Watch your Peckers!
We first heard about the Oxpecker in 2015, from a reader based in Cape Town. The fact that he was keen to travel nearly 2,000km made us wonder what made this stage race in northern KZN so special.
It didn’t take long to find out. We attended the second event in 2016, which had now become so popular it was offered on two consecutive weekends.
The magic sauce they were serving up became apparent on our arrival, and the good vibe didn’t let up until days after we got back to the TRAIL office.
Fast-forward to 2018, and the ITEC Oxpecker is now a three weekend phenomenon that keeps reinventing itself. It’s no surprise that everyone who attends sings its praises, and that they have a perfect five star rating from 200+ reviews on their Facebook page.
Winterton, in the northern Drakensberg region of KwaZulu-Natal, doesn’t have the biggest population of trail runners. Nor does it have a landmark mountain that everyone wants to run up. It doesn’t have prizemoney. It doesn’t court the country’s top runners (but some speed merchants do run it).
So why do people come from Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and everywhere else in between to run The ITEC Oxpecker?
Read on for deeper insights into what makes the ITEC Oxpecker so special.
SYNONYM OF AWESOME
by Warren Kelly
One day, someone will irrefutably prove that Monday