Good Trail Run Including The Black Night Virtual Race

Yesterday I did my last hard run before the Sani Stagger Marathon on 27 November. I ran 18km (11.16 miles) on trails as the Sani is an off-road marathon. I decided this was the perfect run to include the Black Night Virtual Race.

The virtual race rules stated that I had to wear something black. My trail shoes are black and I also went with black running shorts and my black hydration pack. I didn’t wear a black shirt as I’m experimenting with different shirts for different times of the day for my ultra run on 8 January. I also think it is safer to have a few colors visible when running on trails. My personal photographer, my 9 year old son Rohann, accompanied me on this outing.

Ready to go!

And I'm off!

It was quite a warm morning and the temperature was 22°C (71.6F) when I started at 07:00 and 30°C (86F) by the time I finished. The first few km was easy trail next to a stream. Once I crossed the stream this changed very quickly into a very steep, technical climb.

Easy trail to start with.

View from the climb. The above trail can be seen next to the stream below.

The trail becomes beautiful towards the top and the green summer colors are starting to show. Not many people take on this climb and there were parts where the trail was not visible at all. Luckily I’ve been here many times and I had no problem to find my way.

Beautiful trail towards the top.

Spot the trail...

When I reached the summit I was feeling great. I love running at the top of this hill. It is always beautiful and the views are spectacular.

Trail on top...lovely!

Beautiful view.

The trail to get down is very rocky and technical and I took my time getting to the bottom. I don’t want to risk injury at this stage and definitely not on a training run.

Rocky trail down.

Rohann was waiting close to the bottom and took this photo “to prove that I was really running the virtual race” as he put it.

Running The Balck Night Virtual Race

I crossed the stream again and was back on the open trail. Here Rohann joined me for about 2km. It was warm by now, but running here with Rohann was awesome. I was having a lovely virtual race and getting in some good training at the same time.

I crossed the stream twice.

With Rohann on the trail…what can be better?!

The trail from here is absolutely perfect with some really beautiful parts...

Rohann asked: “How long is the virtual race?” “Oh my, I think it is 10km, I better finish it now.” So Rohann dashed ahead and drew the finish line in the ground. He cheered as I crossed the line to finish the Black Night Virtual Race! My 10km was done somewhere in the middle of my 18km run. Looking at my average pace for this run I estimate my time to be about 01:14 for the 10km. Then again, it included the very tough climb and might even be slower. I don't use Garmins or any other fancy gadgets, I just estimate.

Finish line for The Black Night Virtual Race.

This was really fun! Thanks to Stefano, The Black Night, for giving me the opportunity to run in his race. I had a few more kilometers to go to finish my 18km and felt really good when I reached the end. This was a good run.

Confirmation of a good morning on the trails.

Have a fantastic week everyone and be sure to sign up for the Black Night’s Virtual Race.