Cold, Wet and Happy: My Rhodes 2012 Experience
by Mark Thompson
Well after managing to put this off for several years, I finally decided that I’d better use my entry and not give it away again to other running friends. The idea of running across the Eastern Cape mountains in snow being just too inviting now that I’m a confirmed trail running addict. Little did I expect what I got! Suffice to say that in one of the pre-race information fliers, runners were warned to wish for too much (in terms of weather), since you might actually get it!
Anyhow, the days leading up to the race were spent on several farms in the eastern Free State and further south in the Eastern Cape, all the while listening to weather predictions of a major cold front approaching that promised the hoped for conditions. Come Friday before the race the rain started. Not what I expected, not at all. It was supposed to be bitterly cold with frosts, snow and crisp blue skies? Now the trepidation started to set in, since I had more than enough cold weather gear to go up to the mountain tops, but I didn’t really consider what I had that suitable for a run up a rain soaked mountain; especially not to over 8000 feet in winter. Uncomfortable memories of a misspent youth in the mountains of Wales and Scotland, with wind-chill effects etc came flooding back. Whatever, the rains are bound to move on and the cold will definitely kick in before the start on Saturday … yeah right!
Woke up early on Saturday morning to the continued sound of rain pouring down onto the farm cottage’s tin roof! Damn, this wasn’t part of the plan. Some serious re-evaluation of my running attire for the day resulted in, what turned out to be the one of the best decisions for the day, a dumping of the thin running socks in preference for some really heavy-duty wool hiking socks. If it works for sheep it’s good enough for me! Finally scrounge an extra jacket from the wife and stuff it into the camel-pack and off to the start… Fingers crossed.
At the start it was good to see other runners in basically the same attire, getting just as wet and humbled by the weather. Then partial relief from the organisers: the route was being changed to exclude the top of the mountain section because of the severity of the weather up there and the inability to manage the safety of both runners and water point helpers!
Hmmm. Conditions becoming interesting.
We couldn’t actually see this “weather” at that point because of the rolling low clouds blowing across the lower slopes and the continuous rain / drizzle washing across the area. According to the organisers this was the first wet start to the race in 17 years! Just my luck, although to be honest I think I was on one half disappointed by the lack of the mountain section, but on the other hand secretly somewhat relieved that I wasn’t going to become a candidate for hypothermia at 8000 feet! On the positive side, as the announcer said, it was also a blistering 5°C at the start, which if the rain was ignored, was a local heat wave by previous race standards.
The new route basically consisted of two out-and-back legs along what would normally be the climb into and come off the mountains. For logistically reasons we did this in reverse, but first running up the Carlislehoek road and then the Naudesnek / Tennahead Lodge road (if you know the area). This meant that it was basically going to be 50-odd km’s on dirt road with little or no off-road trail running. Or so I assumed. After 24 hrs of incessant rain the dirt road was basically a thin line of deep sludge, not dissimilar to the last hundred metres of Two Oceans this year.
Just much longer!
Soft wet and generally very squiggy would be an apt description of the ankle deep mud. I now have developed a new running style / gait that consists of a penguin-like waddle, which minimises sideways slippage!
At first this was a pain, but after a while (read 30 km’s) it was actually quite pleasant since it was much softer on the feet than the normal dirt would have been, and I don’t like doing a lot of road distance in trail shoes.
