I am a social endurance enthusiast by nature. In my earlier life I played many types of ball games, including tennis, hockey, golf and squash.
I loved running as a youngster merely for fitness purposes. But I was brought up on a sports TV diet of Comrades Marathon in the heyday of the Comrades King Bruce Fordyce, a 90km ultra that is also said to be the world’s biggest ultra-marathon, and always had running the Comrades featuring prominently on my mental bucket list since then.
Eventually, after a number of years of becoming too sedentary for my liking, I resolved to train for something substantial to reverse this “road to ruin”, ending up doing my “up” and “down” Comrades in 2002 and 2003 at the age of 36/37.
It was a few more years before I undertook my next bucket list item, a trip up Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.
And from here on the bucket list momentum increased, followed with 3 rather pedestrian-paced but very enjoyable Ironman South Africa outings, in 2009, 2010 and 2012.
The swimming part of Ironman, while by far the smallest part, was most “intimidating” aspect of Ironman for a guy who’s only swimming feat was splashing around like a beached whale at the Midmar Mile weekend to earn a few beers.
But in between my last 2 Ironman outings, something more unique caught my fancy in 2011.
The 2,100 Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa, a non-stage mountain bike race across very remote and rugged terrain, semi-supported and with no GPS navigation allowed…only maps and narrative. It runs from Pietermaritzburg to Paarl, and includes some spectacular mountainous terrain. After about 3 weeks, with my old FNB colleague Albert Humphries, of sometimes riding bikes, often pushing and sometime carrying bikes, and getting regularly lost in the process, I was hooked on various forms of ultra-distance cycling.
In 2014, I rode my longest race to date at time of writing with regular riding partner Paul Erasmus, and Marius Joubert. This was the now defunct 2,850km odd unsupported Trans-Afrika Bike Race from Beit Bridge Border Post in the far north of South Africa, to Cape Town via check points in Swaziland, Lesotho and Prince Albert…..13 days and 23 hours of “pure freedom” across some of the loveliest parts of SA.
i have tried my hand at a few 24 hour lap mountain bike races around Johannesburg, my home town, managing to get the odd “podium” spot. These are lap races where one tries to see how many laps one can do within a 24 hour time limit. They can get a bit boring, but are a good mental test as a result, as one tries to avoid the temptation veering off the route into the festive race villages to join the braais that rage or to have a sleep late at night.
And I’ve subsequently done a series of non-stage unsupported races, including the now defunct 600+km Durban Dash “down and up rides between Johannesburg and Durban, a 600km+ 34-off hour non-stop stint for “slowies” like me, but do-able in under 24 hours “down” for faster riders.
The popular 36One single-stage 361km mountain bike race around Oudtshoorn area has also been one of my favorites.
In more recent years, I became enthusiastic about riding from Joburg to Cape Town, in an unsupported (now defunct) race known as the 1,000 Miler, across the vast expanses of the Free State and Great Karoo via a network of mostly gravel and very remote roads and towns….experiencing the small platteland towns, their hospitality and cuisine as one goes.
In my 50’s now, apart from giving me immense enjoyment, I believe that being a “wannabe social endurance junkie” has done wonders for my physical and mental health (though my mates and work colleagues doubt the latter), caused me to meet some wonderful characters along the way, and slowed the ageing process significantly….and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
I try to avoid reading any science-based or other literature that may point to ultra-endurance sport being harmful to one’s health.
No comments:
Post a Comment