Race in Reverse
It didn’t take long for it to become lauded as The Grail of Trail. Then, three years after its inception in 2009, the Otter African Trail Run organisers introduced a reverse route version run on even years. Many say that as tough as Otter is, the RETTO is even tougher. But when the gurus boil it down, the numbers don’t show anything conclusive (p76). Weird, huh? The sense of toughness may be determined by each individual’s running strength, or their attitude to the tricky technical sections at the end. Here’s our synopsis of the 2016 edition held on 13 and 15 October, as well as three runners’ experiences.
RETTO 2016 in two minutes
Stevie and Robyn would have won the first edition outright! Stevie Kremer in second, Robyn Owen in first, Nicolette Griffioen in third, enjoy their special moment.
Top three: Kane Reilly repeats his 2015 second, Marc Lauenstein takes top spot again, and a phenomenal run from Christiaan Greyling in third.
(right) did what even he thought unlikely: a sub-four hour on the supposedly slower RETTO course. We asked him beforehand what he thought he would run, and he said “A think a 4:02. I suffered so much in the final kilometres last year to just break four hours. I really had to give so much to make it happen. I don’t think I’ll be able to repeat that this year, not on this tough
