2010 MTN National Ultra-Marathon Series Round-Up

This was the year I told myself that I would pursue my love for racing my mountain bike and try compete at the top level in South Africa. In order to do this I wanted to participate in the high profile mountain biking events, which attracted the best riders in the country. This would therefore be the MTN National Ultra-Marathon Series.

The series consists of 7 races around the country. However, “around the country” means more “up country” as only two of the races exist south of Lesotho! Therefore, a large amount of traveling would be involved along with its accompanied expenses and logistics regarding work etc.

I am very fortunate to have an unbelievably supportive fiancé, Jayde that accompanied me to all these races. This makes a big difference not only for the much needed backup support during the races but also for the moral support throughout the trips! Also her family for accommodating us in Joburg and happily providing their car for our transport to and from the races making my participation in this series achievable!

Attakwas: 135km, 2600m climbing, 6hr23min, ave spd 21km/hr, 14th position
The first race being the Attakwas was the most local one for me as it was in the Western Cape, however, still a 4 to 5 hour drive away but at least no flying involved. This is dubbed as the hardest one-day race in the country, which I believe it definitely lives up to! I had a decent race with a fairly decent result.

Barberton: did not race
Barberton was one of the races I would have really liked to have done but it is a very long way to travel and the timing of it was very close to the next race at Sabie, which is very close to Barberton and also happens to be the SA Champs race. I therefore chose to skip Barberton and rather do the SA Champs race at Sabie.

Sabie, SA Champs: 110km, 3000m climbing, 6hr03min, ave spd 18.1km/hr, 41st position
Sabie was a long way to go, but it was SA Marathon Champs and what looked to be an awesome course with lots of climbing and therefore definitely worth it. It would be my first race on my new carbon Shimano XT Felt! I unfortunately had a horrendous experience with fixing punctures and therefore didn’t have the race I was hoping for. With a total stoppage time of 45 minutes!!! Therefore this meant that I had an average moving speed of 20.5km/hr. I at least finished and got some points for my efforts towards the series rankings.

Clarens: 98km, 2100m climbing, 5hr41min, ave spd 17.2km/hr, 24th position
This had to have been one of the worst races of my life! I completely blew and came the closest I’ve ever come to pulling out of a race! My body really took a serious beating, but I soldiered on to the finish.

Cullinan: 104km, 1400m climbing, 4hr30min, ave spd 23.2km/hr, 12th position
This race came after a few months break in the series calendar and my moral was a little on the low side due to my past two races! However, I believe that these past two races help me gain valuable experience on how to tackle these ultra-marathon races and I was feeling quite a bit stronger at this stage of the season as my training had been going well. I had my team mate Charles to race with, which we did quite well for most of the way until I blew a bit in the last 30km. However, I was happy to get a decent result.

50 Miler KZN: did not race
This was another one that I would have really liked to have done! It would have been a nice change from the hot, dry and rough Highveld terrain with some decent climbing and therefore would have suited me. However, I had commitments back in Cape Town over the weekend.

Crater Cruise: 104km, 1100m climbing, 3hr51min, ave spd 27km/hr, 11th position
I wasn’t planning on doing this one until I saw that Parys wasn’t that far from Joburg. So it was nice to be able to race the last round of the series against a highly competitive field and come out with my best performance on top of that on a course that doesn’t really suite me.

The series rankings works by adding the points of your best 5 results out of the 7 races thoughout the year. Therefore the more races you do the better advantage you have. In the end I competed in five of the seven races and out of those five I had two very bad races and three decent races. This placed me 13th in the country for 2010. I am pleased with this result as there is a very solid top twenty competitors in the country and a highly competitive top ten! It is definitely a foundation, which I can take into 2011 and improve on especially after improving thoughout the year.