I had the privilege of attending the Greyton Classic MTB & Trail Run this past Saturday – my first “real” trail run over a decent distance. If you haven’t been to the town of Greyton – I highly recommend it – a real jewel of a small, quaint town.
The race itself is in a spectacular setting, offering a variation of farm road, dual and single track racing. It’s also quite unique in that mountain bikers and runners take part on the same track – which in itself offers some rather interesting scenarios. Even though the bikers were set on their way 15 minutes before the runners, I still caught some bikers by half way already (and my pace wasn’t anything to write home about). This never presented any problems though – the bikers were courteous in letting us past on the up hills, and provided friendly warnings as they wizzed past on the downs.
The weather turned out to be perfect, with the low cloud cover providing a cool morning, and the sun warming up just enough to enjoy the refreshments at the finish.
If you haven’t done this race before, I’d say this is probably the equivalent of a 30km road race – those mountain hills really take it out of you!
The first half is also definitely more scenic than the second half – which made the last few km’s a bit more of a mental struggle than it would have been had the beautiful scenery been maintained throughout the race.
In conclusion, the race is definitely worth the drive out to Greyton. If you have a family, the event is ideal – kids as young as six were taking part in the 10km MTB event.
The only criticism I can offer is that the runner’s number collection area could have been more clearly marked.
I’ll definitely be back next year!
Some pics of the event: (I have some video as well, but unfortunately my crappy camera doesn’t focus well with adhoc scenarios) – full album link at the bottom of the page.
“He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes man's heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food which sustains man's heart ...” Psa 104:13-15.
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