Race Director's Report - Red Ant Sprint #2 (Ryan Hodierne)

After much searching and many phone calls, the race venue for the 2nd Red Ants Sprint Race was set. The Pro Act Ventures facility was to be used as it had varied terrain a nice little stream (that turned into a river after Wednesday's heavy rains) and one awesome obstacle course for some fun and excitement for the lucky racers.

It never ceases to amaze me just how much organization and bunting goes into one sprint race. With over 1.3km of bunting on the course, it was impossible for the racers to go wrong at any stage… however, I preceded with a lengthy race briefing prior to race start which is primarily due to my lack of experience in race directing, I do apologize, just wanted to make sure no one got lost on such a compact course :-)

With 42 teams (88 racers) lined-up, the race was off to a speedy Le Mans style start, with competitors sprinting down toward their bikes, bike shoes 'n all! We had designed the race course to be spectator friendly which is always nice for friends and family to see for themselves what crazy people adventure racers are. The area where the race took place provided varied terrain; we had dry dusty roads, the smooth tar, a quad bike course, dense vegetation, mud holes and slippery bum slides, there was even a climbing wall called "the mountain" that we managed to include in the race for a fun abseil before the finish.

Having run a marathon positioning myself all over the course to ensure everything was going well, I was only too pleased to see cheerful faces and hear predominantly kind remarks… there was the odd curse, all in good spirit though.

The first team, team DAD, finished in a time of 1hr16min, having sped through the course like mad men, even with a broken bike frame!? After all they were being chased by a quick Lost Team who were hot on their heels from the get go. It was great to see the women's pairs division being well contested, with team Everything But The Boy taking 1st place, closely followed by T-Junction and the Roasted Dandelions. The Mixed pair's category was strong as ever, and team Itchy and Scratchy took the honours in that division. The little guys from the Teen Ants (both age 13yrs) impressed me the most, I reckon we should all keep an eye out for them in future, they're chasing us down!

The final results were as follows:

1st Male - Team DAD (Rynard Van Hooven, Marais Dekker) 2nd male - Team Lost Team (Johnny Young, Rudolf Naude) 3rd Male - Team 2C (Charles Naude, Charles Van Der Walt)

1st Female - Everything but the Boy (Erica Terblanche, Gillian Banks) 2nd Female - T-Junction (Sharon Henderson, Angela Robertson) 3rd Female - Roasted Dandelions (Nikki Davies, Tracy Kruger)

1st Mixed - Team Itchy and Scratchy (Ronald Botha, Alisa Schutte) 2nd Mixed - Team Cipralex (Tania de Muelenaere, Simon Lawrence) 3rd Mixed - Team FoodState (Mark Anderson, Debbie Smith)

1st Juniors - Team Teen Ants (Delano Viljoen, Ian Smith)

Team Red Ants would once again like to thank all competitors for taking part in our 2nd Sprint Race, we were really chuffed to have a 100% finish result. As race director, I was very pleased it all went down so well and a great day was had by all.

Thanks must go out to Baksteen, Yolandi and their team at Pro Act Ventures, for their professional assistance and for the use of their awesome facility, we greatly appreciate it.

Every racer also received free Oh!Zone and HYDRAssist kindly sponsored by Darryl from ZoneRange (www.zonerange.co.za).

Thanks again to all our sponsors (Montrail, Buff, Body Glide, Black Diamond, Gidgitz, Oh!Zone, Bruce Reyneke Cycles, Island Tribe), the prizes were pretty neat and everyone got something at prize giving, you were all winners!! Also to USN for sponsoring all the Lear R drinks at the finish for everyone.

This race couldn't be possible if it wasn't for all our marshals that gave up their own time to come out there and help us, thanks Louis Mulder, Louis Goldberg, Cheryl Luppnow, William Cairns and family, Kim Hodierne, Regard, Johnny, Frank, James and Juanita. Thanks to our trusty Medics, Outdoor Medical, Gary and your team, you always do a very professional job!

PS. Go check the Photo's of the race on our website in the gallery section, can have a good chuckle! www.teamredants.co.za.

There are race photos for sale of all the Red Ants races on www.actionshots.co.za