Ballito mountain racer overcomes testing challenge to support mental health
Rex Hunt takes on Drakensberg to raise awareness of his mental health and addiction recovery programme.
Ballito’s Rex Hunt recently conquered the brutal 20km Mont-Aux Sources trail run to demonstrate the value of overcoming a challenge.
A longtime campaigner for mental health awareness and addiction recovery, Rex runs the Umhlali-based Against Drugs and Child Abuse (ADCA) non-profit organisation.
He took on the Drakensberg run on September 7 to show people in his programmes how consistent work towards a difficult but achievable goal can add value to one’s life.
The Mont-Aux Sources trail proved the perfect event for his purpose, offering up a tough 20km or 50km course for runners near the peak of the Drakensberg Mountain Range.
“All things considered, I think it went very well,” said Rex.
“The conditions were perfect in 27 degree heat with a light wind and the course was absolutely beautiful.”
Runners started and finished at the Mahai campsite in the shadow of the Tugela Falls, gaining around 450 metres of elevation along the way.
“The first 9.3 kilometres was basically straight uphill and when it got to the downhill it wasn’t a gentle gradient and needed a bit of rock hopping. There wasn’t much chance for free running,” he said.
Therein lies the challenge of the Mont-Aux Sources trail and Rex admits there was some doubt along the way.
“There were many times when my head said to my legs that they were too tired to continue. But my legs were fine and I had to focus on figuring out the mental side of things,” he said.
Rex pushed through and finished in a time of 3hrs 27min, good for 68th in the field of 166 runners.
Aside from the challenge of completing the run itself, Rex was also running to raise funds for ADCA and managed to raise over R17 000.
He offers free and paid courses for addiction recovery and mental health which are run in both a group and individual setting.
You can find more information and the link for donations via his website at adca.co.za. Visit montauxsourcesultratrail.co.za to find out more about the run itself.
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