I know got suckered into this - and I'm not entirely sure how, but nonetheless, here goes. This is our race report. I'm going to try to relate our experience of the Swazi Xtreme with as little embellishment and exaggeration as possible, but knowing this not to be my disposition – I will just begin by stating the pure facts.

250km. non-stop. Through Swaziland's most beautiful and therefore most vertically inclined topography. Teams of 4 or 2 were to mountain bike, trek, do ropework and whitewater raft on 2man crocs down a river, which was described by the organizer as having "not been paddled since the 70's and for good reason".

But let's take a step back... back to Stijn and my first attempt on an "AA" race. Early in the year we attempted a little sprint event in the Magaliesburg with scenery and competition that left us both positively breathless... at one point Stijn pondered the meaning of life under an Acacia tree, while teams in their droves pushed there bikes up the hill past us – which in the end turned out to be the wrong hill anyway. Simply, we were hooked.

After that, and deciding to take on the Swazi Xtreme, preparation took centre stage on Team Rabid Beast's mind. We biked. We hiked. We even got lost a couple of times and ended up dragging our machines and selves across a flowing and wide Crocodile river – much to the surprise of the paid guests of the Crocodile River Whitewater Rafters. It was lots of fun. And we arrived in Swaziland, with a confidence that time outside brings... but it wasn't going to last for long.

Friday evening, having arrived after an easy journey from Jozi - Stijn, myself, Bron (our super-second) and our newly recruited German second, Katja, made camp and went to the race briefing. Maps were prepared, the race routes mulled over. And eventually everything was ready by 11pm. One thing bothered me about the race briefing though, the race director saying that last year's race was a bit "fast" and that this year a concerted effort had been made to "slow the PRO teams" down. I wondered what exactly he meant.

We started, 1.5hrs late, due to driving rain (the director wanted to check CP's were still accessible in the harsh weather) - but nonetheless, we set off around 8:30 in cold needle drizzle. It was all quite exhilarating. As usual we maxed the Heart Rate way too early in the excitement and the brakes had to be applied. As if God Himself agreed - the cold-front got pushed over after about an hr and revealed glorious blue skies with a crisp wind. Great - because until then I hadn't really allowed myself the thought of 250km in driving rain.

The mountain biking leg proved a little tough to actually bike. In fact, it was a little tough in the hiking as well. Check points placed at the top of steep kloofs which needed to be negotiated on the way to the river on the other side of the valley. One of the checkpoints was actually placed in the middle of the river - well, this is the Xtreme... ;-)

When we eventually made some rideable tracks we made good time through the beautiful green foothills with plenty of the local children running out to shout a cheer or the common tout "Sweets!" The field began to split up - with some teams falling behind us and some disappearing over the ridges in front of us... This is where the navigation got a little dodgy. In an effort to keep up with the pair in front of us, Stijn was forced to neglect the map for a bit. We raced and raced and the team in front of us started to pull away...and eventually we were left in a field pushing our bikes through thick grass and the team in front gone. Trying to discern where you are is a little difficult when you haven't really been checking where you've been going. Well that's racing. We plodded on in the general direction and soon hooked up with a myriad of teams that appeared just behind us - seemingly from nowhere. At least we made the transition quickly enough... placed 12 out of 23 starting Pro teams at the first transition, T1. We'd made 4:53hrs on a bike leg both of us thought'd take 2.5hrs. just a taste of Darron Raw's sense of adventure.

After some amazing Avo samies, (thanks Bron!), we rushed off in great afternoon sunshine (it was 3pm) on foot down the ridge to the next river... We were off to conquer the mine shaft and waterfall abseil of CP9,10 and 11.

Finding the entrance to the old mineshaft proved to be a little difficult, we would have been stumped if not for the help of some very inquisitive locals. Our new friends were very interested in what game we were playing, and if they could play too. We thanked them but they didn't seem to think that entering the mineshaft after us was going to be that fun... into the darkness we crept - I was convinced my headlamp wasn't working until my eyes adjusted...following the shaft deeper we got to an intersection, following the northern tunnel we got CP9. then back to the intersection and for a moment – complete disorientation. Thank Goodness for compasses. Following another tunnel we came upon a 45deg steep shaft leading up to a small spot of light above... like Gollum we crept from the depths to find ourselves at the top of a 40m waterfall. Wow. Ropes already setup we launched over the edge - after some difficulty in the biting of very thick commercial abseil ropes to fit in small BD ATC's. I think Stijn-o actually used a munter hitch for lack of sufficiently strong jaws.

We were back in the group of racers again, each loving the adventure of the wet and slippery abseil and the style of the race so far... They disappeared pretty quickly behind us on the trek to the top of Ngwenya North. A fairly impressive 1850m peak, we were assured of at least a little adventure getting to the top of this beast. Most of the teams had opted to take the longer and more arduous route on the road around the back of the mountain. Although longer in length, its certain direction and lesser gradient might mean better times for a team willing to run. But Stijn and I were in it for the adventure, and both kind of fancied ourselves as mountaineers anyway.

On the way in, we passed a little settlement and had heard the locals can be very helpful for directions, we asked one of the gentlemen for the quickest route to the peak, to which he replied, "jaaah".
"Path to Ngwenya?"
"jaah."

Moving on then. We hopped a sizeable game fence into Mololotja Game Reserve and launched up a ridge. Following the map again seemed to be a little pointless with as much blurred orange contours as you can fit without making the map entirely orange. We decided to just climb the peak like we would normally... Storming to the top of the first ridge we found ourselves at the top of a dramatic knife edge with a 300m metre deep gorge between us and the massif of our destination. Luckily the knife edge curled around in a big arc and joined to the mountain again over a beautiful neck... This is my mind remains one of the most amazing parts of the race, and indeed even of any hike I've done. To be so out there, on a knife-edge, so high above the green hills and with the red sun starting to creep below the horizon – it was just awe-inspiring. We got to the peak just as it got too dark to see. We put on headlamps. A freezing mist had descended on the mountain and needless to say, we got slightly disorientated. Pulling parallel with a team that was on their way to the place we'd just come from set us in the right direction again... And this time Stijn used his compass.

We eventually got to the road and after overcoming another slight navigational error, we happened upon the next transition, thankfully, but unexpectedly. We ate dinner in the car for the warmth. The temperature was definitely starting to drop now. After 45min of bliss - it was time to brave the elements yet again for the next leg - mountain biking. We set off in the darkness down a slight jeep track which deteriorated to nothing within a kilometer. We and about 3 other teams debated the next step. Stijn and I took our cue from the compass and map and set off in the East direction straight across the field in the darkness, leaving the quarreling teams to quarrel further. We quickly happened upon another roughish track that was going the right direction - what a score! In my boyishness and good eyesight, I zoomed down the hill. After about 5min I noticed I couldn't see stijn's light anymore. Uh-oh. After a couple of anxious moments, his trusty 1500+ candlepower cateye light appeared from around the corner, going slightly more slowly than I'd hoped. He'd taken a tumble, nothing broken, but it still hurt. We'd be riding more slowly from then on.

What ensued from then on can only described as unnecessarily displeasurable. We caught up with a group of other teams, one of which was Team Samurai - and then proceeded to push our bikes a further 5km along slightly overgrown boundary fence. The rest of night being a blur - we made T4 by 12:15am that night.

In order to make the kloofing section of the next leg by dawn, we aimed to leave T4 at 3am and so made good on 2hrs sleep...this turned very quickly into a 4am start with the lack of motivation to leave warm sleeping bags. We set off in a crazy cold wind to descend 800m into the midlands of Swaziland. The steep path and uneven ground were to eventually contribute to the recurrence of ITB in both knees for me.

Making the kloof by 7am, we changed to the wetsuits we'd brought as a recommendation by the race organizer. More hardcore teams who had not taken this advice on board were to pay for their sins in hypothermia. The kloofing was excellent, BIG scary bumslides and jumps. 9 in total. Lots of swimming pushing your bag in front you before being washed down the next bumslide. We passed Team Aquelle, Team Tri for Life and Team Foodstate in the kloof. We heard later Aquelle's Gavin gashed his leg requiring stitches and another person broke their ankle negotiating the rocks.

After this there was a route choice. Basically to get to the next CP we needed to make our way up the Komati River valley. We could go high up the mountains on the left, or cross the Komati river (which our kloof subsequently joined) and push through the river flood plain on the right. We choose the latter and paid for it with some pretty nasty bushwhacking. We heard later that both routes were pretty swak. Apparently the summer had been a bumper one for rain and heat in Swaziland and the park rangers hadn't yet had the chance to maintain the paths which were not pretty much non-existent. Hearing later from the Darron Raw, Race Organiser, this was the section that was included to slow the PRO teams down. Well, mission accomplished, Team Rabid Beast made the 3km section in 4.5 hours.

Reaching CP22 at 12:45pm. we were confronted by a friendly marshal with his 4x4 (I still have no idea how he drove that jeep track down) It turned out that we were still 12th!! But to surprise, surprise, 8 Pro teams had already dropped out. Stijn and I looked at each other - this race was over. Since 4am my knees had just deteriorated and unfortunately I was at the point of pain every step. Stijn too had developed niggles, his blisters from our training hikes had returned with a vengeance despite the repetitive mentholated spirits treatment, micropore and duct tape!!

We pulled out then - and decided to take it easy all the way back to T6. but there was still a LOT of ground to cover. We hiked now with less motivation and more breaks. Team Tri for Life eventually caught us on the 500m incline out of the Komati Valley. Their Richard was also starting to suffer from sever ITB knee pain. On hearing our decision, his was made easier, and they too decided to pull out. We next found ourselves having a tea-party in one amazing beautiful place - each team sharing their left over energy bars, redbulls, and even biltong! What a treat! The hike back down was long, but flew by thanks to good company - thanks team Tri for Life!

We made it back to an ecstatic Bron. We hadn't been involved in the hydro dam incident, which had lead to the whole race being stopped anyway. The dam had unexpectedly turned their turbines off, letting down an influx of water into the gorge below - which formed that next kloofing leg that Stijn and I were to tackle after the Komati. 2 of the country's best adventure racers were almost drowned in the resulting flood and had to be rescued from a ledge 4 hours later.

The next day the race was re-started leaving out a couple of the legs but continuing with the white water rafting. Stijn and I were happy to leave that one out too – as this too was not without incident. Team His People got washed over a grade 6 waterfall, having missed the take out point. They survived with only a couple cuts n bruises, and I believe the falls have been renamed His waterfall in honour of the first running of them.

In conclusion of this disastrously long race report - I'd like to thank those of you who have actually read this far. You have shown the tenacity that would've gotten you far in this race. But also to Bron for her wonderous organization, Katja for giving up some of her holiday to make samies for us, Stijn for his obsessive single-mindedness to the point of unbearable insanity – and all my family and friends who have been overwhelmed with my life revolving around nothing else but this race for the past month or so. Thank you for baring with me!!!

And I know what you'd like to know... and yes, we'll definitely be back next year! Anyone interested? «