Loskop Ultra Marathon 2013

The loskop ultra marathon (50km) tested my mind to the limits this weekend. The constant rain and wind battering my body, made this a sopping wet and icy cold run. The route however is quite nice it goes from Middleburg which is fairly high (1500m) and down to loskop dam (1000m).

The first half is pretty none, with a couple small hills with not much to see. The second half has some pretty serious down hills with a mean hill just before you hit Loskop. This second half is very pretty with some good views and plenty of lively water points with potatoes, sweets, coke, energade and water. What is great about getting near the end is you see Loskop dam which gives you a little boost. There was a little bit of mud on the route because of the road works.

Route aside the day started around 4:15 with heavy rain which made it quite a challenge to get out of bed and make it to the start. At the starting area in Middelburg we were all able to grab a free cup of coffee which definitely helped keep the spirits up while we were all hiding out of the rain. About 15min before the start the rain let up, and I had a sigh of relief. We then had a moment silence for the Boston runners and lady from the slow mag race this past weekend.

A message from a government official to start the race and we were off and I made a really big mistake by throwing away the black bag that had been keeping me warm at the start. Because about 8-10km into the race the heavens opened and the wind started. Rain started pounding us from the side, the wind chilled every thing down. How I missed my 50c black bag whilst some organized few had kept their bags on or had somehow packed raincoats. I have run in the rain before, but not for this long and I went through a whole range of emotions including:

• Rain ok this is going to be a challenge
• I don’t like this rain, im freezing
• OK seriously please, please, please stop raining
• Warm shower I cannot wait
• Fine its not going away, lets just relax and smile about the rain its keeping my joints cool
• It is not working, please, please stop raining
• Hey its slowing down and gone, happy days!
• 3km to go, oh no is that the stinking rain again
• Ah warm shower at the camp (I actually jumped into a swimming pool at the end, even though it wasn’t heated it felt so warm)

There is one massive long down hill that really hurt my legs and I lost so much time while everyone was cruising down easily. I managed to do a 5:03 for 50km, which I’m happy with. Believe me I was really pushing hard towards the end to get under 5 hours, but there is a last final hill before the finish which unfortunately blew the sub 5h out from under me. This race was quite a test but in the end I really enjoyed finishing the race. As with every race it helped with the confidence, especially conquering a very long wet race. Some mates and I went camping at the finish so it was wet but it made the weekend even better. I even managed to catch a very small fish.

Note one of my friends did the 21km race which he said is run mostly on dirt roads and made it very muddy this year. The route, I didn’t measure it.