Mnweni Marathon

A lot of names I'm looking forward to putting faces to

I'll be the one hanging around the short girl with pink hair (my wife Jess) - freak her out by pretending that you know her

Anyone know what the camping fee is at the cultural centre?

I was trying to recall the same thing - I think it was around R80 pppn, but I haven't been to Mnweni Cultural Centre in ages (well actually, since September 2016, but that was 990km of Berg distance ago).

Macc wrote: Anyone know what the camping fee is at the cultural centre?

I called Leonard yesterday it is R 90 per person per night.
I'll see you there. <insert snowman emoticon here>

ghaznavid wrote: Decided to take some man-up pills and avoid chickening out on Mnweni Marathon. Gonna be cold, but about time I do this.

Ghaz, your knee sorted out?

Coeta wrote: Ghaz, your knee sorted out?

Hopefully! I did 22km last Saturday without it giving any troubles. We hoped to do closer to 40km, but, out of sheer irony - Hobbit strained his ITB about 12km in (hence him bailing from Mnweni this weekend).

If anyone is interested - what I have learned about treating an ITB:
1) Wait for the pain to go away (about 3 or 4 days). Then walk till it starts getting sore and stop immediately. Keep doing this regularly and you will find it takes longer for it to start getting sore again.
2) Avoid running! Whenever I run, the problem comes back almost instantly. Hopefully this will cease to be the case soon.
3) Learn the ITB stretch (see video below) - and use it every 30 minutes to 1 hour while hiking (I suspect I am going to get some funny looks tomorrow when people walk past be lying on my back with my legs in the air). Also do the stretch at any point where your ITB even hints that it might be about to start getting sore.
4) Use a foam roller - they help massively. You can also learn to self-massage your leg, although a foam roller is more comfortable and effective. The last few days have been the first time that the foam roller hasn't been at all sore, so I think that is a good sign.

The most helpful video I found on the topic of stretching an ITB:

You will have quite a few stares just from carrying that foam roller!! :-D
(just being silly)

The forecast for tomorrow has improved dramatically:


Cathedral Peak Webcam is showing a very bright day - misty around 1800m, but it doesn't look like it is snowing there right now. I don't see that usually gloomy dark cloud that usually brings snow.

Ghaz, that forecast will be ideal.

Not sure if it helps, but I seem to chase snow away. Last 4 hikes or climbs that I've had when big snow was predicted all turned out to be nothing...

Morning all..

How's the snow at Mnweni? Any news on whether the marathon is still on?

If so good luck VE'ers, and be safe..