I am fortunate to announce the second competition in conjunction with Black Diamond. This time around the guys and girls from Ram Mountaineering have sponsored me a Black Diamond Icon Headlamp worth R 730! This is an awesome headlamp which throws a massive beam that has served me well during all my night training and several Bat Runs. I can truly recomend it!
All you have to do is guess my finish time at the UTMB. Post your predicted time in a comment below. The person with the closest time wins. I will announce the winner early Sept when I am back in Cape Town. Please tell your friends to enter. I promise I have no interest in who puts down what and I won’t be offended if you put down a DNF. A hint: the fastest times are around 21h, I am aiming for 30 – 36h and the cut off is 46h. Take your pick!
If you are interested in following the goings on during the event check out the website here. They have loads of info if you scratch around a bit.
To check on my status during the event it will be easiest to search under South Africa and then fill in my whole name (Leonhard RUST). Not sure how this works yet but I am sure you will work it out.
There are some interesting videos on the “Get Ready For” page. With one of the top guys from last year giving advice. Some cool footage too.
Oh My decision is final and I will ship the prize to the winner free of charge in SA.
leo rust 
Good luck! I know the route so will give you 34 hours and 15 minutes to finish. Enjoy every moment!
30 hrs 20
G o be a lion!
30 hrs 20G o be a lion!
Good Luck Leo
Firstly I think you are going to wax this little run you have done more training than I would have, poor Mel, and it's all been on the mountian. Then I see that you are spending this week tapering at altitude another plus. So together with the idea that you know to walk the hills and run only what is runable I think you are going to kick butt. I know you said you were hoping for 30-36hours, well I'm going to put it out there that you are going under 30hours!!! say 28h16min and 24 sec.
Go go go and bring me my prise!!!
Look I might be biased but I have the inside info on the training and prep that has gone into this amazing run! Hell yes for under 30hrs!
My time estimate is 29h05min. So Leo please slow down to a jog if you're any quicker than this!
Give it horns!
I’ve taken the data collected from our training runs, viz. VAM/Gradient/Pace, and objectively applied it to the UTMB route profile. I’ve also subjectively adjusted for the four monster climbs, Grand Col Ferret, Bovine, Catogne & La Tête aux Vents, which all occur in the latter part of the race, but importantly, will not be unfamiliar to you. And, my calculations estimate your time at 27h52m. I absolutely believe that my assumptions are within your capabilities (physical & mental), so I’m going to stick with my number, despite the fact that you have dialled 30h into your mind.
29:55:45.09
Precision is KEY!
Will be keeping a close watch, this is one of my future runs, i'd like to know what training you did for prep, specially since i think you will clock in at between 26:14 hrs enjoy the hell out of it
Hi Leo going by what Dion has told me and from reading what the others have said I'm not going to listen to any of them and I'll suck a time out of my thumb…
31 hours 59mins. Have a great time Dawn
33:20.
Have an awesome race. What an amazing event to be a part of!
Comp Winner!!!
So ever since I came back from France I was wondering how to get a fair result for all from this competition. So I decided to throw all your names into my Montrail Running hat and draw one name out, with my eyes closed: completely random.
Drum Roll!!
So Dawn it is! Well done: I will send you your fantastic prize! Enjoy!
I trust that you are all happy with this result. Drop me a line if you have comments- I really could not come up with a better solution. Thanks for following and leaving your comment!