The Return Of Jan Snow
It’s been a while. Hell, it’s probably been more than 2 years (pre-Covid) since I’ve actually taken the time to write down my thoughts and trail tribulations.
Why? There’s probably a few reasons I could give, from not having time due to work, being fat, lazy, injured or just not motivated to run. Basically LIFE happened.
My last competitive race was the Tankwa Trail in 2021, somewhere in between Stage 2 or 4 of Covid (and stage 6 loadshedding). Covid lead to little or no racing and only social runs with the Wolfpack.
Then events started coming back, and my weekends was spent either marking routes, managing them and then clearing them. Not a whole lot of “me time” to run, other than with my group of mainly primary school learners I started coaching in ‘21, and hell, coach can’t keep up with them unless we do LSD’s (no, not the drug, I don’t need WADA rocking up at my training sessions)
I must confess that the joy I get from coaching, and seeing these youngsters reach their goals, improving or just finding a love for running and trail in specific, has outweighed my own personal needs to some extent.
Have I missed the trail running community? Yes!
Have I missed running & summitting a mountain peak with the Wolfpack (Jon, Jamie, Sam & Colleen)? Yes!
Have I missed reaching that said mountain summit before sunrise and enjoying a cold beer before 9am after a proper trail run? Hell yes!
So let’s back track a little bit. Although I’m lucky enough to play a part in the biggest trail running festival our beautiful country has to offer, UTCT, and got to run a few of the recce runs exploring the route, there has been no major races on my horizon. You get sidetracked by things if there is no real goal race to run. The Otter African Trail Run has been such a integral part of who I am as a trail runner, and the reason I even started running trail, but when that chapter closed in 2019 after Otter number 5, nothing really drew my attention again, other than the Tankwa Trail which is an amazing event with the perfect combo of racing/socializing and having one heck of a trail bash weekend in the Koue Bokkeveld!
With my trusty steed Cole Stanton! We'll be back racing in Nov (or at least attempt to)
Sept ‘22 my running world came crashing down! From harmlessly kicking a soccer ball to hardly being able to walk 50m pain free 2 days later, I underwent back surgery a week later! It felt that my whole being, or that, that defines me as a person in the running community (runner/coach) imploded, and I was house/bed bound for the next 7 weeks.
Coaching happened via preset plans sent on Whatsapp, with the mom’s having to lead sessions and give feed back on times and progress. I’ll forever be thankful for my family (having to deal with old grumpy) and my athletes (having to deal with their mom’s who are apparently much stricter than I am) for sticking with me through this time. We made it out the other side, and they delivered PB’s, records, gold medals and provincial colors the following season!
Rehab followed, and I promised myself I would run one more time before year end! On the 31st of December I laced up my shoes and went for a 5km trot at my happy place down in Cape Agulhas (just don’t tell my physio), a week or to before the set given.
Slowly but surely the running got easier, the pain less and the enjoyment returned, although I still lacked motivation.
Fast forward to May ‘23 and on our way to our annual hunting trip, I bumped in Carel Heroldt, from Dryland Event Management. Over a Karoo thorn bush fire, in a dry riverbed, just off the N1, with a brandy & coke in my hand, a new goal was set! The 2023 edition of the Rhodes Dryland Traverse!
I’ve been lucky enough to run a few Dryland events, 2 Tankwa’s & 2 Traverse’s, so convincing me to run their events is easier than stealing money as a government official or finding dollars in couches at Phala Phala!
So over the next month and a bit I’ll be sharing my “Almost Complete Rookies Guide To Stage Racing”! You can use it if you want, I certainly will be again!
