It’s a 10!
presented by ASICS South Africa
The AfricanX Trailrun presented by ASICS is the oldest surviving trail stage race in South Africa. The tenth edition in April reminded us that, no matter how successful you are, you should never be afraid to try new ideas to raise your game.
AN IMPRESSED NOVICE
by Deon Braun
I thought the course would be mainly jeeptrack and district roads: fast and nontechnical. I would have been mostly right – if the race was held in the same region as previously. But it wasn’t. The move to the mountains outside Stellenbosch changed everything. And change is usually good, even if it causes a little pain.
After the booking was made, after the training was done, it was time to enjoy the countdown in the final days. Here are four stories from the fabled AfricanX Trailrun, the granddaddy of South Africa’s living trail stage races. I hope you enjoy them as much as I loved running my first (and hopefully not last) AfricanX Trailrun.
RACING WITH DAD
by Sediqa Khatieb
I didn’t want to be here. I was here strictly under duress. My dad, Sha, in his sixties, wanted to run AfricanX, a three-day stage trail race that started in 2009. This year we would run a collective 90km over three days, through Jonkershoek and various wine farms around Stellenbosch. It’s a race that must be run with a partner, something I’d never done before.
It made sense that I should run with my dad. We train together on a regular basis and his finishing time for Two Oceans Ultra is generally 10 minutes slower than mine. He was also well aware of my flaws, including my terrible
