What do you do if you are one of the world’s best trail runners and a self-proclaimed adrenaline junkie, but because of the regulations in South Africa’s lockdown situation you can’t run in the street or at any other public place?

If your name is Bennie Roux and you have already overcome several challenges and disappointments as an athlete, then once again you make a plan – you do something innovative.

Roux has contacts with athletes from all over the world and just before the lockdown he read about the ways other athletes in the world act innovatively to stay active. For example, there was one athlete in Europe who ran on the balcony of his apartment – a diameter space of only seven meters – where he finally managed to complete a standard marathon (42.2km). It was then that he realized that he was actually privileged to have a large yard and some extra space in his driveway where he could measure out a jogging route.

Fortunately, Roux’s house is located on panhandle property. This gave him an extra 100 meters of driveway to the street, which he could accommodate into his route. In this way he was finally able to determine a route of almost 250m on which he could run around his house and up to the street.

Last Friday, on the first day of the lockdown, Roux tried out his route for the first time and eventually it went so well that he was able to run 180 laps around his homemade track.

“It was probably my slowest marathon ever, since I completed the 180 laps in about 4 hours and 54 minutes. But I think I have proven that one can still run the necessary kilometres despite the lockdown,” he told Rekord.

Roux, a businessman from Centurion, has completed the Comrades Marathon eleven times and has also successfully run the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon five times, but it is especially as trial runner that he became known worldwide.

Trail Running is a sport that has become very popular with adventurous athletes over the past decade. During these kinds of races, participants run in nature on different routes, which includes uneven surfaces. Forest trails, sandy or rocky surfaces and even obstacles such as water can all be part of the trail run route.

As an ultra-trail runner, he has already successfully completed races like the Sky-Run in Lady Gray in the Eastern Cape, which stretches 100km at the foot of the Witteberge along the Lesotho border; the Otter African Trail Run over the distance of a standard marathon (42km) in the Tsitsikamma National Park in the Southern Cape; the Addo Elephant cross-country race over 100 miles in the Eastern Cape and the Ultra Trail Cape Town over 100km in the Western Cape.

However, it was with the Munga Trail in South Africa, which is considered the most difficult and toughest trail run in the world, where he immortalized his name as trail runner. The Munga is a race with a 402.4km route, which starts in Belfast in the Mpumalanga Highveld and ends on the rim of the Blyde River Canyon north of Graskop on the border of the Mpumalanga Lowveld and the Limpopo province.

Roux is considered the King of the Munga, having won this race for three consecutive years since 2017. Unfortunately, he will not be able to defend his title as champion of the Munga this year, as the race was also cancelled due to the COVERT-19 outbreak.

However, he hopes to have the opportunity to run the Kalahari Augrabies Ultra-Trail run over 250km later this year.

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