Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon

Article 2009 / Day 6 ~ by Colleen Jacka

KAEM – almost done!

At the end of day six, with a total of 212 kilometres behind – it is the South Africans that are dominating the race in this year’s desert challenge. There are only two foreigners in the top 10 overall placings at the moment as the race winds up its toughest days.

Rhodri Darch of the UK, lying overall third and Mimi Anderson of Scotland, who shares the 9^th spot with Jo Mackenzie, are the two non-citizens. Mimi is no stranger to the KAEM experience and has proved to be the lady to beat before.

But this is Rhodri’s first trip to our desert as well as to the country and he seems to be having a great time. “It’s fantastic to switch off 100 percent and sit around the campfire roaring with laughter,” he says describing the atmosphere in camp at night.

But he’s not just loafing around out here. He’s put in some serious work during the entire race and is in a well-deserved top spot. While the long day saw him battling a bout of diarrhea, today’s leg saw him feeling a lot better. “I ditched the sports drink on the long day and stuck to water and that seemed to help,” he said adding that he took his carbs in in the form of solids.

Today he admits that the gorge trashed his feet, but that on the road he “switched off and went into a trance to make the miles go faster”. He’s been known to challenge the top duo on occasion and is lying in a comfortable third.

At the very top of the log it’s Dirk who has now extended his lead over his compatriot, Bruce. Admitting that now, at the end of the second last day of the race, the positions are “pretty well sorted” Bruce says that the final day will be about just getting to the finish and not about racing.

“It was not such a technical course and, suffering from tendonitis, I struggled on the road sections,” says Bruce confessing to preferring the “rough stuff”.

Holding onto top ten spots are Alwyn Maass (4^th), Guy Jennings (5^th), Wayde Kennedy (6^th), Henk Moen (7^th) and Colin Hart (8^th). The two girls occupy a joint ninth position and round off the top ten overall placed runners.

Alwyn, a winemaker from one of the sponsors of the event, Namaqua has seen the marathon from a crew’s perspective before and this year gave up his road running shoes to challenge himself a little. With no real trail running experience behind him, he is showing up as a fierce competitor in the desert.

Listing “chocolateering” as one of his hobbies, Guy Jennings has tamed the desert before and returns this year to see if he can do it with one hip. With many trail runs to his name and running for the charity, Khaya Lokukhanya, Guy has clocked up an accumulative time of 23 hours and 34 minutes so far in the desert.

Number six on our list is Wayde Kennedy – a come-back kid who has just recently got back into running. As a gym manager, he is no stranger to working out however, and lists riding and running as well as other forms of exercise as his hobbies. “KAEM has been on my to do list for a long time,” he says.

Henk Moen (lying seventh) says he has no right to complain. “I paid for this experience, so I can’t complain,” he says coming over today’s finish line. Having got used to the scenery now he is no longer taking photos concentrating more on the race.  “The first two days I took loads of photos. Now I’ve become complacent about the scenery and more interested in racing,” he says.

Henk also admits that he spent some time before the event learning how to walk. “The problem with runners, is that they don’t know how to walk,” he explains adding that, along with Dirk Cloete, he approached one of the competitive walkers in their club and learned the art of walking fast using his arms to propel him forward.

Happy to have the two big days behind him, Colin Hart (eighth overall) says that today’s heat impacted on his race. “It was a tougher day for me out there,” says the Gautenger who signed up for this challenge based on the fact that someone told him you had to be insane to do it. “I thought it was the perfect fit.”

There are some mixed reactions out there today. For Manson du Toit it was the worst day of all, while Vaughan Wade (UK) describes it as his best day so far.

“It was hectic on my mind. I just wanted to run and get it over,” said Manson coming into the overnight camp. Vaughan, on the other hand says he felt good and the decision not to go off too quickly seems to have paid off for him.

It’s Vaughan’s wife that is currently lying third amongst the ladies. Anne Wade and her husband decided to make the KAEM part of their two-week vacaction to South Africa to visit relatives. Both members of the couple say that they don’t do any road running anymore. They’re no strangers to endurance, multi-day events. They’re also avid “holiday runners” as they explain they don’t need an actual event to undertake some long distance running. It’s no wonder then that Anne is well positioned as the third lady and 19^th overall in a strong field of runners.

Laura Forster has been on the starting line of many local trail-running events and is our fourth lady at the end of the two most grueling days of the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon. She seems to be spending the bulk of the marathon running solo, but is always accompanied by her faithful rubber chicken which hangs from the back of her pack and is ceremoniously squeezed (and squeaked) every time she crosses a finish line at the end of a day.

She says she is happy to be running against such a strong field. “It’s a good year to be running. It is not as testing to run against a small field,” she says happy at the record number of participants that have lined up in the Kalahari.

Interestingly, after completing the challenge of the long day, two runners were forced to abandon their quest of a KAEM finish this year. James Thomas of the UK and Patrick Mouyen, one of the French group on the run, had to face up to the pain of blistered feet.

A total of 73 runners started this challenge on Sunday and a record number of 70 will tomorrow tackle the very last stretch that separates them from their ultimate goal.