Field Journal

Dave Chamberlain and a crew of seasoned long-distance runners have embarked upon a mighty task that will see them complete 20 Ultra Marathon distances in exactly 20 days. The group are currently on the 1800km Journey from Cape Town to Durban. The catch? They must reach Pietermaritzburg in time to run the famous Comrades Marathon on June 7th.

Morgan Cardiff is currently documenting this journey.

The embers of the previous night’s fire were barely cooling when Koot Steenkamp, from Mossel Bay, South Africa shuffled into the living room. Switching on the lights, he questioned if he was the first one up before declaring that he had barely slept an hour. A perplexing thought given he had just run 90 km from Cape Town to Blain’s Kloof Pass, and an even more daunting one given a further 19 days remain.

Koot is one of six runners undertaking the 1800 km journey across South Africa. The project is the brain-child of Adventure runner Dave Chamberlain who was inspired by the Unogwaja (Rabbit) challenge, which is a 11-day cycle marathon following the same route, in time for the riders to then run comrades. The Ufudu (Tortoise) plod was then born, replacing bikes with feet. Dave’s original solo mission quickly grew, and turned into something far more organised and social. A run for Dave usually involves a running stroller, tent, sleeping bag and a pair of shoes. In 2012, he ran 2300km along the desert coast of Southern Africa in 47-degree heat, solo and unsupported, using windmills on an old map for the location of water sources. ‘Probably not the smartest thing to have done’ he told me in an interview a few years later.

The first to join Dave on this project was Alexander Tucker from Connecticut, USA. Alex contacted Dave after reading a Sidetracked Magazine article in 2013. They met a few years later while Dave was running across the US. In planning her own London to Johannesburg run, due to start in July, 2018, the second to join, Carla Molinaro was told to reach out to Dave for advice. It didn’t take long and much convincing before Carla had a little ‘warm up’ run on the cards. As the project grew in size, South African Mike Sewell originally signed up to be a support driver, but after spending 6 weeks running through Patagonia with mate Rodger Cameron, all of a sudden, the project had five. The last member of the crew was Koot, the former vice-captain of Mike and Rogers running club.

Each of the runners have their own reasons undertaking this challenge, each of them have their own strategies, and personalities but perhaps none quite as big as Koot whose mid-afternoon ritual includes a shot of brandy to carry him home for the final 20km of day.