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BUZZ BOLTON MAY HAVE FOUNDED RIVERSIDE TRAIL RUNNERS 10 YEARS AGO, BUT HE’D FAR RATHER TALK ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MEMBERS, THE GREAT CAMARADERIE, AND THE SUPREME PLEASURE OF BEING OUT THERE IN NATURE, WRITES ANNE SCHAUFFER
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uzz is the founder of Riverside Trail Runners, and he’s in total agreement when his wife Hildegard calls him “obsessed” with trail running. “I am,” he says, loud and proud. Buzz has been running for 45 years, completed 21 Comrades, eight of them unofficially. He and a friend began a Comrades Green Number club called the Not To Finish, designed for those who did all that Comrades required of them – except complete it. “I’d get to Cato Ridge on the up run and Kloof on the down run, then say cheers and head off to the golf club or Stokers for a couple of cold beers with the family and fellow participants. Sixty-three kays was ample.” So, Buzz is no stranger to road running, competing … or, indeed, getting a group going. Like Riverside Trail Runners. His switch from road to trail was somewhat accidental: “I was told there was a very hard-to-come-by ticket up for grabs for the legendary Rhodes Marathon, and did I want it? I’d been in the army in the Grahamstown area, had clients in Mount Frere, so revisiting the area really appealed. I said yes. Then I Googled it – I had it all wrong. This was a 50km race in the town of Rhodes near Tiffindell Ski Resort, with temperatures at times around -18.” Buzz managed a little
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training in Giba Gorge with others who were heading for another legendary race, the Mont Aux Sources, then off he set for Rhodes. “I knew nothing and no one. The race began in temperatures of -11 which rose to -1. I thought I’d die up there. The altitude, my lungs, my legs – at the top of what is known as Mavis Bank, they provided refreshments by pouring a kettle of boiling water over ice.” But despite all this, he loved being out there in the exquisite scenery.
LEFT: Lionel Smith with Riverside founder Buzz Bolton. Back home, another call. ‘Buzz, I’ve just signed up for the five-day Cape Odyssey, 210 kays over five days. I need a partner.’ “Never,” says Buzz. Next day, “I’m in.” And that was that. Buzz was officially an obsessed trail runner. He tried to get his running club to open a trail running wing, but no interest was shown. So Buzz gathered together a few “pioneers” and formed his own. No club fees, no politics, sheer enjoyment – just a growing group of like-minded people from age 18 to 71 who love trail running. What’s the difference? Surely running
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