2010 looks to be a very full sporting year for all South Africans but for us we will be staying away from the big cities and full stadiums and ploughing our trade in the beautiful wilderness areas of the country. The core of the Team from 2008 and 2009 is the same with the guys showing great commitment to the events over the past two years. The exciting prospect for us is that we have now got commitments from two of the Garden Routes top multi sports women. Jeanette Walder has raced with the top teams in the country and is also a top canoeist. Rhona Zonnestien is the ladies winner of the Southern Storm in the veterans section and will be out showing everyone a clean pair of heals on the trails of the Garden Route.
With the new structure of the Team we believe that with the valuable experience gained over the last two years we are ready to put the Team on the map as one of the top teams in the country. We have got the ability to achieve great results in the various events planned for the year.
Jeannette has secured and entry to the Cape Epic Mountain Bike Race and will be teamed up with experienced Nicky Wolf from Joburg to do the eight day race.
The same weekend will see the guys taking on the Garmin Wartrail near Lady Grey. This three day multisport race involves a 65 km high altitude mountain run, 135 mountain bike race along the Lesotho border and then 65 km of canoeing on the Orange River.
The Swazi Extreme Adventure Race in April will hopefully see James and Jeannette taking part as members of other teams due to the long distance needed to travel from the Garden Route.
Jeff will be taking part in the local Mountain bike Cross country series in an effort to win his age group. (He is currently lying a very close second)
July sees the Oyster Festival in Knysna with a host of events. Rhona is the current vets’ lady champ of the Featherbed Trail run and will be defending her crown. Jeff is the “mad man” who competed in all the events last year except the canoe race which he has committed to do this year. Jeanette ran the full marathon last year and will be competing in most events this year.The “Nite Races “ are right up our alley with navigation and darkness our allies so we will be hoping for full participation there.
The Hessequa 250km Adventure Race is scheduled for August and we are going all out to improve on our third place last year. The Trans Baavians bike race also happens in August and we will be there to with Jeff and Jeanette possibly having a go at winning the mixed pairs.
Rhona will be defending her Otter and Southern Storm titles in September and James and Jeanette may run the Otter Trail Run if they can get entries.
The year will once again be rounded of by the Eden Duo where we would like to have winners in at least two categories (the mixed and the juniors under Chris Crewdson)
Most of these events will have TV coverage and with contenders in different categories we will be trying to get some exposure. The “Where are the Pennypinchers Adventure Racing Team” competition is growing and has had positive feedback from the public and will continue this year. Chris has developed a great relationship with the local press and keeps the article flowing. The local radio station is unexplored and very new but I think we can come up with some ideas to get on that as well.
The blog has become a great tool and will hopefully be linked to the Adventure Racing website this year an possibly in time the Pennypinchers website to.
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