Author: Bradley Claase, OCR and trail running athlete

The year of the FKT’s. This specific challenge has been on my mind for over a year now. Giving the year we have had and all races being shut down it seemed like the perfect time to set the date and train for it.

On the 16th December 2020 myself and Nikki Caromba will be taking on the gruelling Magaliesburg Major Traverse FKT. The FKT is an unsupported run/traverse starting on the Hartebeesport Dam wall and ends at the Olifantsnek Dam Wall. There is no set route however there are 15 Trig Beacons along the Magaliesburg Mountain range that need to be tagged. The traverse is approximately 77km with +/-2500m elevation gain. 

We have been scouting the route in sections to get an understanding of the terrain and search for the fresh mountain water in the surrounding streams and kloofs. This is a unsupported FKT so we will need to start with all our nutrition and find additional water on route. 

After months of training, preparing and planning it’s almost time. The record is 13hours and 31minutes. We are purely going on this for the adventure and challenge but anyone that knows me knows that I will have my eye on the clock.