Dreyer and Bomford set blistering times-to-beat

Although he is no longer a professional athlete and is instead a coach to more than a dozen athletes in his Change a Life (CAL) Academy, Hi-Tec Ambassador Martin Dreyer is in superb racing form. Training with his CAL athletes twice a day certainly contributed to his ability to set the scarcely believable 7:12 time-to-beat on the undulating two-kilometre treadmill course at the Hi-Tec Infinity Challenge in Port Elizabeth. 

“The route goes to a gradient of seven percent and is only flat for about a minute of that,” says Ian Little, Hi-Tec’s marketing manager. “That means that Martin ran 3:36 per kilometre – unbelievable!” Port Elizabeth local Mike Els was Dreyer’s closest opponent at only 200-metres behind. He won a pair of Hi-Tec V-Lite Infinity trail shoes and goes into the draw for the coveted The Otter – African Trail run entry. 

Jeannie Bomford, women’s record holder at The Otter – African Trail Run, set 8:30 as the women’s time-to-beat. It’s a very fast time over this challenging course. Her closest challenger was Kathy McQuaide-Little (Cape Town), who got within 150-metres of Bomford’s avatar. She also won shoes and she goes into the draw for a The Otter – African Trail Run entry. Andrea van Holdt, from Port Elizabeth, was close on her heels. 

“Entrants ranged from the quite serious to the casual. The Cape Union Mart staff also really got into it too. One of the store assistants, James Marais, even went to the gym the night before to practice”, says Little. “Another entrant was so disappointed with his first effort that he came back later to have another go. Everyone enjoyed the competitive aspect of the Infinity Challenge.” 

Store visitors and other entrants enjoyed watching the challengers on the treadmill and following their avatar, running against the Hi-Tec ambassadors, on the big plasma screen. “For Cape Town, this weekend, we’re keeping three avatars on the screen for the entrants to chase: Bruce Arnett, who will set a new time-to-beat on Saturday, Jeannie and a Mr Joe Average with a 10:00 time. This should improve the experience even more in that many entrants should be able to beat or come very close to Mr Average,” adds Little. 

The four remaining Infinity Challenge events will be hosted by Cape Union Mart stores in Cape Town (Canal Walk, 9 April), Jo’burg (Eastgate, 16 April), Pretoria (Woodlands, 17 April) and Durban (Gateway, 23 April).  Entry to the Infinity Challenge is first-come-first-run and entry is free. Stores are open from 09h00 to 17h00.