Hello. Apologies for the October silence – let’s just say it was so good to be back in the beautiful Cape after six weeks away that the thought of tapping away at a keyboard featured fairly low on my list of things to do.
I’ve been back nearly four weeks now, long enough to run all my favourite local mountain trails again, and to explore a whole bunch of new paths – that’s always fun.
I’m embarrassed to admit that on my very first run – which happened to be none other than the intrepid MountainMan-Tollner’s Hout Bay Triple Trouble, and also happened to be just 14 hours after an 11-hour flight back from the UK, I fell over my own feet on the descent from Suther Peak and managed to twist my ankle good ‘n proper. So alas, my Trouble didn’t even require a Triple – the very first peak did it for me, and I hobbled home to nurse a fat ankle.
And trust me, no girl likes fat ankles at the best of times.
So there I was, freshly home from running 310km across the Alps at pace without injury, and I can’t even manage 8km on a local hill at home. Go figure. At least I know what I did wrong: I did the unforgiveable... I sneaked a peak at the view. I know I shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t resist.
But I patched up well, and when the ankle had suitably deflated and gone through the necessary shades of blue-to-green-to-yellow, I was able to hit the hills again. Just as well really, as Sky Run is now just over two weeks away. Sky Run’s by far the toughest continuous 100km self-navigation trail race in the country. It’s so tough it’s been known to make runners weep.
And this year with Tiffendel finally having breathed its last (after doing a death rattle for some years), we no longer have to haul ourselves up to the final checkpoint at Ben Macdui (the highest mountain in the Eastern Cape, a tidy 3 001m above sea level).
Race organiser Adrian Saffy, bless his smelly socks, tells us he’s found a far better spot to finish the race. But anyone who has run one of Adrian’s races knows better than to fall for his choice of soft adjectives when describing his routes. This time he’s cushioned the description of the final 45km of this year’s Sky Run in comforting words like “along” and “down”, but all Sky Runners should know better than to fall for that one... We know this new route will be no less tough than the original – in fact, we already know the distance has grown to 110km... Thanks Saff!
I wonder what other delights await us Sky Runners this year?Labels: Sky Run, Trans-Alps, Triple Trouble
I’ve been back nearly four weeks now, long enough to run all my favourite local mountain trails again, and to explore a whole bunch of new paths – that’s always fun. 