The year that was and there thay will be 2012 / 2013

Pennypinchers Adventure Racing Team 2012-2013

 

The year of 2012 and flashed past us and it is time to reflect on what the Team achieved and did not achieve in 2012 and what our aims and goals are for 2013

January 2012:

 Attakwas Extreme Mountain Bike Race 135km. Jeff flies the flag and does well in his 4^th Attakwas MTB Race considered the toughest single day MYB ride in the country. James takes part in the Dusi Canoe Marathon after an absence of 21 years.

February 2012:

 The month flew past with the Garden Route members (James, Netski and Jeff training in the Knysna Forests and preparing the trails at Cairnbrogie for the Easter Trail Run

March 2012: Early in March the team had to make the tough call to forego the Garmin War Trail and enter the Double Moon 250km Adventure Race to be held in the Northern Cape around Vanderkloof and Orania. The thinking was that this is a pure adventure race and we could hone our skills as part of the build up to expedition Africa in May. We worked hard on our weaknesses and had a great race placing second in a field that had teams from all over the country.

April 2012

Good Friday 2012: The Cairnbrogie Easter Trail Run. We use the full Pennypinchers branding Trailer to brand the Barn. The day is a huge success with 258 runners taking part in the trail runs and then more than 100 kids doing the Kids Adventure Trail. Of these the kids with special needs from the Sterreweg Day Care Centre had their own route around the farm yard and past the claves. An amazing experience for them all. We donated R3000-00 to the House Of Hope feeding scheme in Kranshoek and had a great community input with cakes, cool drinks and home bakes from the Griekwa Ladies Organization.

May 2011

Expedition Africa. 500km expedition Adventure Race. We travelled to Port Alfred on the Sunshine Coast for the second running of this ARWS (Adventure Racing World Series) race. After a bad start the team finishes 4 th beating both international teams to make it a South African 1,2,3,4.

 June 2011

Recover and plan the next 6 months Jeff plucks up the courage to enter the Comrades only 3 weeks after a massive 500km race. He finishes his 9th

 

July 2012

Jeff takes part in the Knysna Oyster Festival big 5 competition (taking part in 5 of the festival events in 8 days) and comes in the top 20 of a highly competitive event. The festival ends with the last weekend’s events being rained out.

September 2012

The Team organizes its first Adventure Race. The event attracts a field of 60 athletes in pairs and mixed fours. The 65km sprint race is a huge success and will be run again in 2013.We go and use the Pennypinchers, GU and Earth Scout  Branding at a Mountain Bike Charity relay at Pezula as an extra bit of community service. A great day was had by all and the effort was appreciated by the organizers and the school where the funds went.

October 2012

Eden Duo. Jeannette and Garth come 2^nd in the mixed pairs while Jeff and James come in 2^nd in Vets category.

November 2011 The guys then went off to Sky Run a week latter and Jeff and Garth finished in the top thirty out of 180 runners and Jeff beat the demon of failing on his previous 2 attempts at the 105 extreme mountain run.

December 2011

Kurland Summer Trail. We attract 170 Runners. GU and Pennypinchers brand the finish area. Donate R2000-00 to mind the Gap Foundation (Crags based charity) and a set of radios to the Kurland Neighborhood watch.

The Blog.

The blog continues to be well supported and Twitter allows us to do live posting to the web from our phones while we are at a race. As you can see with some of the stats below the blog is receiving attention from all over the world as well. We have now had just under 12 000 visits to the blog and the stats show that there are daily hits checking out what we have been up to. This year there have been  5000 hits as apposed to the  7500 in the first 3 years of the blog.

 

 

 

2013

 

With the whole Team being together over the weekend of the Kurland Trail Run we were able to work out our main objectives for 2012 and work out the best possible way of achieving these goals .

From an event point of view it was decided that we would all continue to compete in as many local races as we can in terms of trail running, mountain biking and canoeing as well as any multi sport events that may occur. (Most of these dates and calendars are not finalized for 2013 yet).Garth and James have been conned into doing Jeff’s 10^th Comrades marathon with hi in June

 

The main focus of the Team for the first 6 months of this year will be The Expedition Africa 500km Race to be held in May 2013.James,Jeff,Garth and Jeanette have decided to 100 % commit themselves to this race and have in fact already entered

 The reasons are as follows

1)      The race is now sanctioned by the World Adventure Race Series and will attract quite a few overseas teams ,giving us the opportunity to compete against these teams.

2)      The race will be held in the Drakensberg and will be a real challenge

3)      It is the biggest race in the country and all the top South African Teams will be there

4)      It is a true adventure race and that is what we do

5)      We have got unfinished business form last years race and feel we now have the Team and the time together to really do well and get on the podium.

6)      We have an oppurtuinity to improve on our 53 position on the world ranking of Adventure Racing Teams.

 

With this in mind we have plotted a route that will include the local trail runs and mountain bike races and the Double Moon 250km Adventure Race as build  ups as well as a training camp in Hogs back to get used to some altitude and mountain conditions

The second six months of the year will include the Trans Baavians, The Eden Duo and the Salomon Sky Run as key events.

 

Event Organizing

This extra arrow to our quiver is turning out to be really successful. This last year we hosted 2 trail runs with a total of just under 600 runners taking part. The aim was to host a family fun filled day with a choice of routes for everyone to enjoy, young and old. The Kurland Summer Trail run now appears in the Trail Runners guide of the top 100 runs in the country. The addition of a Sprint Adventure Race was great to give people a glimpse of what our sport is about. This year we will once again organize three events (with some more if the ideas we have turn out). Over Easter we will host the Cairnbrogie Easter Trail Run and expect huge growth from this. At the end of the year we will once again hold the Kurland Summer Trail Run and in between we have some great ideas for either running, biking or adventure races. This third event needs to be selected carefully in terms of the very busy sporting calendar that is out there.

These events have three objectives

1)      To create an awareness and promote our sponsors using, branding ,media and a quality event

2)      To raise some funds for a local charity close to the event venue

3)      To promote the Pennypinchers Adventure Racing Team brand

4)      To introduce and show case the world of adventure type sports to the Garden Route which is already becoming known as the Adventure Sport Capital of South Africa.