Monday, 29 August 2011 14:40
Nic de Beer wins Puffer on second attempt
Endurance trail runner Nic de Beer triumphed along a gruelling course to win the 2011 HI-TEC Puffer Ultra Marathon, annually contested between Cape Point and theV&A Waterfront. Over 125 endurance athletes competed in what many runners believe is SA’s toughest ultra run.
Every year towards the end of August, over a hundred athletes gather in the pre-dawn chill at Cape Point. This time of year unarguably rates as the Cape’s extreme running season, and the athletes who dare to brave the HI-TEC Puffer will be fully aware of winter’s bite as they wait for starter’s orders in Cape Point National Park in preparation for their gruelling 80km odyssey.
The HI-TEC Puffer owes its name to a rather droll acronym: the ‘Peninsula Ultra Fun Run’. It is the ‘fun’ part that non-ultra athletes will dispute, but there will be no arguing with these committed runners as they stride off along the Cape Point roads in the dark, heading for the reserve gate. The first 30km of the run is along tarmac, ensuring that they settle into a comfortable pace and tempo, but the ‘epic’ status kicks in as soon as the mountain trails begin.
Once beyond Scarborough and the steep Red Hill climb, a section of fynbos singletrack past Kleinplaas Dam leads the runners over Black Hill and up the Old Wagon Trail into Silvermine Nature Reserve. The Constantia Nek parking lot serves as the half-way cut-off in this inspiring race, after which the runners labour up Smuts Trackalong the back end of Table Mountain.
With 30km to go to the finish, the runners negotiate Cape Town’s most famous landmark onto the contour path along the eastern slope of the mountain to below the lower Cable Way Station. Signal Hill is the final nail in the proverbial before runnersfinally steam into the V&A Waterfront after running for at least 7 hours-plus.
New Cape Town resident Nic de Beer took the honours with a new record of 7 hours 10 minutes. Leading from the start Nic gradually increased the gap to second place to more than an hour by the finish. Nic was 2nd last year in his debut. Veteran trail runner Karoline Hanks finished an amazing second place overall, winning the women's race in a time of 8 hours 21 minutes. Two women finished in the top 10 overall.
This is, of course, if you’re not one of the insane athletes taking on the ‘Tuffer Puffer’. This double-or-nothing madness saw them starting the Friday before race day at 8AM and running the 160km to Cape Point and back, through the night, and without a break. All the blood, sweat and tears dissipate when they cross the finish at Ferryman’s Tavern. Janette Terblanche trumped all the men in this double marathon endurance event with a winning time of 25 hours 3 minutes.
RESULTS:
PUFFER (80km)
Men
1st Nic De Beer – Team Hi-Tec Infinity 7.10.34 (new record)
2nd Ross McGregor – 8.33.51
3rd Rupert Becker – 8.39.57
4th Derrick Baard – 8.40.17
5th Eric Tollner – 8.47.04
6th Alan Schermbruger – 8.50.01
7th Mark Pikker - 9.12.11
8th Andrew Damp - 9.23.28
9th Andrew Cothill – 9.24.28
10th Luke Powers – 9.26.11
11th Mark Lagan – 9.34.08
12th Louis Claassen – 9.34.22
13th William Coleman – 9.39.28
14th Wilhelm Coetzee – 9.47.43
15th Werner Erasmus – 9.51.43
16th Noel de Villiers – 10.00.24
17th David Bucklow – 10.03.18
18th Kobus Oosthuisen – 10.04.03
19th David Hall 10.11.21
20th Hano Maree – 10.18.23
Women
1st Karoline Hanks – 8.21.42
2nd Melany Porter – 8.53.41
3rd Caroline Balkwill – 9.40.06
4th Phillipa Coleman – 9.444.38
5th Vanessa Fisher – 9.46.18
6th Sue Ullyett – 9.52.02
7th Miranda Symons – 9.57.31
8th Theresa Brand – 10.02.57
9th Kylie Hatton – 10.04.32
10th – Susan Bracher 10.11.20
TUFFER PUFFER (160km)
1st Janette Terblanche - 25 hours 3 minutes 15 seconds
2nd Ray Cranston – 25.51.56
3rd Mark Spengler – 25.51.56
4th Beaumont Cooper – 28.17.40
5th Alan Green – 29.20.16
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