The Bastille Day trail race is one of my favorites. Hands down. I did my first one (15km) in 2014 and I was in love. The route has it all; no tar, climbs, rocky paths, river crossings, mud, marsh, runnable sections and scrambling. It is also usual flipping cold with a chance of snow – which is unusual for a race in South Africa let alone the Western Cape.
And of course it is Bastille Day in one of the most iconic wine towns in South Africa – Franschhoek. I also completed the 22km in 2015 and after missing the race in 2016 decided to do the 35km in 2017. As usual it was a cold and wet start. The 35km and 50km runners start in the dark but that doesn’t last too long.
Halfway through I took a tumble during on elf the river crossings. Banged my knee and soak my arms up to my armpits! Spent the rest of the race trying to decide if my hands were colder with wet gloves on or off. Things went according to plan (I was aiming for a relaxed 5 hours) until about the 25km mark. Then the wheels started to wobble. Still trying to decide what went wrong – nutrition, lack of preparation, environment? My head?! Either way I had to power walk the last 8kms or so.
Oh well. I still my my secondary objective – which was to finish. Missed my primary objective by almost an hour! But I recon I will be back next year.