Dear Triple Troublers
What a day, what a day!
First up, a huge thanks to you all for coming out to play, the Triple is what it is because of you all and the spirit in which you run it. It’s 14 years strong and I think one of the nicest comments I’ve ever heard about it in all the years, that sums it up perfectly, came on Saturday when it was described as ‘like a family reunion’ (hopefully that’s a good thing!) – and it really has become like that for me over the years.
This year, in complete contrast to last year’s conditions, we had a belter of a scorcher out there. Thank goodness for the wind that kept us cool or we would have had a few more faces looking like John Gillmer’s on finishing. Despite the heat, the mountains were truly alive after a wonderfully wet winter, the flowers lining the trails were magnificent and the streams on the ascent of Judas and Chappies were a blessing to most of us.
While everyone of you deserves to be proud of crossing the line and earning your trophy in those conditions on Saturday, there are a few names I would like to mention in particular.
Firstly to our winners –
to Ryan, having a world class athlete like yourself at the humble Triple Trouble is really an honour, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. You’re in a class of your own and we all could see that in the way you ran circles around us. And still had time to make videos and upload them online in-between while we were slogging it out! Thank you for constantly inspiring us the way you do.
And to Linda, what a run and may this be the start of a good solid comeback. You always looked far too relaxed and composed out there and it was a very well deserved win.
Ryan and Linda’s victories came with two top class runners hot on their heels – Rupert and Karoline, both star athletes and pushing it to the limit. Rupert’s sub-5hr (4:52) is a fantastic achievement, and Karoline, rolling from one massive feat of endurance to another (I don’t know how you do those distances), to come in within sniffing distance of Linda, these are both highly recognised athletes achieving great things out there on Saturday.
To Neil for his 10th Triple Trouble, a special day out and a wonderful achievement, and I hope you’ll be back on the start line for many years still.
To Gary – a newcomer to the Triple this year, the DNF doesn’t do justice to your enthusiasm and smile! Every time I saw you out there you had the most cheerful and positive attitude and I suspect if it wasn’t for kick-off looming at 5pm you’d have gritted it out up to that final beacon.
To Steve, Dale and John – soldiers out there, and well done on bringing it home together. I suspect there are a few war stories worthy of exchanging over a few beers.
And to Darnell, Terence and Michelle for braving that afternoon sun on Chappies to finish that final peak after a long day out.
Slightly off topic, happy birthday to Paul Mitchell who finished his 4th run, interestingly the lad turned 49 on Saturday, and will still be 49 on next year’s Triple, an interesting claim to fame in the history of the run!
Times & Records
Ryan’s win was in a phenomenal 4hr39’48, and Linda’s in a superb time of 6:05.
Worth noting is that Ryan narrowly missed his own Judas Peak record (set in 2016) by just 90 seconds (plus 1 million points for prioritising beacon video clips ahead of hauling after your record!), while Rupert’s Suther Peak time of 1:14:22 narrowly missed his record (shared with AJ Calitz) that has stood since 2011, at 1:12:00.
All the results are up on the website.
And on a personal note…
It was good to see some suffering going on out there, and although the blood-letting was thin this year it seems that the Triple redeemed its status as something of a tough challenge with a few cases of borderline dehydration, and it was nice to see that it meant a lot to those of you who crossed that finish line.
I was genuinely surprised to not be on the receiving end of more swear words on the final peak, as is usually the case when there’s a noticeable increase in suffering, a sharp decline in senses of humour, and someone has to be held responsible, and just then the organiser comes around the corner and who better to blame. It seems this time round I got off lightly if the antics on Chappies were anything to go by – the hills were alive with the sound of abuse, but this time it was two poor parents getting loads of stick from their sweet little girl who’d quite clearly had enough of the family outing under the blazing midday African sun, To their credit, the parents were handling it with remarkable dignity and I could only admire their resilience, and hopefully learn a thing or two from it. This was far more than I was getting from 40 runners who’d been at it since sunrise, so thank you – I’m definitely feeling the love this year. Long may it last!
On a less dramatic note, it seemed that not even Pikker managed to get himself lost this time round, on the mountain or in the grid-formation streets of the village (this is a truly remarkable thing to watch happening if you ever get the chance), so it seems that the Village Idiot Award gets to be shelved this year. GPS devices are making things increasingly boring for the organising committee who once thrived on shredding its participants wherever possible, however… having said that… <cringe> … I’m sure one of the highlights for many of you was witnessing the organiser getting lost on the dunes at the start of Suther peak, which was apparently quite strongly pointed out in the briefing beforehand. I’ve yet to work out how to word this delicately so as not to find myself banned from all future runs.
As always, the eagerly awaited points table, reflecting some interesting and lesser known stats about the day, a close-call in the final standing between Gary (happiest all round) and John who sported the most relieved look across his horrendously gaunt and pale face on crossing the line at the end (Steve, what exactly did you okes do to him out there??).
Photos:
I will be uploading photos into a gallery on the website this week so if you have any nice pics please can send some through to include.
The Thank-you’s
A day like Saturday doesn’t happen without a lot of generosity and behind the scenes happenings –
- To Angela and Velocity Sports Lab, a huge huge thank you once again for hosting us and allowing us to use the Vida Lounge. It is always sincerely appreciated.
- To our further sponsors: to Janette of JanTee Designs (involved in making those awesome shirts),
- To Linda at the Chapmans Peak Beach Hotel,
- and thank you especially too to Philippa (Hout Bay Office National) for coming on board as a new additional sponsor on the shirts.
- To Craig for so diligently manning base-camp and doing the time-keeping, its a huge task and really greatly appreciated being able to leave all that in your capable hands.
- To Roger and Kylie and their hounds for the support at Judas – that Coke went down an absolute treat!
- To Mike and Barry for popping up at Suther beacon and getting photos, and for legendary support during the day.
And lastly – a big thank you to all of you for making Saturday another successful day in the life of the Triple Trouble, and for enabling us to contribute towards the Sunflower Fund and their amazing work in putting donors on the registry.
The date for the 2019 running will be Saturday 5th October. I hope to see many of you back again next year.
Take care and see you on the trails
Eric