Mnweni Marathon

Hi guys,

Just out of interest: who is doing the Mnweni Marathon over the weekend?

From what I've gathered so far VE will be well represented At this moment I know that it is me, Riaang, ASL, Tony Marshall and Sabine. Anyone else?

Will be pretty cool if we can arrange a quick get together after the race

Good luck guys!

I am hoping to do it next year.

I am going for it. I have honestly lost count of how many Mnweni Marathons I have done, as it is my favourite race out there!

To everyone else going for it, good luck and have a lot of fun.

Sadly, I'm out this year. My running partner has a knee injury and we don't want to risk it. I've also spent waaaay too much time on the bike so far this year and not enough time running!

I'd love to run it sometime, but have bigger fish to fry, also starting this weekend: expafrica.live/ :woohoo:

Enjoy the run guys!

I have had to pull out as well, unfortunately, due to another commitment I cannot miss.

AndrewP wrote: I am going for it. I have honestly lost count of how many Mnweni Marathons I have done, as it is my favourite race out there!

To everyone else going for it, good luck and have a lot of fun.

Thanks Andrew, good luck to you too!!! This will be my first one

Dillon wrote: Sadly, I'm out this year. My running partner has a knee injury and we don't want to risk it. I've also spent waaaay too much time on the bike so far this year and not enough time running!

So we can then set another meeting for next year Dillon

The four VE runners (that we know of) all gave a good account of themselves in the Mnweni Marathon, and did themselves and VE proud.

The unstoppable AndrewP won the race in a personal best time of 4h41, finishing well ahead of the second placed runner. The rest of us were way down the field, with tonymarshall finishing in 7h43, and Riaang and supertramp (Riaan and Danie) finishing in 9h36.

The weather was perfect for the run, overcast and cool, with hardly a breeze, and much to everyone's relief the forecast rain stayed away for most of the day, until the late afternoon, when the heavens opened just after Riaang and supertramp finished. We felt sorry for the runners still out on the route, and those who were tenting on the bare ground at Mnweni Cultural Centre, which must have turned into a swampy patch of mud.

All four guys did much better than we had expected before the run, and this can partially be attributed to the good running weather. The three of us that did the run for the first time were also conservative in our approach and aspirations, not really knowing what to expect, and not wanting to set goals that would be too difficult to achieve.

Congratulations Andrew, although I was somewhere between the top of Mnweni Pass and Rockeries Pass when you finished, it was a wonderful feeling to hear from a spectator near the Ntonjelane River bridge that 'an older guy called Andrew' had won the race comfortably, and to chat to you after I finished and share in your joy.

Well done guys, those are exceptional times!

4h41 - do I smell a sub 40h time on a particular route in the near future

Ps. that is 8.11km/h average speed!