Southern Storm – Catch it on TV
By on November 5th, 2009“They said it could not be done! They said people would die trying. They said the terrain was too unforgiving, the rocks too sharp, the climbs too brutal and the swim far too dangerous. They said that one day was not enough. Five hours they said, was impossible. They were wrong!!
You can share the experiences of 200 intrepid trail runners as they challenged the impossible by watching it on Supersport (TV schedule below). On the 20th of September 2009 Iain Don Wauchope completed the iconic 5 day Otter Trail, plus the extra 3km to De Vasselot campsite that makes up the Hi-Tec Otter Run course, in 04:5902 – just a minute and a half ahead of the one man who said it could be done. John Collins may have missed the five hour barrier by seconds but his dream of running South Africa’s most loved trail as an official trail run had come true.
Thanks to a historic agreement between the event organisers and hosts SANParks, within five hours of crossing the line himself, Collins was able to watch 167 other off-road athletes from all over the world stumble across the brutal Pennypinchers lillypad crossing- 100meters of floating tethered pallet boards across the Groot River- to the finish line and attain what many now regard as the holy grail of trail running. One well known trail runner summed up the sentiments of many of the athletes describing The Hi-Tec Otter Run as “the pinnacle of the active lifestyle.”
What did they say then? They said you could not do this for more than one day consecutively!! And again they were wrong; 85 of those off-road athletes took up the challenge of the Southern Storm Duathlon dubbed “the impossible race” and stayed offroad for five more days traversing the adventure capital of Southern Africa on foot and by bike.”
Updated Supersport Schedule
Southern Storm and OTTER 2009
Wednesday, 4th of November
SS6 & SS6A 18h45-19h45 (Premier)
Thursday, 5th of November
SS1 & SS1A 11h30-12h30 (R)
Thursday, 5th of November
SS2 & SS2A & CSN 02h30-03h30 (R)
Friday, 6th of November
SS2 & SS2A & CSN 13h30-14h30 (R)
Saturday, 7th of November
SS7 & SS7A 12h30-13h30 (R)
Sunday, 8th of November
SS5 & SS5A 21h00-22h00 (R)
Sunday, 8th of November
SS6 & SS6A 04h00-05h00 (R)
Monday, 9th of November
SS2 & SS2A 08h45-09h45 (R)
Monday, 9th of November
CSN 04h00-05h00 (R)
Monday, 9th of November
SS7 & SS7A & SS10 19h30-20h30 (R)
Tuesday, 10th of November
SS1 & SS1A & CSN 15h00-16h00 (R)
Tuesday, 10th of November
SS2 & SS2A 09h00-10h00 (R)
Wednesday, 11th of November
SS1 & SS1A 07h00-08h00 (R)
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