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After last years heavy rains which put an end to Russell
Paschke and Charlie Du Toit's record breaking plans, they
decided to return with a vengeance in 2003.
On the 16 August 2003, four Namibians, Russell Paschke, Charlie
du Toit, Coenraad Pool and Tommy van Wyk set out in an attempt
to break the record for completing the above 84km trail. The
existing record was 11hrs 42min and was set up on 13 July
1990 by two South Africans, Bruce Matthews and Ronnie Muhl.
Bruce had at that stage completed 16 Comrades Marathons finishing
in the top 20 positions 6 times. He had also finished the
London to Brighton Marathon in 7th place in 1989 and received
a gold medal in the Two Oceans Marathon in 1984. Ronnie was
a veteran of 7 Comrades Marathons and 9 Two Oceans Marathons.
 The
Canyon is stark, rugged, magnificently desolate and harshly
unforgiving. Added to this is the lack of water currently
in the canyon. This has meant that all hiking activities have
been suspended and special permission was required to allow
this attempt to take place. The lack of water meant that each
athlete had to carry a backpack with approximately 5 litres
of water. This together with the energy supplements and emergency
gear meant that each athlete had to carry an additional 7kg
in weight.
At 5:45 on the morning of the 16th, all four set off from
the start of the hiking trail and descended into the darkness
of the canyon with torches to assist them until first light.
Having reached the bottom in 30 minutes, they set off for
the first check point at Sulphur Springs at approximately
16km. This first stretch was extremely demanding due to large
boulders and thick sand and was reached in 2hrs 30min. Here
the support crew who had climbed down into the canyon via
the emergency escape route at that point to re-supply the
water met them. The next section was a stretch of 43km to
the only section of the entire canyon where vehicles can get
access to the river. Here they were given a re-supply of water
having all run out approximately 8km before this point. At
this point, Tommy was forced to stop due to an injury that
he was battling with over the previous 6km. It is impossible
to explain to someone that has never experienced it, the disappointment
of having to have to withdraw from something like this due
to injury when the mind is still willing to go on.
The remaining three set off on the final 18km stretch to
Ai-Ais with new determination knowing that the record attempt
was still on. By now they were truly sick and tired of the
continuous stretches of thick sand and river boulders. Exhaustion
had crept in long ago and it was only their mental strength
as well as the targeted record time that kept them moving
forward as fast as possible. It was with great relief that
they rounded the final bend in the river to see the pump station
some 400m from Ai-Ais. At this point the realisation dawned
on them that they were not only going to break the existing
record, but that they could come in under 11hrs. With sudden
renewed energy they made a final dash for the finish line
in front of the offices at Ai-Ais finishing in a new official
record time of 10hrs 54min overall.
Charlie du Toit, a veteran of 4 Comrades Marathons and who
has a sub 7hr 30min silver medal finish to his credit, summed
up this achievement by announcing that in his opinion it was
harder than anything he had done before. "This canyon
is not for the faint hearted and an attempt to run it should
not be taken light heartedly".
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