Well done to all the folks who took part this past Saturday, the mountains were steep and ruthless and many folks made a wise choice to scale down to the 25 km route, only to get a bit lost on the way back to the Botanical Gardens. On the southern slopes there was mist to make navigation tricky and on the northern slopes the sun was heating things up and causing some dehydration problems later on in the day.
In the main event for the day, John Collins was in fine form and caught my marshals at Tierkop having breakfast, and beat my other marshals to the Herold Wines dam. We only just spotted him heading back up to the trail. Speaking of the dam, this is a controversial thing, and in hindsight I made an mistake to move the CP from North Station to the Dam. Sorry for all the scratched legs for those who bundu-bashed across the little stream. I did eventually break open a pathway for the back markers...
Everyone got off the mountain in one piece and most people managed to pull off a victorious smile as they crossed the finish line. There were a minimal amount of DNF's. There are many stories and legends born during a race like this, and two that deserve mention are Heather Jackson upgrading from the 25 km run to the 40 km run and doing very well (Heather was the only one brave enough to upgrade). Another story of note is Rob Patrick flying in from a business trip in Brazil and still completing the race - jetlag and all!
Thanks to all my marshals and helpers who assisted with the event. Some us put up checkpoint until the wee hours of Saturday morning, others shepherded the last runners along the route, spending over 11 hours out in the mountains (good time on your feet for Skyrun!).
Thanks also to Kappikappi for the awesome T-shirts and caps (the caps were handed out at random intervals as spot prizes).
Thanks to Black Diamond for sponsoring some Icon and Sprinter headlamps as spot prizes.
Thanks also to Liberty Life for a few caps to hand out as spot prizes.
It was my last year as head-honcho of the Om die Berg here in George, but I am already in discussions with possible candidates who can take over and continue improving the event. Please do keep an eye on this blog in the near future for more details. If your company would like to come on board as an official race partner, please also let me know and we can pass on your details to whoever takes over from me.
Once again thank you for your support these last three years! See you at the starting line sometime soon!
Garth
