On Sunday the 5th of February, it was the final race in the Summer Trail Series hosted at The Oak Valley Estate in Elgin. There were two races: the Long course (15km) and the Extreme Long Event (25km).
Bernard Rukadzacompeted in the 25km event so that he could work on his endurance for the upcoming African X in March and had no problems beating Nicolas Rapanga, winning the race with ease.
I competed in the 15km event needed a second place to seal second place in the series. It was a highly competitive race with several of the top trail runners competing.
The race got off to a steady start with a bunch of five of us breaking away immediately, two of which were my direct competition for second place in the series. There was 1 point between second and third place and another one point between third and fourth place, so effectively there were three of us competing for second place in the series.
One kilometre into the race I took my eyes off the path for a split second to check our pace on my watch and twisted my ankle. I felt a sharp pain and was unable to put any weight on my foot. I thought my race was over as I could only limp on my foot. The other guys saw this and immediately surged! There was nothing I could do but I wouldn't give up, this was the final race!
I limped for about 100m and then the pain went away and I was able to start racing again. I pushed hard up the hills and on the technical sections, catching the group and going straight past them. I surged to see who was coming with and only two people followed. On the next major hill I realised that I had pushed too hard and got passed by Dion Middelkoop (soon to be on Team Contego), my main rival for the day. At the half way mark I was in third place. By then it was getting very hot at 33°C with was no wind but I was feeling good again so I started chasing hard on the semi-technical down-hills. My foot was feeling fine but I was cautious on the turns just in case it happened again.
I comfortably moved into second place and opened a big gap between me and those behind me, with only Dion in front of me. Then I started thinking that Dion is now a veteran and isn't in the Open Race, so I was effectively leading the race. I didn't need to take any risks on the last two kilometres of technical terrain. I cruised through the finish line in second place and was credited with the win in the Open Men's Category, thereby coming second in the series. I finished more than a minute ahead of third place and less than a minute behind the winner (Dion Middelkoop).
The race was very hilly and semi technical, with only the last two kilometres being technical. The entire race was runnable and we didn't have to resort to mountain climbing like some of the other trail races in the series.
The ladies race was won by Marie Wessels (also soon to be on Team Contego), beating lots of well-known sponsored athletes. In effect, the new Contego team would have had four wins! 1st Veteran - Dion Middelkoop, 1st Open male – myself (Eddie Lambert), 1st Lady - Marie Wessels and 1st Open male in the XL event, Bernard Rukadza.
P.s My ankle was just twisted and I managed another 14km of running after the race!
Eddie Lambert
