Words by Kerryn Krige | There’s a holiday atmosphere here at the hotel, with teams sunning themselves round the pool, and the manicured lawn of the Lugogo sun littered with drying cycle shorts, muddy tops and smelly socks.
Bike boxes are dotted across the garden, and Sibebe – beer on tap is proving to be the post race beverage of choice. The conversations ebb and flow, as teams share race stories and compare injuries. Every second hour or so, there is a flurry of activity as those of us in race HQ who have become obsessed with moving dots on screens, rush out excitedly warning of the pending arrival of teams.
Today’s finish line for me is the big one. These are the teams who have spent an extra night outdoors and who have completed the full course – and then some, as the’ve made route choices that have added substantial extra kilometres. My favourites are Royal Airforce, Spirit and Powerbar Swiss Explorers. I didn’t meet them before the race, but have watched them obsessively over the past 24 hours, willing them over the finish line, as they’ve headed in circles and opposite directions.
First over the line this morning was Canadian team Spirit with 121 hours of racing and a few missed checkpoints. They are our family racing team with dad and son Dave and Will Hitchon teaming up again to take on adventure racing in Africa. They did some smart navigation through the night and it seems that once they decided to skip CPs they navigated quickly and cleanly across the countryside.
Just behind them was Team Powerbar Swiss Explorers. We’d watched them draw circles through the night, and then expand their pattern. This is them at 2h33 this morning (12 June).
And this is their final route – an elaborate circle through forests and bush just 3 kilometres from race end and 300metres from the bright lights of civilisation. They finally stopped to sleep. And within minutes it started to rain – highly unusual for the Swazi winter – making it a cold, demoralising and wet night for the team.
But come sunshine, they were up and moving, making their way down the hill through the infamous last 3kms and crossing the finish line to enormous applause at 9h25 this morning. Apparently their compass broke, leaving them finding their way on instinct in the dark, walking circles through the countryside.
Then Pyschosis – our first short coursed team, steamed over the finish line, followed by Israeli team Eyecan at 13h02, and then another of our full-course completers, the South African – British Team Keyhealth. They crossed the line exactly as they ran their race – effortlessly and in great spirits delivering the one liner which became the mantra of the afternoon discussions: “even the flat parts of Swaziland have hills.”. Their story is of a team who first met at the start line, after two people pulled out of the original foursome with two weeks to go. The team gelled, laughed their way across the mountain tops and came in just after 14h00, with 126 hours of racing and a respectable 14th position.
Then a cheer for the Royal Airforce guys. They kept us waiting to the end with a circuitous route through the hotel grounds that had the kids running around trying to find them. “A lager – I need that pint of lager” was all I could hear as they puffed up the final hill to great applause. They travelled vast swathes of countryside, heading up to the South African border and off the race maps keeping us awake early into this morning trying to figure out what they were doing. “It was epic. It was our first ever race and the first time we’ve tried to navigate before. Lesson from this? Get a navigator in your team. Oh. And don’t expect pilots to find their way…”
And again, the answers to the questions on high and low points mirror the others: extreme temperature changes, wonderful adventure through caves, canyons and white water, the relentless onslaught of Swaziland’s hilly landscape and then bitter cold of sleeping out at night, in an unexpected rainstorm when you’re expecting to be across the finish line, warm and dry.
As the sun starts to sink teams drift back into their hotel rooms as the familiar evening chill creeps in.
We’re planning a bring-and-braai for tonight at the local backpackers, with big roaring fires, steaks and boerewors rolls. We’re all tired, and with teams still out there for a last night we can’t close race HQ just yet. But we’re definitely more relaxed: Stephan is just back with news that the short-coursed teams are in good spirits; and those across the finish line are in good health (if maybe a little broken), and still chatting about their adventures and experiences – the best feedback, for a great race.