News
Posted 04 August 2010 @ 12h15pm
Online entries for 2011 Midmar open
Online entries opened on the Sunday 1st August for the 38th aQuelle Midmar Mile swim that takes place at the popular Midmar Dam resort near Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, on the 12th and 13th February 2011.
There will be a total of 13 seeding events throughout the country leading up to the world class event in Howick, starting as early as October and ending three weeks prior to the world's largest open water swimming event. This also includes the Southern Sun New Year swim as far away as Cape Town.
"We will be challenging our Guinness World Record once again," said Race Director Wayne Riddin. "Although we broke it in 2010, we had not applied officially before the race, so we plan to give the swimmers something special next year with a host of new sponsors on board."
"There will be some significant changes as we target our 13 755 finishers record. The first of these will be the new swimcap colours that will depict the corporate colours of new overall sponsors, aQuelle. The second will be the new window periods available for online entries. In order to improve our organising, we are encouraging swimmers to enter early to help with our planning, something we saw working very effectively with this year's Comrades Marathon."
While the Midmar Mile focuses on the participants completing the race, there will still be the usual international flavour to the final two events.
Most of the British, Hungarian and German swimmers are expected to return along with a contingent from Bulgaria, new Zealand and Australia and will have an added programme to compete at.
Besides for the 5km and 10km events on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th February, they will be able to move onto the Redhouse River Mile and then onto the Cape Classic Mile in Cape Town on the following two weekends.
The online entries will open at a fee of R110 until 30 September before the increases start. Entrants are able to do credit card payments or EFT's and any queries can be directed to the events office on 033-341 0790 during office hours.
Click here to
enter online (you will be directed to the midmar mile
website)
Info and Rules
1. Confirmation of Entry:
When your entry has been processed, you will receive an email confirming the receipt of your entry. Be sure to check if your entry details are correct. This is important, in order to avoid errors during the data capture process and ensure the results on the day are correct. In addition, once seeding has been completed, your allocated batch for the race will be posted on the website. Please check these batches and contact the office if you have queries in this regard. The onus is on the participant to have any changes made.
2. Registration:
Register at the Liberty Midlands Mall: The usual registration, at Midmar Dam, will take place on the weekend of the event.
3. Traffic Flow:
The two way traffic flow between the start and finish will once again be in operation this year. This will help the Halfway Toyota vehicles used for transporting swimmers to move a little faster between the collection/drop-off points. Please take note of the routes by referring to the main map of the dam (on the next page). Specially marked parking areas will be available, depending on which lane you enter the dam, as well as attendants on duty to help you enter and park with the least inconvenience possible. PLEASE PARK WHERE THE OFFICIALS DIRECT YOU. These officials (Bhejane Security) will also be acting as security for your vehicles while you enjoy the 37th Halfway-Toyota Midmar Mile. However, you do park at your own risk, and attendants will not be responsible for your car.
4. Safety:
The manpower on the water this year will be approximately one hundred and twenty qualified lifeguards - which will add to the safety of the swim (which has an excellent record to date). Let's make sure we all do our part in keeping it that way.
5. The Finish:
The procedure to gain the most accurate results for the race often depends on the finisher. Please take note of the following requests:
(i) There are generally eight channels one can finish in. This may be reduced to 4 channels for the 2010 event.Swimmers are advised to walk briskly or run to the closest channel, or to the channel that an official directs you to.
(ii) Once in the channel, please do not change your order .
(iii) Start getting your bar-coded tag ready to hand in at the top end of the channel. Please do not just drop the safely pin on the ground as this could cause ans injury to someone else. Use the box at the end of the channel to discard the safely pin.
(iv) Hand in your bar-coded tag and IPICO timing chip to the collector at the end of the channel. If you do not have one, you have either lost the tag or you are not supposed to be in the race! If you have lost your tag, you will be issued with a lost tag slip to take to enquiries to ensure that your details are captured for your results. Swimmers unofficially in the race will receive a life ban on the event, if caught.
(v) Once your tag is handed in, you must continue to the USN refreshment area, where you will receive a limited edition bottle of USN, collecting your medal on the way.
(vi) FOR THE AGE GROUP EVENTS - events 5 & 6 on Sunday - here are your finish procedures, until officials allow swimmers to use any channels once they are satisfied all categories have been sorted out.
a) 13 years and under will finish in the channels 1-4 (possibly 1 channel) 31-40 years will be channels 5 & 6 (possibly 2 channels) 41-50 years will use channel 7 (possibly channels) 51 years and over use channel 8. (possibly channels) Please keep to these lanes as far as possible. If the channels are reduced, there will be one channel per age group.
(b) Generally, if you are completing the race in over 32 minutes, it will not matter which lane you finish in, except for the 51 years and overwho are requested to finish in the far right channel only if possible.
(c) The lanes are numbered 1 - 8, from left to right, as you approach the finish. Please check if this has been changed to 4 lanes prior to the race.
6. IPICO CHIP TIMING
IMPORTANT - NO CHIP - NO RESULT. LOST CHIPS WILL BE CHARGED AT R80. The chip must be handed in at the finish, with your bar-coded tag!
PLEASE NOTE: Ensure that you have the correct Chip allocated to you. Attach your Chip to your ankle ONLY. DO NOT attach the Chip to your wrist.
General Information -
Please visit the Midmar Mile website for full General Information.
SEEDING EVENTS - 38th aQUELLA MIDMAR MILE - May change later
01 - aQuelle Hazelmere Challenge 1000m & 3km Sun 24 Oct Hazelmere Dam - KZN
02 - Time Freight Heia Safari 1000 (series 1) 1000m & 3km Sun 31 Oct Heia Safari Ranch - Gauteng
03 - Spec Pumps Lake Eland 1000 1000m & 3km Sun 7 Nov Lake Eland - KZN
04 - Sunday Tribune Capital 'K' swim 1000m & 3km Sun 21 Nov Midmar Dam - KZN
05 - Time Freight Heia Safari 1000 (series 2) 1000m & 3km & 5km Sun 28 Nov Heia Safari Ranch - Gauteng
06 - aQuelle Albert Falls Swim Challenge 1000m & 10km Sun 5 Dec Albert Falls - KZN
07 - Emerald Challenge 1000m & 3km Sun 5 Dec Vaal River - Gauteng
08 - Time Freight Heia Safari 1500 1500m & 3km Thur 16 Dec Heia Safari Ranch - Gauteng
09 - aQuelle KZN Champs 1000m & 5km Sun 19 Dec Midmar Dam - KZN
10 - Southern Sun New Year Swim 1000m Sun 2 Jan Cape Town WP
11 - Time Freight Kovsie Aquatics Swim 1000m & 10km Sat 15 Jan Maselspoort - FS
12 - Ingrams Ekhurleni 1200m 1200m Sun 16 Jan Germiston Lake - Gauteng
13 - Time Freight Lake Heritage 3/4 Mile 1200m & 3km Sun 23 Jan Heia Safari Ranch - Gauteng