North Coast runners show their mettle in brutal trail run
With beach sand making up 80% of the terrain, and adding 4 river crossing to the mix, trail runners were in for a brutal physical and mental challenge.
Running a 30km trail is challenging enough, but imagine trying to do it on beach sand with wet socks!
That is exactly the challenge that 5 North Coast residents took on last weekend, running the Pineapple Express Ultra from Ramsgate to Port Edward.
Matthew McFarlane, Franky McCarthy and Mike Light competed in the full 30km trail, with Gustav Swart and Liam MacSweeney opting for the 12km race.
Not content with just competing, McFarlane (men), McCarthy (women) and Swart (men) all won their respective categories, bringing back gold to Ballito.
“It was overcast and lightly rainy conditions which was actually perfect. I think a really hot day would have made it far more difficult. We weren’t sure how much running was going to be on beach sand, but when the organisers said ‘just keep the sea on your left until Port Edward’ we knew it was going to be tough,” said McCarthy.
It turned out that about 80% of the run was on beach sand, which is an entirely different challenge from normal trail running.
Add 4 river crossings into the mix, the first of which was 2km in, and you have a recipe for a brutal physical and mental challenge.
“I don’t think any of us really knew how tough it would be and we did almost no training on the beach. I ran the first 18km alone, but was very happy to be joined by Franky for the last 12km so that we could help each other to make the finish,” said McFarlane.
Together the duo finished well, more than 10 minutes ahead of their respective second placed finishers with a time of 3 hours 39 minutes.
“I was mostly alright for the first 22km, but that last 8km really took it out of me, so I was glad to have Matt push me on. Overall it was a really cool event,” said McCarthy.
Swart delivered a similarly impressive performance on the day, winning gold in the 12km to make it a bumper event for North Coast racers.
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