PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - One of the longstanding highlights on the Plettenberg Bay sporting calendar, the Buco Easter Adventure Racing, was back this year after its cancellation in 2020.
Organiser James Stewart from Muddy Foot Adventures, said the event had been in existence for 12 years, but since the cancellation last year, there were fears it would come to an end.
“Lifelines from Buco Plett, MTO Trails and Plett Tourism as well as the help from a pile of volunteers, saw the event take place in a similar, but different format over the Easter Weekend,” Stewart said.
On the Saturday the traditional trail runs took place at Cairnbrogie and the surrounding MTO plantations. “The weather played into our hands and 132 runners of all ages turned up to take on the different runs from 5km to 16km. The open spaces and lack of normal market festivities allowed the runners to enjoy the event, have some refreshments and head home.”
The 16km men’s event saw Melikhaya Msizi cross the line first with a time of 1:12:22. Rodney Prins, in a time of 1:13:09, came in a close second. The final spot on the podium was taken by Terry Pickard, who finished the distance in 1:20:37.
Monica Taylor won the women’s 16km event with a time of 1:46:03, Tamara Macmillian came second with 1:48:12 and Taryn McLintock came in third, with a time of 1:49:1
“The local Plett tourist attractions all came to the party and loads of runners will be enjoying activities around Plett from the lucky draw prizes donated.”
The Sunday saw a brand new event being introduced - the Buco Adventure DUO Challenge. This took a “ride, run, ride” format. It was hosted in the MTO Keurbooms Plantations.
“The event saw individuals and relay teams take on the three legs for a total of 30kms, with a leg-breaking 1 000m of climbing. The winner was local Kevin Evans, who showed that he is not just good on a bike. All the running to the shops during lockdown paid off.
“What a scenic route they managed to set out for the Buco Duo Easter event. These routes and events never disappoint, and today’s event lived up to all expectations,” Evans said.
Stewart said the two mountain bike routes, 26km in total, had a “punchy and hard 700m of vertical ascent”, but that the climbing was well rewarded with “a super-fast, rocky jeep track and then some sublime purpose-built, single-track through the pine forests of MTO”.
“The 5km trail run was easy to underestimate, with nearly 300m of climbing, but again the views over the bay from the top of the climb were simply spectacular.”
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