MTN National ultra-marathon #5 Mabalingwe

Only 7 days ago I rode across the finishline on Scottburgh beach to complete the 9 day, 900km journey of a race from Heidelberg known as the joBerg2c. Racing a National ultra-marathon a week later without much time for recovery was going to be interesting and not something I wouldn't normally do. However, I needed it for the series points due to missing the previous one in Clarens that took place during joBerg2c as well as crashing out of the Sabie one.

The setting for the fifth national ultra-marathon event on the calendar was a race through the bushveld. Yet again this year, Mabalingwe would be another first time event for me. Although the race was new to me the area was not completely new to me as 18-months ago I was spending some very special time there with my number one supporter and wife Jayde, on our honeymoon. I seemed to recall that there weren't any major hills or mountains in the area and was therefore expecting a rather flat undulating route. However, driving around the reserve on game drives in a 4x4 must have given me this distorted impression and when the route information said 110km and 2000m of climbing it got me thinking as to where that was all going to come from!

The course turned out to be one of the toughest on the circuit thus far! The first ramp in gradient came and although it was seriously steep I pushed super hard to go with the pace set up front by some of the guys. My impression of the area changed almost immediately as we climbed around a few corners and the path continued upwards without any respite in lung-busting gradient. I then accepted my prior ignorance regarding the landscape of the Mabalingwe reserve and at the same time began to fall off the pace.

Once over the top of the climb and safely down some treacherously rocky descending I took on new water bottles and some food from my number one supporter Jayde at the first feed/tech zone (who in the process had some difficulty in navigating her way through the reserve to get there for us, but as usual she was doing a superb job). Soon afterwards we encountered the next big climb and yet again it turned out to be never ending. I think this was the case because you would go so slow up the climb as you battled to find traction on the very rough, loose rocky paths. My hardtail (no rear suspension) bike didn't seem to handle the section on top of this climb and descending the other side, or should I rather say my body didn't quite handle my hardtail bike as I got bounced and battered while struggling to keep forward momentum.

I managed to find a bit of a rythem and continued to push hard chasing back as many positions as possible. With 12km to go I caught sight of my team mate from Blend Property Charles Keey ahead. Hoping to be able to ride a bit together and keep each other going in the latter stages of the race this was not to be as he was completely blown and not in a happy place. So I pushed on weaving my way through the back markers of the shorter distance route which we had now rejoined back onto. In the end I managed to cross the line in 10th place, happy with another top 10 (just) in a national event, however, a little off the pace as to what I would ideally like.

The biggest highlight of the race took place quite soon after the start. While riding up close alongside the lion enclosure fence out the corner of my eye I saw a lioness charge out the bush and come after us! Fortunately for us there was a big electric-fence between the lioness and us but it definitely raised heart rates as well as the pace in the bunch because straight away things split up completely. Other than that I didn't really see much game apart from a few buck, however, the experience of riding through the reserve was a tough but exciting one as it was different to the mountain biking I'm used to coming from Cape Town.

Jayde's friend came to ask for a drink of water