We couldn’t have asked for a better day at Leeuwenkloof this past Sunday, 27 November as Gauteng saw the grand finale of the 2016 Spur Gauteng Summer Trail Series®. The weather spoilt us, the venue took our breath away and all the runners just made our day.
On Saturday evening the Wildrunner team watched as the predicted clouds came rolling in towards the venue. A couple of close calls with the lighting, but clearly something caught the attention of the rain clouds as they stayed distracted, hovering over the Magaliesberg Mountains while we sat warmly around our camp fire just buzzing with excitement for race day.
And on that note, let’s shift on over to race day. Sunday morning greeted us with blue skies, dirty trails, green forests, wide smiles and delicious coffee. Runners started arriving from 5am to pick up their numbers and get their little warm up run’s in.
Racing kicked...
Spur KZN Trail Series® wraps up at the beautiful Aloe Wildlife Estate
The final leg of the Spur KZN Trail Series® wrapped up at yet another brand new trail running venue in Camperdown, called Aloe Wildlife Estate.
Runners in both the shorter 6km and longer 12km routes were treated to bushveld views and glimpses of Zebra and Impala as they carefully navigated their way around the course. Rainfall the night before made conditions a little tricky, but the excited field of runners were unperturbed and took advantage of the cool weather.
In the long course we had a new winner, Nomore Mandivengerei, who participated in his first and only race of the series, in a time of 52:41. In second place was veteran triathlete Donovan Van Gelder in 53:36 and rounding off the podium after winning all 3 of the previous events in the series was Grant Cummings in 54:15.
In the ladies we...
On Sunday Gauteng saw the 3rd Race of the Summer Trail Series® take place at B’Sorah tented camp. After a scorcher of a series so far, the cloudy skies and cooler weather was warmly, or should I rather say “cool-ly” welcomed by all.
Racing kicked off at 7am with Batch ‘A’ runners in the Long Course. B’Sorah being the kindest of all 4 races in terms of elevation, meant runners quickly found their way back to the finish line.
Mike Bailey absolutely dominated the men’s long course Championship race, coming in almost 5min ahead of second place in a time of 47:59. Officially laying down his dominance as Open Male Champion of the Long Course championship having claimed his 3rd win of the series. Brian Garnder took second in a time of 52:42 and in 3rd place over the line in the men’s race was Sean Fietjie in an impressive time of...
This year may slowly be coming to an end, but the 2016 Gauteng Summer Trail Series® has only just begun. This past Sunday saw the first race of the summer series kick off at the Hennops River, and what a cracker of a day to launch the series.
On Saturday evening Gauteng got hit hard with a storm, leaving the event organisers at Wildrunner stressing a little with the thought of what was awaiting them at the start/finish venue on Sunday morning. But thankfully, apart from a missing A-F sign board, all seemed intact and runners arrived to a picture perfect morning for racing.
The mood was set, the storm had gone, the calm had settled. Or was that just the quietness of the nervous XL runners about to take on the Hennops beast? The first group of runners to officially launch this exciting Summer Series®. This crazy bunch set off at...
The Spur KZN Trail Series® has been flourishing in 2016 and local athletes have made it into the papers!
The Spur KZN Trail Series® has kicked off with a bang, in less than a week we’re already two races down and got two more exciting races to go.
Race 1 – Rocky Bay, Scottburgh
The racing launched with a cracker of a day on Sunday 2 October at a stunning new venue for the Spur KZN Trail Series® in the form of Rocky Bay Trails. A great looking set-up welcomed over 200 runners to the race village.
Runners got to enjoy a beautiful ocean sunrise and hot cuppa J while registration took place.
A variety of runners from all spheres showed up on the morning of the race, we had your racing snakes, leisure strollers, families, newbies and old dogs. Along with a large number of spectators there to cheer on all the crazy trail runners.
The trails at Rocky Bay are considered fairly fast with lots of flowing single track through indigenous forest...
The Spur KZN Trail Series is in the Southern Star!
Cape Town – 15 September 2016: Trail running events specialists Wildrunner, have confirmed the dates and venues for the four races of the Spur KZN Trail Series® happening in October 2016, including events at Rocky Bay in Scottburgh, Blythedale Coastal Resort and Aloe Wildlife Estate, plus a night run at Kenneth Steinbank Reserve in Durban.
“We start the Spur KZN Trail Series®, on Sunday, 2 October 2016, racing at Rocky Bay, Scottburgh, where runners have the option of two stunning courses of 6km or 10km on farm roads and through indigenous forests on single track,” comments Trail Series® founder and Wildrunner MD, Owen Middleton.
The Spur Trail Series®, which has proved to be wildly popular among trail runners in the Western Cape, Gauteng and Eastern Cape, attracting thousands of trail novices and experienced race snakes, and race organisers expect the event to grow in leaps and bounds in Kwazulu Natal 2016. “We have fabulous...
Over 100 competitors lined up for the final leg of the Spur PE Trail Series® 2016 at the Hopewell Conservation Estate. Runners were greeted by picture perfect weather for trail running. There was great excitement as runners where about to run amoung some magnifisent wild life such as rare Cape mountain zebra, iconic eland, prancing springbok, red hartebeest, mountain reedbuck, ostrich and kudu.
In the men’s 11km long course it was the familiar forces doing battle up front as the race for the overall series was still up for grabs. As the runners traversed along the flowing single track and valley’s in the breathe taking Hopewell Estate it was Lumkile Thu who emerged up the final hill of the day and into the finish straight in a time of 00:39:35 minutes with Terence Njekula settling for second place in a time of 00:41:33 minutes and in third place, with a time of...
Owen Middleton, MD of Wildrunner talks to Gordon Graham from Algoa FM about the PE Trail Series. Click here to listen to the interview