Ultra-Trail Drakensberg races will go on, but at home

EVEN though the 2020 Ultra-Trail Drakensberg was cancelled due to the coronavirus, the organisers will stage the first-ever UTD Lockdown Edition this weekend.

UTD incorporates five different races from the iconic UTD160 to the DRJ21.

The organisers have offered runners the option of doing 10 per cent of the distance at home as part of the UTD Lockdown Edition.

Anyone entering the lockdown edition of the UTD160 will be entered to run a distance of 17.1km, the UTD100 will cover 10.8km, the GCU62 is 6.2km, the SDR32 is 3.2km and the DRJ21 is 2.1km.

Alternatively, the organisers have thrown down the bait by launching a UTD Lockdown Edition Grand Slam which includes all of the distances and totals a 39.5km run.

With the original event planned to take place over an entire weekend, a sixth event has been thrown into the mix, the UTDunlimited.

This is a challenge for runners to see how far they can go from 10am on Friday to 7am on Sunday.

“This event is now well established and there was a big field really looking forward to the 2020 event,” said Running Man Adventures’ Spurgeon Flemington.

“Once the lockdown was extended over the original event dates we realised that there was an opportunity to turn the existing disappointment into something positive.”

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“We also wanted to do something to ensure that the two organisations that are the main beneficiaries, WildlifeACT and the Southern Lodestar Foundation, do not suffer unduly, so we have decided to stage the UTD Lockdown Edition with an entry fee of R0 but a voluntary donation to these two organisations.”

Flemington stressed that every participant will have to comply fully with the lockdown regulations and the run will have to take place inside homes or gardens.

The events will all start at the same time that they were scheduled to start during the weekend’s racing in the Southern Drakensberg, but runners are allowed to start their run at any time that suits them during the 45-hour period between 10am on Friday and 7am on Sunday.

There are also a large number of lucky draw prizes for competitors taking part, including free entries into UTD 2021.

The event prize giving will happen on Sunday afternoon via social media, at the same time as the prize giving was planned for before the lockdown.

The entry fee is a voluntary donation of the participant’s choice and will be split evenly between WildlifeACT and the Southern Lodestar Foundation.

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