Trail Hero of the Month – March: Ryno Griesel

Today sees the launch of Rockhoppin’ Trail’s
THOM. Acronym lovers out there should be thrilled to see the inception of a pronounceable
one – after all, I could’ve made it RTTHOM. But that would’ve been silly. So I
opted for THOM – Trail Hero of the Month.

There’ll be no rules for who gets to be RT’s
THOM – I decide. The person can be South African or international, man or
woman, short or tall, young or old, carb crazy or paleo…  The only must involves the achievement of
something incredible on trail.

So, who better to kick start things than
the lesser known hero of the invincible duo of Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel,
who not only had the courage to take on the challenge of attempting a new
record for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse, but smashed it by more than 18
hours.

(slightly into April, as it is…)

 

Now that the Berg dust has settled and the
boys have got their breath back after running their incredible record-smashing 207km
Drakensberg Grand Traverse (DGT) last week, I managed to catch up with Ryno
Griesel, the navigation and logistics wizard half of the Sandes / Griesel power-partnership
that conquered what must surely be South Africa’s ultimate endurance challenge.

Setting a new record of 41hr49, Ryan and
Ryno whipped a solid 18hr40 off the DGT’s previous fastest known time (FKT),
which was set in 2010 by Ryno and fellow endurance adventurer Cobus van Zyl.

Ryan Sandes has become a legend in trail
running circles around the world, winning endurance events and shattering
records on all continents. Less is known about Ryno Griesel, whose modest yet
strong demeanour understates his enormous capacity for taking on and achieving
endurance feats that most adventurers would shy away from.

Age:    34

Profession:    previously a chartered
accountant, now a sports shoe salesman…  (well,
that’s what he calls himself, but actually he’s the Salomon general manager for
Gauteng).

Past
challenges:    Adventure Racing world circuit since 2003, International Rogaine (24
hour navigation runs in teams of 2) (placed 2nd with Nicholas Mulder at World Champs in New
Zealand in 2010), climbing and mountaineering all around
the world.

Passions:    summiting
mountains, and helping to make a change for the better in people’s lives.

Plan
in life:    to
live a life of adventure to the absolute maximum… every day.

RG:     Shew. I’ve done some tough
races in extreme conditions… for example, in the Moab Desert for 8 days (the Primal Quest Adventure Race),
and another 8-day race amongst the icebergs of Patagonia (the Patagonian Expedition Race),
but in those all I had to focus on was racing. Our DGT record attempt was so
much bigger than that – it was more like a project that for both of us incorporated
both dream and passion, and this obviously brought in a unique set of expectations.
Also the fact that I was teaming up with Ryan put a lot of pressure on me – he’s
my absolute role model and I didn’t want to disappoint him, and that was mentally
very challenging for me. So yes, this was by far the biggest challenge I’ve
ever tackled.

RG:     Our
challenge required preparation on many levels. On the physical side, we needed to
be as fit as possible. That involved terrain specific training. Living in
Pretoria, anything resembling a mountain is hours away – the nearest thing we
have to mountains here are the hills in the Magaliesberg. Fortunately the
Drakensberg is only about a 5-hour drive from Gauteng, so in the months leading
up to the DGT I went up as often as I could – either alone,  or with Ryan (Cobus Van Zyl (my previous
co-record holder) often accompanied us. We trained by simulating the
environment and conditions in which we would run the DGT.

Then there was altitude acclimatisation – we needed to spend a lot of time in
the Berg in the weeks leading up to the attempt so we could adapt the body to
running at altitude.

Navigation was another crucial aspect of
the prep. Although I already knew the route fairly welI, we spent a lot of time
going through the navigation, learning the maps and the route in our heads, and
also preparing the best possible GPS track. We fine-tuned it, re-plotted
waypoints, and tweaked sections of the course here and there. Cobus played an
important role and assisted us with everything. We were pedantic about the GPS
track and trying to find the most optimal and efficient route.

 

Logistics were crucial. Planning the record
attempt involved a lot of careful organisation by everybody involved. Apart
from the navigation aspect, my role included being an additional information
link for the photographers, the filming company and for our back-up logistical
team, based on my previous knowledge of the berg and the challenge. By mixing
all our expertise together, we hoped to achieve the most efficient traverse, and
be able to capture the most spectacular film of the attempt and of the bigger
picture.

This required an all-or-nothing approach – we
took very little equipment, which meant we paid a lot of “school fees” during
our recces, finding the balance between going lightweight versus being
irresponsible by carrying too little.

A lot of our time was also spent ensuring
that the record attempt kept within the rules of the challenge and the ethics
of mountaineering. This is something we feel very strong about.

RG:     I am definitely
experiencing those feelings. Having gone through what we did and having lived our
dream of achieving this, it’s like I’ve seen the view from the summit and now I’m
longing for more to match that. Trying to integrate back into the normal daily life
is not that easy. The “what’s next” itch is definitely there. Watch this space…J

RG:     When slogging on the
mountains, even when racing as a team, you rarely talk much and you spend a lot
of time in your own head, pushing hard. The motto of “the way to the top is
always uphill” came to me during Cobus’s and my 2010 record attempt, when it
occurred to me that after every downhill comes yet another uphill, and that in
life we should always expect that. As soon as you realise that and make peace
with the fact that what you’ve taken on is tough, you stop hoping for
something easier and instead prepare yourself for the challenge of what’s to
come.

Anything worthwhile requires hard work,
yes, but it’s also important that you’re very clear about your goal. With this
DGT, very little of the entire traverse was fun – in fact, right from the start
I really struggled and found it hard work. So the obvious question is why did we
do it?  We did it because that moment you
cross the finish line, that split second that you’ve set your mind on a goal
and finally achieved it, makes all the pain and suffering you’ve gone through worthwhile.
I believe that’s what makes us come alive. Often people have an ideal that
they’re going to run on the mountain, that it’s going to be pretty, and much of
it will be easy. In reality it’s not like that, it’s hard work. But it’s the
fact that when you set yourself a tough challenge, achieving that challenge is
what makes it all worthwhile.

RG:     Going into the attempt,
the biggest variable and our greatest concern was the weather. We were very
lucky and scored great conditions. We planned for the weather window as best as
we could, but the reality that conditions can be unpredictable is always the
risk. The good weather, however, came with a price: heat. I don’t function well
in hot conditions, and we ran in 36 degs and with no breeze for a large part of
the first day. I know from racing in the Moab Desert in Utah that I don’t
function well in heat, while Ryan is naturally far more comfortable in hot
conditions. My toughest moment was during that first day when I realised I was
dehydrating – I couldn’t keep food down, I was losing energy and wasn’t able to
replace it fast enough. I was in trouble and knew I had to do something to fix
it, and fast! From experience I knew I would be able to push through, but that
it would take a while to get my body back to a decent energy level to be able
to push hard. So I took in very small bites of food consistently over long
periods, and eventually recovered. My biggest fear was disappointing Ryan,
letting him down, and even worse, not achieving the attempt. Working hard
mentally and physically during those hours to get myself right again made that
day extra tough! Ryan, however, was super supportive and carried me through the
tough times.

 

RG:     I told Ryan straight away
that I was taking strain. Having done team sports for so many years, I know
there’s no place for trying to battle through the tough times alone. That’s
what team work and partnering is all about – you each have your tough moments. In
a team there’s no space for being individually brave.

RG:     For Ryan, it
was within the first hour, when he slipped and cut his hand quite badly. Then
in the second hour he twisted his ankle, and we had to re-strap it. I also fell
during that second hour and hurt my hand. So having both injured ourselves
within the first 20km, we were anxious about what the next 50 plus hours might
have in store. We were moving at a really fast pace, and in the dark. We felt
really small out there, at night, on such big mountains. That was pretty scary.

LD:      Through all the
adventure racing you’ve done, you have a lot of experience of handling sleep
deprivation. What is the best way to manage lack of sleep during an event?

RG:     Unfortunately it’s not
possible to save up sleep in advance, but it does really help not going into an
event tired. The best thing to do is try to have a normal sleep pattern in the
week leading up to a race. The other thing that helps me is an iPod. Both Ryan
and I ran with music throughout the DGT (me a bit more than Ryan) – music helps
to keep the head busy. And when you do realise you’re struggling to stay awake,
have a power nap. Our first nap was 30 mins (not a very successful one as it
was so cold up there), and then just a 10 min nap two hours later. From
experience I’ve learned that ideally you want to grab your power nap just
before the sun comes up. Waking up just before the sky is lightening helps to
give you a mental shift that puts you in a whole new dimension for the coming
day. So although you can’t really learn to adapt to sleep deprivation, you can
learn to manage it better.

RG:     Normally I eat
a lot – I probably eat more than anyone I’ve ever raced with. As long as I can
keep fuelling, I feel strong. My struggles in the heat dampened this a bit. During
the DGT we carried Llama Bars (nougat), protein bars, jelly sweets, small round
cheeses, and zip-locks of Futurelife to mix with water as quick and easy meal
replacements. I drank Pure Nutrition Blast (electrolyte replacement) mixed with
PURE BCAA (muscle endurance). We found that we carried too much sweet stuff –
the only thing that wasn’t sweet was the cheese, and Ryan carried some nuts. We
got to the point where everything was just way, way too sweet.

RG:     I was lucky to not get blisters.
Both Ryan’s and my feet were very swollen afterwards. Interestingly, the
insides of our calves took quite a beating and are very scuffed and raw with
roasties – often we were running in deep-rutted cattle tracks which by their
nature are very narrow, and big feet don’t operate too well in deep and narrow
cattle tracks – we kept kicking the sides of the track and then scuffing the
inside of our calves.

RG:     I ran in the Salomon Sense
Mantra 2, and Ryan ran in the Salomon Sense Ultra 3 with a soft ground tread.

RG:     Physically that last
section was very tough. It’s super steep, very loose and rocky, But our legs
were finished by then, and there was high risk of us injuring ourselves on that
terrain. We were very sore – everything hurt, the feet, quads, calves were all
screaming. Mentally it was super tough because it was so much slower than we
were used to doing that section in training (on fresh legs). We probably
covered the final 8km downhill stretch in about 1hr45, and in training we would
normally cover it in anything from 40 mins to 1hr. Although it’s very
technical, it’s quite runnable, but by that stage we were just so broken. The
tough thing mentally at that point was that we could see the finish from about
3 or 4km out, but it never seemed to be getting any closer! And then there were
still two river crossings in the final 100m. Only when we crossed the final
river and touched the gate did we stop concentrating on foot placement. It felt
surreal to have finished!

RG:     We rested as
well we could, but also worked a bit on the film of the bigger picture. We also
struggled with one the GPS’s maps on the last day, which was a bit stressful,
but I guess that’s part of the challenges life throws at you.

RG:     I had pasta and Ryan had a
steak (I think). We ate at 7pm, slept from 8pm to 10pm, then we drove up the
8km to the start at 11pm, and started the run at midnight.

RG:     Both my first and second
meals were steak. I don’t usually eat red meat, but I had such craving for
protein that all I wanted was rump steak. And coffee – I missed coffee!

RG:     I would say that for this
challenge it’s more like 50:50. You have to be in top physical form to survive
the terrain, it’s so brutal. So while the terrain is incredibly tough, you also
need to have the mental strength to carry on pushing your body. Ironically, the
scenery up there becomes quite “boring” – it’s incredibly beautiful but because
it doesn’t change, it becomes monotonous. And the distances between points are
so vast, which plays with the mind – I often had to look down at the GPS just
to see if we were making any progress. You need to have the mental strength to
remind your body to keep up the pace you’ve trained for. So I think the DGT is
quite a different feat from other challenges – this one’s an even 50:50 ratio
of mental to physical strength. You have to be mentally prepared as well as
physically, and you need to spend enough time training in the Berg beforehand
to teach your body to connect the two.

 

RG:     I think it’s the realisation
that we only live once. Sport, and specifically mountaineering, is for me an
extension of the question of “why are we here?” I believe we’re here to do that
thing that’s burning inside us that we can’t define and makes sense to no one
but ourselves. My inspiration is to be in touch with that desire that each of
us was born with: for me that desire is to run on mountains, for someone else
it’s whatever drives them. So my inspiration in sport and in life is to be in
touch with what drives me, what makes me come alive.

RG:     I’ve always loved
mountains – even though I’ve lived my whole life in Pretoria! I don’t really
know when my passion for climbing started, but for as long as I can remember I
had a couple of ropes in my bedroom as a kid, and was always intrigued by
climbing up things. If something was high, I wanted to climb it, I wanted to
see the view from the top. At first it was trees, and I fell out a lot of trees
as a kid. The first time I was able to get onto big mountains was in 2002, when
I climbed Island Peak (6 200m above sea level) in the Himalayas, and I was
completely overwhelmed by how small we are in comparison to big mountains.
That’s when I knew I had an intense love for mountains, and that climbing up
and running on high mountains was what I wanted to do.

Even though at school I played all the
traditional sports, for as long as I can remember I wanted to be in the mountains.
The year after finishing school I did a course through the Exercise Teacher’s
Academy as an outdoor adventure guide, and it was there that I was formally
introduced to ropes and mountaineering. That same year I was part of an
organisation called Sports for Christ Action, and I presented adventure camps
in Namibia for a year. So although I had played with ropes and wanted to climb
for years, it was only then that I started climbing properly.

 

RG:     Hah, yes, I’m always asked
that! Even though I have a super strong desire for mountains, I also have a lot
of respect and love for my family, and my family lives here in Pretoria.
Family’s always been very important to me. So I live in Pretoria, and I drive
out to the mountains as often as possible!

RG:     The DGT has
definitely fuelled the fire for me! There’re a few exciting options popping
into the pipeline for me over the next several months…  it’s a bit too soon to let on what these are…
so we’ll see how things unfold.