Thursday, 18 November 2010 07:34
Salomon Skyrun 2010 tests mettle with brutal new course
Wartrail Country Club, North Eastern Cape 14th November - Crossing the finish line at the Wartrail Country Club, with tears streaming down his face, having spent 35 brutal hours on blistered feet, Vossie Pienaar will go down officially as the last runner to complete the thirteenth edition of the Salomon Skyrun presented by Thule. Incredibly, he finished the 100km mountain run just over 20 hours behind eventual race victor Iain Don-Wauchope. Fittingly, it was this act of determination that many would argue typified the character needed to conquer the whippy heights, treacherous descents and mind-numbing distance of the Salomon Skyrun.
With a record field of 178 entrants, of which almost three quarters were novices and the inclusion of a more technically-orientated and longer course - the finish was moved from Tiffendell Ski Resort to Wartrail Country Club and incorporated a dare-devil descent of Holstones’ Peak - this year’s Skyrun was always going to be an epic. Not matter who you were.
At the sharp end of the field racing was at its most intense. Iain Don-Wauchope and Bruce Arnett, both past winners of the event, were neck and neck for the first 65km. On reaching Balloch Wall, the only seconding point of the entire race, Don-Wauchope made what proved to be a decisive move, and some 8 hours and 40km later crossed the finish line, in 14h56m, a massive 90 minutes ahead of Bruce Arnett (16h23m). A further 2 hours back, Nico Schoeman (17h35m), claimed a comfortable third place after his closest rival, Fusi Mokhethi, got haplessly lost during nightfall, showcasing why navigational savvy is so important on the unmarked Skyrun route.
The most impressive run of the event undoubtedly came from eventual ladies' winner, Tatum Prins. The diminutive multi-sport athlete from the Western Cape recorded the fifth-fastest overall time (20h12m), showing up many of her male counterparts and dominating her competition from start to finish. The TransAlps Run podium finisher Linda Doke was runner up for a second straight year, and Ina Van Tonder put the icing on her 40th birthday cake by finishing third, in 24h11m.
For the most of the field, however, the race was not with fellow competitor but often with their inner demons. Running a 100km, self-supported, on an unmarked route is no small feat. Consider that Ladies Champ, Tatum Prins remarked that “this (Skyrun) was one of the hardest trail runs (she’s) ever done”, and it's not surprising to read that only half the number of Skyrun starters managed to complete the full 100km distance – race organisers were even made to shorten the race on Sunday due to safety concerns. But the unyielding nature of this event is what makes it so special. Ask anyone who has experienced the vastness of this race. Ask race director, Adrian Saffy, who was overwhelmed with the general competitor response this year… “imagine having athletes who are on the brink of total system shut down grabbing your hand and thanking you for allowing all this pain and the suffering to be endowed on them. Crazy individuals!” Under this premise, the Salomon Skyrun will surely remain South Africa’s most iconic mountain trail run for a long time to come.
Report by Kelvin Trautman
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