kept going. I was moving and as the km’s past me by, that was all that mattered. The road rolled along and then we reached the end of the ‘plateau’ it was time for a little downhill, and at 1:3½ this was no easy downhill. It was quad destroying stuff, it was one of those hills I look at and just want to run up… (I’ll leave that for another day.) Just how steep is steep, well it makes Suikerbossie look flat.
On one of the last bends there ahead of me was a feeding table, I so needed a break and there was an open chair, so I just plonked myself down, and boy did the helpers run to help me… Are you OK? Can we get you anything? Yes something to drink. Water, Coke (although I think it was Pepsi), juice, Tea, Coffee, Old Brown, Beer. As it was almost 11 and the sun was out I thought it was time for the 1st beer of the day… The last 10km of the race followed the river into town, and without km markings I just took splits every 6 mins to count down the km’s. Dawn was about 1km out of town and had almost given up on me when I came plodding past. I finished in 11th with a time of 5h35:25 a good effort for what I had put in.
Would I go back? Would love too, but would like to be in shape, and NO round isn’t the shape I’m thinking of.
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