The ‘Matty Fish’ to swim again at the Otter African Trail Run

While the build-up to the 14^th edition of the African Otter Trail Run, powered by Easy Equities (Thursday and Saturday 6 and 8 October), will largely focus on South Africa’s leading trail athletes and who will line up in Nature’s Valley at the start of the race, the story of how a local resident with strong ties to the Otter has overcome physical challenges to fulfil a decade-long dream to run the great race, is equally compelling.

Headmaster of Pearston Primary school in the Karoo in the 1980s, Mr Boshoff, welcomed his daughter Matty-Dalén to the school, where she undertook her early education, before completing her schooling at Gill College in nearby Somerset East.  Following her qualification in food service management at Cape Town’s Hotel School, the first seeds of adventure started to germinate and Matty-Dalén Boshoff found herself working at a ski-resort in Switzerland.

She returned to South Africa after seven years, working at a restaurant in Knysna while discovering a passion for mountain bike riding. That led Matty-Dalén to helping out at the ‘Southern Storm’ event in 2010, working for the legendary Collins clan – adventure racers and Camel Trophy heroes, brothers Mark and John, and their wives Belen and Christine – within their company, Magnetic South. Her administrative skills proved persuasive and Matty-Dalén Boshoff at 31 became a mainstay of the Otter African Trail Run for eight years.

Two life-changing events occurred while Matty-Dalén was working on the prestigious Otter African Trail Run event as part of the Magnetic South team. Firstly, she gradually fell in love with adventure and the magic of the Tsitsikamma coastline and secondly, and perhaps less gradually, she fell in love with a Southern Cape marine scientist, who also happened to be a passionate trail runner.

Each year Kyle Smith, a scientist working for SANParks in their Sedgefield office, gave an absorbing presentation on the rich diversity of the protected marine ecosystem along the Tsitsikamma coast at the at the pre-race briefing, playfully assigning names of top trail athletes to some of the fish.

One year, he named a particularly beautiful fish ‘Matty’ and the following year the ‘Matty fish’ had been hooked!  Smith continued with his presentations and went on to achieve an impressive sub-6 hour time at the Otter, while Matty-Dalén Smith left Magnetic South at the end of 2018 to focus on their family and the birth of their second child.

“I decided to stay home for a few years with babies,” Matty-Dalén said. “I was definitely NOT an adventure girl when I was younger,” she emphasised. “I just did the normal school sports of netball and athletics, but I was below average.”

But Matty had not forgotten her first love of adventure and trail running which sparked while working with the charismatic Collins clan and, with little Ava old enough to attend ‘play-school’, she began to train for the Otter last year to fulfil her dream.

Just as she was warming to her challenge, however, a freakish bicycle accident nearly brought a premature end to much more than just the Otter. “I went for a bike ride with Kyle last April and had a hard fall when my bike skidded in loose sand,” explained Matty-Dalén.

“I was sore, but still cycled home. Eight weeks after the fall I suddenly experienced a terrible headache.  My work colleagues sent me to the doctor when they heard my slurred speech and when I was unable to read, but the doctor said I was fine.

“But I was still having headaches, so I saw another doctor, who requested a scan. But as this could only be arranged after the weekend, I thought there was nothing to worry about and we climbed Cradock Peak (over 1500m) from George over that weekend.

“I went for the scan on the Tuesday which revealed 25% blood on the brain and that prompted immediate surgery. I recovered completely but was considered very lucky.”

Plans to run the Otter last year had been put on hold after the operation in June last year, but although the doctor cautioned against it, Matty-Dalén entered the three-day Dryland Traverse in Oudtshoorn last November with a friend. “I’d done very little training, but we thought we could just walk it if necessary,” explained Smith. “In the end we ran most of it and my motivation for trail running returned.”  

Given its popularity, gaining an Otter entry is no easy task, but Matty-Dalén was at the ready as soon as online entries opened and secured her ticket to run this year’s ‘Retto’ Run, in the ‘reverse’ direction west to east, from Nature’s Valley to Storm’s River.

“I’ve been able to get in some good training with my friends, but I’m still scared of the Otter – it’s an extremely tough challenge,” admitted Matty. “I’m hoping to complete it in around eight hours, but I’ll be happy with nine. Although I worked for several years on the Otter and once even completed the staff recce run / walk in around 12 hours, this will be my first as a race participant.”

Husband Kyle, meanwhile, has also had to overcome health challenges and adjust certain ambitious 2022 Otter plans. COVID struck the Smith household, with Kyle’s recovery significantly slower than that of Matty-Dalén.

Last year he had planned to take on an unprecedented challenge in order to raise support for the endangered African penguin – to run the Otter in both directions, back-to-back in an 84km run.  But Matty’s fall and illness scuppered his chances of preparing adequately and he postponed to this year. But COVID – and his PhD studies –  have had a similar impact, ruling out the mega-Otter attempt until 2023.

But Kyle recognises that for this year it’s mostly about Matty-Dalén and her courageous attempt to fulfil a life dream, and while he is likely to indulge in a lower-profile ‘gentle’  run on the Saturday (the Otter African Trail Run, for elites and for those who have already raced the Otter), his primary purpose will be to play the role of child-minder and supporter while Matty-Dalén goes to the start of the Otter African Trail Challenge (largely for novices), two days earlier.

And he’ll be waiting at the finish at Storm’s River with Kane and Ava as the ‘Matty fish’ swims home to her personal victory – the completion of the 42km Otter African Trail ‘Retto’ Run.