The racing up front of the Discovery Surfers is always intense and made more so by the different conditions facing runners each year.

It is well documented that the guys who win are special athletes and all have run at the highest levels of races in South Africa and in some instances, abroad.

What about the guys vying to sneak in to the Top 10 – and the prestige that goes with it?

They will be well educated in the knowledge that the slightest slip in the build up or on race day itself may have them relinquish their dream.

For the purposes of this article let us look at four men who are likely to be knocking on the door come 18 February. All four are at different stages of their careers with one literally starting out and another who has been around a fair while.

The running times of these four men at Surfers over the past three years have a similar thread and in 2010, when the tides were at their highest in memory, they were very close to one another. Interestingly it was the runner with the most experience of the four who triumphed in the conditions.

Hayden Wood finished 10th in 83:36, while Raymond de Klerk was 12th in 84:14, Alex Rossouw 13th in 85:01 and Craig Alers 14th in 85:26.

Not once in the last three years have they all made the top 10 – in fact only once, in 2009 have more than one of them been up there. Wood has made top 10 twice, both occasions in 10th place, but failed last year, finishing 16th. Alers finished 7th in 2009 and was pipped into 11th place last year, while Rossouw was the surprise package in 6th place in 2011. De Klerk has two 12th spots and will be looking for his first Top 10 and yet he has beaten all the others at least once.

Rest assured all are hard at work preparing for the 2012 chapter of Discovery Surfers – what a cracker of a race within a race this could turn out to be.

A huge debate has been raging in running circles over the past year or two in respect of barefoot or natural running, as opposed to technical running shoes.

Over the years there have been some great athletes – mostly African – who have competed successfully in their natural state – feet wise that is.

Zola Budd is the most famous in this neck of the woods, but we have in fact produced numerous Border/Kei locals who have favoured the shoe less state too.

Zola will be in town this weekend {20-22 Jan.} at the 70.3 Ironman Expo. She will also be hosted by the Goons at Beacon Bay Country Club at 5p.m. on Friday for a talk on this subject and a short run thereafter. There is no charge, but with space limited contact me to secure a spot.

Herbert Ndzondza was a fabulous masters runner {over 50} who ran barefoot in the marathon – yip on tar.

The Border Masters Association bought Herbert top of the range shoes, but I cannot recall that he ever finished a race in them.

Herbert represented Border for a good few years and we were often teased by the administrators of other provinces about not looking after our runners.

Maureen Dladla a top female runner started her career barefoot, while Philip Quvana one of the provinces fastest runners was always barefoot.

Buzelwa Nyanda held the Border Marathon record for many years and she ran barefoot.

I decided to test this out, starting with what they call minimalist shoes. I had been battling with a motor car induced knee ligament problem and all said I was crazy.

Whether it was the shoes or not, the injury cleared up.

More recently and not having done much training I took to the Gonubie Golf Course shoeless. At first only a kilometre or so, but gradually I have built up to 8km and loving the freedom that it offers. I have run on the fairways, in the rough and over gravel paths – only the sharpish seeds from the pine trees have caused a small degree of discomfort, but I expect that too will decipate with time.

Would I run Surfers barefoot, as some folk have done? Not the first leg of boulders to Gonubie, but thereafter I may well consider it.

What has surprised me the most is the natural grip that your toes offer, allowing me to mount some steep grass slopes, that with ordinary road shoes I’d have slipped back on.

The debate is interesting and I do not believe that the experiences over so short a span of time of an aging runner produces any answers, but I am going to listen to Zola, who interestingly, now represents the minimalist shoe range, Newton.

I’ll let you know what she thinks.

Neville Wilkins, the long serving convenor of the Discovery Surfers Challenge, announced this morning that the 2012 event will incorporate a new Junior Surfers for U14′s.
It is an innovation that suggests that neither Wilkens, his committee nor the sponsors, Discovery, have lost their appetite to further grow what is already South Africa’s largest beach/trail run.
The run will be over approximately 5km and is expected to start below the Blue Lagoon Hotel on the eastern banks of the Nahoon River.
Participants will then head off to a marker east of Bonza Bay, where they will be turned and head back to the official finish of Surfers at Nahoon Beach, after first swimming the Nahoon River.
This is subject to some tweaking but appears to have universal support.
The young runners will enjoy all the benefits that the main event offers, including “goody bags” and the much sort after Surfers t-shirt.
The new event will add still more families to the equation and, in keeping with Discovery ideals, will encourage healthy pursuits from a very young age.
Further details will be announced as they are released.

Below is a chart of the expected tides on the day of the event.  It’s not quite a spring high tide, but there might be fun and games at Rainbow Valley, the section of the race with the large pebbles.  Can’t wait!

For more tide charts visit http://www.satides.co.za