Ballito runners conquer Kalahari marathon

Dolphin Coast Striders Gary Henwood-Fox (53) and Shannon Clark (49) successfully completed the gruelling Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon from November 1 to 7.

“The beast has been tamed! Done and dusted,” said Henwood-Fox.

The Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon is a self-sufficiency run held over six legs in seven days with set distances for each day, ranging from 21km to 70km.

Clark finished 10th overall and Henwood-Fox placed 23rd out of 70 international competitors.

They ran the marathon in aid of charity, Henwood-Fox for The Sunflower Fund and Clark in aid of Reach for a Dream.

Covering around 250km in extreme conditions over seven days is no mean feat and Henwood-Fox said he does not want to do it ever again.

“It really pushed us both mentally and physically,” he said.

The most difficult thing for him was breakfast in the morning.

“We relied on dry food, so my breakfast was some almonds, cashews and cranberries. It is fine for day one, but after that when your stomach shrinks you get really bad cramps and it was tough to hold it down,” he said.

“The other struggle was hygiene. You could not wash much because there were very few facilities along the route. You basically had to survive with dry food and no washing for seven days.”

He said if he ever does the marathon again, he will definitely try to minimise the weight in his rucksack even more.

Clark was apparently quite paranoid over his rucksack weighing in at a whopping 13kg at the start and still finished with more than half that weight.

“He had a toothbrush with him and I did not and yet he would not share it with me!”

Henwood-Fox said they had a terrific thunderstorm on Monday night through to Tuesday morning and when the sun came back out the mercury shot up to 44 degrees.

“We were really glad to cross the finish line on the last day!”