The Gauteng Winter Trail Series took place this past month over four different venues (Groenkloof Nature Reserve, Segwati Lodge, Hennops River and Pelindaba) and each time the organisers put together a great day for everyone from Pee Wees to Masters to enjoy! We took part in the Short Course 'Challenge' series (part of the Training Philosophy not to aim for the Long Course just yet - more on that later) which comprised of 5-7km trails, each very manageable for the moderately fit and lots of fun for the overly enthusiastic! Each race had about 100m-150m of climbing so nothing too hectic with a good mix of open dirt road, twisty singletrack and a good helping of technical rocks thrown in the way.
Groenkloof was our training ground so we had a distinct homeground advantage going into the first race. Definitely the most technical of the four (especially when listening to the post race ranting and raving by everyone splayed out on the grass afterwards!) it was also the most fun.
Each race would see the young kids under 11 line up at the front - as the commentator would say - they only know one speed - FULL GAS! Amazingly there would always be a few in the top 10, most of them racing a very shrewd strategy of an interval-like nature, where they would run all out until they were exhausted, walk about 50m and then do it again!
We definitely had an advantage training on the technical course, since they sent you straight up the first hill right out of the gate, going down the other side it was almost too easy, since we did the same descent almost weekly, we were definitely able to open up significant time gaps to the people behind us going over the rocky terrain. Thereafter it was a relatively flat out and back with the same hill featuring at the end, and a fast downhill finish. The idea of a 5km race is basically a full on time trial, seeing how fast you can go, and for how long you can hold out (or so we thought - We managed to get our pacing strategy right only in the third race, Segwati - but only because we did the first of the Nissan Hazeldean series 75km marathon mountain bike race the day before).
At the second race in Hennops River there was a nice gradual climb to start, followed by a steep downhill with a nice section of singletrack along the aforementioned river, winding through trees, ducking branches, chasing the guy in front of you. This was one of my most memorable experiences, we were a group of about 5 running through trees and rocks following the twisting path and i was hit by the exhilaration as if in a movie featuring fugitives, chasing the bad guys in some heist movie - Awesome! I managed another 11th place in the Mens, while the Tarrin managed to win! The prize was awesome products from the main sponsor Adidas! They really had a lot of spot prizes and most people walked away with something with 3 stripes on it - bottles, caps, bags, towels shirts, socks - they had it all covered!
The third race was more of a road race - less singletrack with two hills before another downhill finish. This was the race we did the day after the mountain bike race, so we were both just going to see how it goes and take it easy, not sure how 75km in the legs would feel the day after. I managed my best result, it was a great feeling managing to keep in mind the mantra 'Easy.Light.Smooth' courtesy of Christopher McDougall's Born To Run and just gradually pulling away from people by the top of each climb. With a few steep sections thrown in, and a steep downhill which we also managed with ease due to our Groenkloof training, it was another downhill finish and I managed to overtake the guy I had in my sights for the last kilometer right on the line, my Inov-8 F-Lite 230 racers doing a wonderful job of cornering a sandy off-camber turn (wish they had live coverage to see that!). We managed a 9th and another first place with more Adidas prizes, we were really impressed with the level of Sponsorship.
The last run was held at Pelindaba, with Tarrin aiming for a Challenge Series win, while I wanted to improve on my 9th place as a best result. However I got a bit of a cold during the week and right from the first increase in incline I realised this would be a looong day. I managed to break out my 'old man shuffle' - because 7km is-a-long-way-if-you-have-to-walk. I managed to come in at about 4min longer than I could have, so all in all i felt good for surviving, although it was another great course with a nice downhill finish which I would have loved to race. Tarrin had a bit of bad luck, missing a route marker, and then turning back only to be unable to find the split, backtracking all the way to the start for a DNF - luckily they only take 3 out of 4 races into account so she still won the Challenge Series!
The organisers really went out of their way, and the Spur partnership was a real success, nothing like a seemingly unassuming Spur burger after a 5km Lactate fest to brighten your day! We thoroughly enjoyed our month of racing and will definitely be back for the Summer Series which starts in October!
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