Wild Life
*Unfortunately for the Big Five, not on the same side of the fence as the runners...
ADDO ELEPHANT TRAIL RUN 2017
They say if you want to have a nice run, do a 5km, and if you want to talk to God, run a marathon, and if you want to talk to your ancestors, run an ultra trail run. I have spoken to all three.
Ras Jabulani Dube
There is only one chance to run in the vast Addo Elephant National Park (40km north-west of Port Elizabeth), and that is by toeing the line at the Addo Elephant Trail Run.
Well... that’s not 100% accurate. It’s actually three lines. The 13-year-old race offers three trail ultras (44km, 76km, and the flagship event, the Addo 100 Miler).
The 100 Miler was revived by Port Elizabeth-based Free Spirit Adventures in 2016. They had taken ownership of the 44km and 76km events from race founders Estienne and Nadia Arndt the year before. The Arndts had organised Addo for 10 years (2005-2014), and the 100 Miler for five years (2005-2009).
The Arndts were well ahead of their time with the 100 Miler. In hindsight, South Africa probably just wasn’t ready for 100 mile trail runs in those days.
Fast forward to 2017, and runners like Johannesburg’s Martin Malherbe are a new generation of ultra runner. He shares his story here.
A TAD ON THE HOT SIDE
The tension at race briefing was electric. At least I knew what we were in for, having been through this all before in 2016. But for the newbies it was big eyes and sweaty palms, with to who was doing his 35th 100 miler. A lot of people would have done worse than following him for the next 34 hours.
