Zimbabwe African Cup

I planned to the only my second African Cup of the year, even though the year was almost at an end. The race was held in Troutbeck, Zimbabwe, a country with the most beautiful nature.

We arrived at Harare Airport at about 2pm on Thursday afternoon. Then the long bus trip started. Luckily, Erhard warned me, so I took some food for the long road ahead. It took us 5 hours to get to the hotel, but we had fun along the way so it wasn’t too bad. The hotel itself was amazingly beautiful. We unpacked quickly and then headed for dinner and some sleep.

The next morning we had a nice buffet breakfast and then went on to do some light training for the day and relax for the rest of the day, I did some studying as I had to write two exams on Monday when I get back in Pretoria.

Registration

Our race was scheduled for 12am. The sun was very hot, but the light wind cooled us down a bit. We were a small field of only 12 entries, but a few very good athletes.

The swim leg of the race was relatively hard but not too intense. We were 4 athletes exiting the water together - Erhard Wolfhaardt, Chris Felgate, Valery de Falbaire and I.

Rudolf, Chris, Valery, Erhard

The only flat section of this triathlon, was the swim. The cycle route was difficult as it was uphill out and downhill back – six laps of 6.6km. Quite early on the first lap, we were only three in the bunch – Erhard, Chris and I. Soon after the start of the second lap Chris was a few meters back and he couldn’t catch up again. Erhard and I continued the hard pace for the whole of the bike leg to keep the lead and to see if we can make a gap – the run should be a bit easier then. On the last lap of the bike my legs started to give in and Erhard decided it was time to go, so he dropped me. I nevertheless tried to keep the pace high for the last lap and lost only 30sec to him.

Rudolf, Erhard


The run was just as hard as the cycle, with no flat sections whatsoever. I was lucky to have started the run with a gap over the rest of the field. I pushed it hard till about 6km and then started to relax a bit as I knew I had to race again next weekend at Pretoria African Cup. In the end I managed to keep my 2nd place. I was so happy about this result!

Chris, Carlyn, Erhard, Fabienne, Rudolf

It was a really hard race but a fun one as well. Hats of to the Zimbabwe Triathlon Union for hosting such a great race, everything went perfect without any trouble. Thank you to Zimbabwe for all arrangements, hospitality and kindness. I’ll be back next year.

Cheers
Rudolf