With the Little Queen Ant unable to take part, being worried she would hurt herself before the Cape Epic, it was time for the worker ants to go out and play. How fortunate we were to come across the Ystervark & Lekker AR to rid ourselves of our pent-up energy having not needed to earn our keep this time round!
Brian and I were joined by the comical pair of Alex Wagner & Alan Neate for the evening’s adventure. The race start was set for 10pm, with a predicted time of 10hrs for middle of the pack racers and a blisteringly fast time of 6 or so hours for the racing snakes!
The fun surrounds of the Nkwe Resort in the east of Pretoria was the venue for the 80km race which included in the region of 60km mountain biking, close on 20km of hiking, a 200m swim (felt like 5km), and a midnight cliff jump.
With the east of Pretoria being my back yard, I was pretty confident that I’d know more or less where we were at any point… this wasn’t the case. At least I am now aware of more training routes, thanks Hardy!
I was pleasantly surprised how many teams found their way to the start of a race that would begin at 10pm on a Friday evening!! Well done to all of you for even plucking up the courage to make it there; that to me was the toughest.
The race start set-off at the usual high pace, but was soon to settle down after the first transition point. Heading out we were neck on neck with team Hawkstone and team Platpoot with Kinetic & the amazing school team of Tshanduko in hot pursuit.
The navigation proved technical at night, and the mountain biking stretches weaved in & out of plots disorientating all the racers. We were all so fortunate to have the perfect weather conditions mother nature provided, the only glitch was that keeping in mind it was a Darkzone race, many of us, if not everyone, forgot their sunscreen!
Having completed the race in 9hrs3min, being slightly off the predicted winning time of 6hrs, I am still convinced that the race organisers are the machines of the event as they would have then won by 3 hours! Team Hawkstone were 2nd in a time of 10hrs7min with Team Platpoot in 3rd 40min back. The strong & experienced Team Kinetic came out on top in the mixed category with a time of 10hrs58min.
We all had serious fun and thoroughly enjoyed every moment, apart from the shocking moment I experienced when I looked up after jumping the 7m overhang and all I saw was a naked man with big eyes clutching his private parts!! Thanks for the scary experience Alex!
A very big thanks must go out to the race organisers & the Tshwane AR club for putting on such an amazing and truly “old school” race. To all the marshals who gave up a Friday of partying to keep us in check and on track, we all truly appreciate your help and assistance.
As Clinton said at race briefing, it’s not about the race, but rather about the passion, and there was a lot of it, thanks to everyone.
Team: Red Ants | Author: Ryan Hodierne | Ystervark & Lekker, Pretoria. 12 & 13 March 2010