Author Archives: Bob Norris

The inaugural Discovery Junior Surfers was a huge success and a revelation into how keen the youngsters are to emulate the feats of their parents and older siblings.

The excitement and anticipation at the start was electric.

Eager, sometimes nervous parents stood either proudly by to watch and support or to jog/walk with if the age of the child demanded it.

There were to be winners up front – yes, but there would be no losers among the 216 finishers, as each gave of their best on the day and every competitor is now a pioneer of this event. Something to share with children and grandchildren one day.

The 216 will grow, indeed explode and do not be surprised at 500 odd next year and before we know it 1000 is a possible.

For the records the race was won overall by a girl – Tyla Phillips who completed the somewhat shortened route in 18:17. It was a fantastic run.

The boys may feel aggrieved, but they need not be as many of us seasoned runners long ago learnt to be beaten by a woman, particularly at Comrades.

Ethan de Beer was the first boy home and he too ran beautifully to finish in 18:28.

Thereafter followed Auke Liebenberg, Luke Malherbe, Liam Venter and Matt Dewar in the boys race.

Danielle Roets was second girl home accompanied by Khanya Jack in the same time of 20:59.

All competitors are now the proud owners of the coveted Surfers t-shirt and we can be sure they’ll be showing it off to their friends.

A nursery for future Surfers is born.

Women’s running has been on a meaningful growth curve of numbers for many years now, but the standard of performance has not always kept up, nor has the standard of men’s running for that matter.

Hanlie Botha has been a stand out performer at Surfers whenever she has run, and young Jessica Pollock was a surprise package in 2010 when, as an unknown 16 year old, she won the race.

Disappointment was rife this year as Botha would not be running due to having recently given birth.

Surfers had however attracted a new fan in Myrette Filmalter, an international athlete who ran an “unofficial” second in 2011. She had stumbled across the race in a coffee shop on the morning thereof.

The organisers wisely decided to fly Filmalter down to race in 2012.

Pollock meanwhile had moved on to study medicine in Cape Town and was not going to be able to make it back. The all rounder had much to keep her occupied. That all changed when on the morning of the race, mom Shirley phoned to see if she could be entered as Jessica was desperate to run. There was a flight that would get her to EL Airport by 1:30 p.m.. The airport is on the western seaboard and the race would start at 2:30 on the eastern seaboard. The distance was not the problem – the traffic congestion to the start would be. Throwing caution to the wind she made the journey, once dad had agreed to funding the trip.

Pollock admitted afterwards that is was all a blur as she raced from one point to the next. “Only when I got to the start line did I wake up.” said the waif of a girl.

Pretoria based Myrette had meanwhile been in East London for some time and was able to ease into the race.

Filmalter was not in charitable mood once the race started and she shot to the front. Pollock, just 18 years old and still in-experienced in top flight running gave chase as best she knew how.

Filmalter made the difficult, rocky and because of the high tide very narrow first 6km look a “parkrun.” Pollock too glided her way across.

Andrea Ranger and Steph Ackermann were meanwhile fighting it out for 3rd and 4th position.

Filmalter never lost a stride and she powered her way to win in what appears to be a new women’s race record of 78:21 – beating Botha’s best of 78:35 set in 2008, but that was on a course one kilometre shorter so this is definitely a new course record – 81:50 being the previous best.

Pollock who took 5:28 off her time last year improved by another 4:24 this year, finishing second in 83:31

Ranger ran a good PB and finished third in 88:58, with Ackermann 1:56 further back to finish fourth.

Charne Keese was the stand out surfer girl registering a 2:22:23 win in her category.

Catherine Atkinson’s 79:02 scored her a second successive win in the women’s single ski, while in the mixed section Colin Hall, once a top surfer runner, teamed up with Lynn McAllister to win that section in 71:26.

The 2012 Discovery Surfers Challenge may have appeared on the surface to be a fairly routine affair, however it was anything but and we were treated to some great running. The duels throughout the men’s field and in the different races were enticing.

Zingisile Marikeni was the media’s pre-race favourite and he might well have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat had it not been for Awonke Bungu being the stronger man in the water.

Bungu was the surprise leader for much of the race and enjoyed a 100m lead at Bonza Bay.
He kept looking over his shoulder, as well he might, for Marikeni put in a huge surge and on the approach to the Nahoon River had narrowed the gap to less that 10m.

Marikeni battled in the strongly flowing river and lost ground that he would never make up.

Bungu, who last ran Surfers in 2010 when he finished 5th, became a first time winner in 70:11 – a good time for very difficult conditions. Marikeni ended 32 seconds adrift while old man river, Makaya Masumpa at age 45, chased strongly throughout to finish just 20 seconds off Marikeni.

The 2007 winner, Doran Fritz, was 4th in 71:55

In the running Surfer category Alex Rossouw finished 7th overall to clinch the title for the second year in succession in a time of 75:33.

Bungu beat the first single ski of Hennie Roos by just 15 seconds in what was the tightest contest between the two disciplines in many years. Duncan Boyd, Warren Rieger and Alex Midlane followed Roos home.

Brendon Thompson and Andrew Carter teamed up to win the double ski race and they beat all other categories to the finish with a time of 68:36.

The strong following wind made it a happy day for paddling and while the runners and walkers had benefit too, the high tide, especially on the first 6km section to Gonubie negated much of the advantage offered by the wind.

Walking is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it open up possibilities for many more participants. Linda Poyo turned the tables form last year on Thando Lumkwana to win in 1:50:57.

I sit at a desk strategically positioned, cornered actually, in the “John Henry” – our pub at home you understand – the rain, she is falling outside, in as copious a number of inches as we have downed ales herein – or so it seems.

The thought occurred as to how would heavy rain effect a runner of the Discovery Surfers Challenge, should race day turn out so?

For one thing we will get wet sooner than the first river crossing at Gonubie and if it has rained for a couple of days that gravel start will be a good deal more testing and slippery than the norm.

Due to the higher than usual tides rock jumping will be more prevalent than usual. Wet rocks are tricky and no invitation to a picnic.

Footwear becomes a serious issue, as the usual running shoe is not even dry rock friendly.

An asset of the rain would mean that we stay cooler for longer, which is great unless we forget to drink at the feeding stations because of it. Like we could consider skipping the drink to make up time on our opponents – only problem is we could, and probably will, dehydrate as humidity will still be high.

Running in the rain is great though; it makes one feel like being a kid again – thus uplifting the spirits during the race.

Ignoring the first section to Gonubie and the probability of wet rocks to slow our progress, our times would be positively affected later on- unless o f course the rain is accompanied by a strong west wind.

Today’s wind, as I write, is south-easterly of nature so that would help more than hinder.

What about the rivers though? They have been running pretty heavy as it is, so sustained heavy rains up river will certainly add to the challenge. Hmm..interesting thoughts of arriving in Australia are surfacing.

While we could have a lot of fun in the rain it would impact negatively on the overall experience in that there will be fewer spectators, as they do tend to be fair weather of nature. Few would blame them.

Fewer spectators equates to less encouragement and more opportunity to throw in the towel if the going gets tough??

The finish too would simply not be the same with wet runners and there followers likely to high tale it for home.

Verdict? Bring on the sun!

For many years traditional road runners have tried to frighten other runners out of running the Discovery Surfers. Given that the event has grown from a field of just 26 at inception to the 3000 mark in 2011 we can tell hugely successful the doomsayers have been and how the horror stories have generally failed.
One of the big bogey suggestions spread is that “you will fall and injure yourself.” Well being a most prolific faller – I have now perfected the roll – let me tell you runners can fall anywhere, like smooth tar roads; anytime, like in a race, on a training run and it does not stop them from bouncing back for more.
I recall a while back we had just done a bush run in the dark, and those are tricky to negotiate, but not once did any of us fall.
Once on the road back to our cars however, I tripped over absolutely nothing and badly gashed my knee.
Running Surfers won’t hurt you, unless you are unfit, but you yourself might hurt you by being careless on the run.
The other question that I am frequently asked is, “if Surfers is just one week away from the Buffs Marathon should I give it a skip?”
Two weeks would be ideal, but Surfers is only 17.5km and one would generally run 16-20km in training the week before a marathon anyway, so my advice is go for it.
Besides Surfers is such a great” feel good” event, that it will only have a positive effect on the marathon and ones running in general.
The question as to whether to race Surfers or simply jog through depends very much on the preparation that has gone into the marathon.
I would tend to simply keep the main opposition in my sights until Gonubie Hotel and then let loose – there is so much fun to be had catching others with the crowds egging you on.
So to race or not to race? Work out the best tactics to suit your strengths and give it a good go.