Monthly Archives: February 2011

Bruce Fordyce

Such is the allure of the Discovery Surfers Challenge that community personalities and indeed some celebrities pop up in the results.

I have picked out but a few to validate the point.

The Pollock name has long been associated with the Surfers and surfing in general to the extent that the late Mick Pollock was often the rallying point of Surfers entries.

It has been well documented in the media that the family organised a paddle out to  spread Mick’s ashes off Mermaids Pool.

This meant that son John was out from the USA and he was able to paddle the race with nephew, Grant, while wife Jeanette ran the race.
Brother David and family were also conspicuous on the day while young Jessica, daughter of brother Mark and sister to Grant, is a runner of huge potential. Jessica has surprised seasoned runners for two years in succession and this year beat her time by well over 16 minutes.

Bruce Fordyce was of course in the field and although he took it deliberately easy over the first 5km of rocky terrain, he opened the throttle from Gonubie River to the finish, passing masses of people in the process.

Brett Peterson, former SA swimmer was in on the run with an excellent 1:43:43 and former rugby player and top physio, Cassie van der Merwe finished comfortably in 2:14:27.

One of East London’s land barons, Russell Seymour has given up his running shoes for a surf ski and finished comfortably in 1:42:25.

The acting MD of Tourism Buffalo City, Colleen du Randt, did not run only the Surfers, but started out on the Monday with the Wild Coast Trail Ultra from Port St Johns. Still she managed a 2:15:21.

Old Selbornian chief honcho of coaching Mitch Grotjohn looked a tad bewilderred as he neared the finish with all the vocal support and former Springbok rugby player Russell Bennett took it real easy, but added some flair to the race.

Keith Fenn is somehow expected to be there, but the man is folklore in paddling all over the world in respect of the design and manufacture of craft, as well as for his paddling prowess. Keith paddled with his son which is always a great experience for a father.

Buffalo City’s Mr Fixit, Vuyo Zambodla, was one of two big surprise entries and on limited preperation came in 1076th position.

The other entry to catch folk off guard was that of the Daily Dispatch’s Dominic Peel. Peel gave up an afternoon of watching soccer in front of the tele and witha handful of training “outings” under his belt, finished in 1124thplace. In the aftermath he said “never again…the only reason I finished was the likely hostile reception in the newsroom and a youngster who kept trying to come past.”
Do you know of any others? Let us know too.

Myrette Filmalter

Many surprises are experienced during and after the running of the Discovery Surfers Challenge, but perhaps the 2011 chapter turned up the biggest of all – and one that could well see the event become a  national race of far bigger preportions.

The organisers and sponsors are used to hosting celebrity runners like Bruce Fordyce, but they and the media were caught unawares when a young lass by the name of Myrette Filmalter popped up.
The surprise had an unfortunate slant to it in that she enterred late and according to the race rules would be ineligble for podium prizes.

Myrette emerged first from the water at the Gonubie River, handily ahead of pre-race favourite and previous winner, Hanlie Botha.
Botha was to go and win, but Myrette would remain in second position by a long way.

So who is this woman, what is her pedigree and what does she think about being “jilted” at the finish, just two days before Valentines Day?

STEEPLECHASE and CROSS COUNTRY:
Myrette is a 3000m stepplechase champion who has competed for South Africa at the All Africa and Commonwealth Games. Furthermore she has appeared in the green and gold on numerous cross country occasions, including the World Championships in France.
Her father and brothers have all competed at the World Triathlon and Duathlon Championships and so too did she participate in the Triathlon champs, in USA and this while in matric. Indeed she had to write some of her finals while in the US. That was 1999 and she finished 9th.
The following year Myrette was back in SA triathlon colours in Calais, France.

The 30 year old from Pretoria studied at Tuks, for whom she still runs, and qualified with a masters degree in Critical Care.
2005 saw her working in the UK where she participated in the British League, finishing third in the women’s 3000m steeplechase series.
Myrette’s next goal is to break 34min for the 10km.

HOW DID SHE HEAR OF SURFERS?
Sitting at breakfast in an East London establishment, she and her boyfriend overheard chatter about this race called the Surfers. Automatically she knew she just had to enter.

Running up front and knowing that she would not count for a position left a degree of sadness hanging over her, but she kept her head and focussed on the way forward.

Although a tad weary, Myrette was very excited emerging from the Gonubie River and then the crowds simply boosted her. “It was awesome” she said. The water points were superb and the people of Gonubie rousing.

The only other time Myrette had been to East London was when she was nine years old and she arrived by train to run? – You got it, the SA Cross Country Champs.

Will she come back despite the disappointment? Absolutely!
Would she care to run other off road events? Myrette replies in the affirmative and adds that the area and the terrain lends itself to such outings.

There may be a happy ending – Myrette could well be the draw card entry for Discovery and the Surfers Challenge in 2012.

For the record her time was a very good 85 minutes.

A tight finish, with just two seconds seperating the top two in the single sur-ski race and powerful performances up front in the men’s and women’s footraces ensured that the 2011 Discovery Surfers Challenge will be rememberred for all the right reasons.
Having said that there was also heartbreak for a visiting runner from Pretoria who fell foul of the race rules, that she can reasonably be understood not to have known about.
The men’s winner, Melikaya Sithuba had finished 2nd in both 2008 and 2009, while slipping to 3rd in 2010. The former Two Oceans gold medalist powerred his way to win in the absence of the two previous winners, Mzuvelile Hlanti and Mluleki Nobanda. The winning time of 69:21 is 59 seconds better than that of last year, but the conditions this time were far superior. Looking at past results opens up an interestin debate on the 2008 race, albeit 1km shorter.
A former Surfers winner Doran Fritz came in second and new kid on the block, Mzukisi Kebeni was third. Most surprising was the fact that the top five postions had only one minor change from the exit at Gonubie River to the finish.
In the women’s race the unexpected arrival on the banks of the Gonubie River of Myvette Filnalter ahead of pre-race favourite Hanlie Botha had the locals scratching their heads. Filnalter hails from Pretoria and no-one had seen her in action before.
Botha looked equally surprised and came out of the water with a determination that saw the best emerge from her. She pressed on and powered to a good win over the last 12km.
Finalter crossed the finish in second, but was ruled out of contention by a race rule that precludes late entries from featuring in the results.
This lead to the awarding of second place to last year’s young sensation, Jessica Pollock with Stephanie Ackermann third. Andrea Ranger had crossed the line ahead, but apparently had her timing device on her wrist rather than ankle.
Botha won in 81:50, Pollock ran 87:55 and Ackermann 96:58.

The race amongst the Surfing fraternity is always keen and this year 17 year old Alex Rossouw ran superbly to win the battle and finish 6th overall in 74:43. Gary Muller after a late start was second in 84:18 and Liam Victor, fresh from his ultra run from Port Alfred to East London was third.

Bevan Manson, one of the lands top surf ski racers pipped the evergreen Hennie Roos in the single ski race – the two apddlers recording times of 78:37 and 78:47 respectively. Matthew Tebutt was third.
Andrew Carter and John de Smidt teamed up to take the double-ski title with a time of 77:43.
Catherine Atkinson won the womens’ single-ski, while Shane and Joy Roach won the Mixed category.

From a large field of walkers Thando Lunkwana emerged as a comfortable winner in the men’s event with a time of 1:51:12. Linda Poyo and Michael Struwig followed.
Esme Snyman was triumphant in the women’s version, walking to victory in 2:25:54, but she had Zelda Zitze and Louise Potgieter chasing hard.

Watch out for another post on some of the personalities and celebrities that took part.

No two Discovery Surfers Challenges are ever the same and comparisons are often more about personal memories and performance than about fact. 2010 versus 2011 is, however, different with the extreme conditions of last year totally eclipsed by better surfaces and seas this past Saturday. Were they the best ever? – no they were not, although the odd journo might suggest so.
What 2011 did offer was level playing fields for everyone. There was plenty of space to manoeuvre once the initial crowds were broken free from and the sand was much firmer.
The extra kilometre added to the run has also made the contest between runner and paddler a great deal closer, whether all runners appreciate it or not.

The paddlers chose between two options, one took a route further out to sea than the other and it would appear that the former option was the more beneficial.
The new Gonubie cut-off ensured that all on foot had every opportunity to make it to the finish and qualify for the race t-shirt to which most competitors aspire.
The organisation in respect of crowd control has generally been good and this year it stepped up a notch, giving it a good professional feel.
Once again the people of Gonubie were superb and were out lining the beaches and streets well in advance of the arrival of participants.
The glow on the faces of the majority of the finishes said it all – 2011 was a great success.

We go out, have a party and there is always a bit of pay back the next day or the day after. 

Running, especially tough events like the Discovery Surfers Challenge is no different.
Many will have aches and pain – some will feel no effect at all.
If you do have a muscle strain and it is specific to an area, muscle, tendon or ligament, see you physio soonest. Ice and stretching are also key tools.
For those who so enjoyed the Surfers experience and who would like to investigate other events – thus keeping the enthusiasm alive – consider some of the great trail runs that are on the calendar. Most of these are organised by Liam Victor, Rodwell Sims, myself or a combination of the three.
The reason I punt this is that if you really want to improve for the 2012 SURFERS then the shorter trails in particular will keep you sharp, while the longer ones will add to endurance.
THE REAL DISCOVERY SURFERS RACE REPORT WILL APPEAR TOMORROW!!! Read it here.