The highlight for me was running the 42km Otter trail on day 2 as I have hiked the route but not run a marathon distance before. Our weather was perfect and the atmosphere festive and alive! The day before we did a short prologue in Natures Valley to get our seeding for the start and I was happy with a mid-field placing out of the nearly 200 runners. I loved the first section of the trail which is very rocky and technical and was at the Ngubu huts (end of day 1 Otter) in about 40 mins. All went smoothly till about 18km when I slowed my pace to save energy and prevent my calves going into cramp, but after a refreshing swim through the Bloukrans river (at 30km) I felt quite good and really enjoyed the last sections of the run. It was the longest 1.5km from the beach to the end where we had to run across floating wooden palettes, but what an amazing priviledge to run The Otter and be part of this inaugural event!
After The Otter on Sunday, the Southern Storm continued with 4 more days
of mtb'ing and trail running. Monday saw us being transported in the overland trucks by the super guys from Nomad (http://www.nomadtours.co.za/) from Natures Valley to Plett where we were treated to the beautiful 8km Robberg Trail run with magnificent sea views followed by 50kms of great riding through parts of the Harkerville forest, under the N2 and along a disused railway track (no track left, just a winding jeep track through lush forests) and on to the Diepwalle Forestry station. The rain set in for the night, leaving us picturing muddy trails for the following day, but the mist was eerily beautiful. Tuesday would involve a 7km trail run called the "Elephant Walk" followed by
65km of mtb on mostly forestry roads all the way to Portland Manor outside Knysna. Unfortunately I would have an AWFUL day, waking up with nausea, getting sick a couple of times and having no energy from not being able to keep anything down. It's a terrible feeling, and one that I have not experienced to that degree before. I was at the back of the field for the day and the route itself is a blur, but due to vasbyt and very encouraging marshals from Magnetic South I made it to Portland Manor in 1 piece. Pieter, Rob, Chris, Andries- you were all super! It was the single most terrible day of racing that I can remember, made slightly better by an hour long massage and excellent dinner (which I managed to keep down!) check out http://www.portlandmanor.co.za/
65km of mtb on mostly forestry roads all the way to Portland Manor outside Knysna. Unfortunately I would have an AWFUL day, waking up with nausea, getting sick a couple of times and having no energy from not being able to keep anything down. It's a terrible feeling, and one that I have not experienced to that degree before. I was at the back of the field for the day and the route itself is a blur, but due to vasbyt and very encouraging marshals from Magnetic South I made it to Portland Manor in 1 piece. Pieter, Rob, Chris, Andries- you were all super! It was the single most terrible day of racing that I can remember, made slightly better by an hour long massage and excellent dinner (which I managed to keep down!) check out http://www.portlandmanor.co.za/ Feeling very excited about not waking up nauseas I just had to let the
previous day go and focus on the next 2 days of racing. Wednesday produced beaut weather and after a neutral ride of about 7kms out of Portland Manor and along the main tar road, we dropped down a winding pass and proceeded past very green dairy farms and some fun forestry riding. There were 2 tar sections where working with others definitely made the going a bit easier and we fought some sandy sections before crossing a railway bridge over the N2 and flew down to Buffalo Bay. The 60km mtb ride was followed by about 5kms of beach and dune trail running, where I just cruised along 
wondering how my quads would handle the longer beach run on the final day. Our campsite had the best view and after a divine dinner of grilled fish, chips and salad and another massage I fell asleep to the crashing of the waves only 10m from my tent. Throughout the event we shared a tent with another person (in my case Janine) and were assigned in groups to a particular overland truck (our truck was named "Brenda") and crew, who cooked some of our meals for us. We also had lockers in the trucks to keep all our stuff together.
previous day go and focus on the next 2 days of racing. Wednesday produced beaut weather and after a neutral ride of about 7kms out of Portland Manor and along the main tar road, we dropped down a winding pass and proceeded past very green dairy farms and some fun forestry riding. There were 2 tar sections where working with others definitely made the going a bit easier and we fought some sandy sections before crossing a railway bridge over the N2 and flew down to Buffalo Bay. The 60km mtb ride was followed by about 5kms of beach and dune trail running, where I just cruised along 
wondering how my quads would handle the longer beach run on the final day. Our campsite had the best view and after a divine dinner of grilled fish, chips and salad and another massage I fell asleep to the crashing of the waves only 10m from my tent. Throughout the event we shared a tent with another person (in my case Janine) and were assigned in groups to a particular overland truck (our truck was named "Brenda") and crew, who cooked some of our meals for us. We also had lockers in the trucks to keep all our stuff together. The final day of racing came way too quickly and it promised to be a cracker. We started with a neutral 2km walk to the beach start and then after photo calls for the chopper set off on the 13km beach and dune run through the Goukamma Nature Reserve. This run was one of my favourites. As we climbed the dunes the early morning mist surrounded us and the fresh fynbos smells filled our noses, it was refreshing and invigorating. We had to tread carefully after being warned about Puff Adders in the area, and all too soon we were being moved in our trucks to the start of the mtb ride high above Wilderness. This "predominantly downhill" ride was still taxing on tired legs and after stopping off to run the Dune Mole Rat 6km trail run (after 35kms of mtb) we completed the last 11kms of mtb to Ebb & Flow campsite in the Wilderness National Park. The final leg was a 4,2km flat Kingfisher trail run which brought this magnificent and well-organised duathlon to an end.
Hats off to Magnetic South for organising what will become the premier duathlon event to conquer and to all the supporting and presenting sponsors- Hi-Tec, GU, Nomad, Landrover, SANparks, Cape Nature, Bitou Tourism, Tourism Knysna, Squirt, to name only a few for supporting such a fantastic event! Check out http://www.southernstorm.co.za/ for full results, profiles of each leg and news. Don't miss out on entering this event next time!
Some well deserved R&R in Wilderness and surrounds was a welcome break before heading back to Joburg...I will definitely be back!
