Mnweni Marathon

I received the mail yesterday, I've attached the official results below. PM me your email address and I'll forward the mail to you.

Hmmm early September... I'm really not sure about the grass, I imagine it could be a bit less of an issue depending on how dry this winter is?

We went did the route in early Sept last year and the grass close to the pass had been burnt, in fact that area was full of baby ferns that were coming up after the fire.

By the section around Sheppard's cave and before it we could see exactly where we were walking so a much better than what we just went through earlier this month.

After taking a while to recover from the race I also edited a short video of my experience of the most fun parts, i.e the snow

Ah those two videos have inspired me! So keen to check out that event next year. Thanks so much for posting them

And well done to everyone who took part.

For those that are interested, Bruce has introduced a Spring Mnweni Marathon on 2 September 2017 - entries are available online.

www.entryninja.com/events/event/20302-spring-mnweni-2017

Entry in. Thanks for the heads up.

Still recovering from an injury I picked up at the last one

Good luck to those that enter. I have done it once, that is sufficient for me. Maybe I might do it again some day, but there are too many routes I haven't done to do this loop a 3rd time.

Mnweni Marathon Spring Race Report. Inaugural Event.

The numbers were down from the Winter Event, which made it an intimate and casual event as ever. We camped on Friday night to much dog barking and rather early awaking from cock crowing from 2:30am. With the race briefing at 5:30 and race start of 6:00 morning light was just making an appearance as last minute adjustments to gear was made.
We could not have asked for a more perfect day as the sun rose and hit the mountains turning them golden, the air was still and cool. The early part of the race was marked by comments from some of the veterans enjoying the fact the long grass had been burned and that the path was clearly visible and mash/bog free. It was my first time in this part of the berg and I could see the attraction!
After clearing the the Protea fields I made the all to common mistake of not keeping high and ran down to join the river "too early". But I quickly saw the error of my way as I had preloaded the track on my GPS (with compliments to Tony Marshall). While I was with a group that insisted they were on the right path I knew that I had to get back on Tony's track which was soon done on the second river crossing. Only at the start of the accent did I see the group I was with traversing high on the right hand side the valley just below the rock band - they must of been following baboon paths or something... needless to say they had a lot of descending to do to cross the river and get on the right path.
The Accent, well I had expected that it was going to be a big climb but it was huge! But totally worth the effort all the way to the top, what a joy the mountains bring. I joined a new group and we had lunch at the top of the pass basking in the sunshine, out of the wind, after the cool accent. I pretty much decided that I would stick with this group as there appeared to be number that where "regulars" and that would make the rest of the race easy on the navigation side of things in addition they where very relaxed and always up for a laugh.
The decent, the views framed by the Rockies was nothing short of Berg spectacular. We joined the gravel road with 5.6km to go it was however now starting to get warm but it was just a case of grinding out a "park run" that never seemed to have an end. I was glad to be back home in 8 hrs 43 mins to a very relieved and happy wife! While certainly not a fast time wise it was a great experience that I have to say is worth all the effort and a must for any "Bergie". We opted for a drive home after finishing for a quiet and comfortable night.

Well done Rhinoandhedgehog, glad your first MM went well.

Guessing you'll be back......