Check this from iAfrica Sport, Cape Town Ryan Sandes is leading the Jungle Marathon in The Amazon Jungle. Not bad for a guy from the chilled out Republic Of Hout Bay! Check it:

South African ultra-marathon star, Ryan Sandes, is currently leading one of the world’s toughest races — The Jungle Marathon in the Amazon Jungle in Brazil.

Sandes became an overnight running sensation after winning the multi-stage race across the Gobi desert in China last year. It was the first time Sandes has entered such an event and he blew the rest of the field away after winning every stage.

The Capetonian followed his maiden victory up with another clean sweep in the Sahara Desert race in Egypt later in 2008.

And it looks like Sandes is on the way to another overwhelming victory in the Amazon after winning the first three stages in the six-stage event. The Jungle Marathon, which runs over seven days, finishes on October 17.

Ryan also has a blog, here is a short post after stage 3 of the Jungle Marathon:

I woke up this morning with sore ankles and thought OH NO, but today was the opposite of that.
I started off today quite easy and then at the second check point I decided to push on a bit… it was a risky move as it is so hot and humid here that if you bomb out in the jungle you do so in style. It is really hard to pick yourself up again and it feels as if all your energy has been sucked out by a vacuum cleaner. The risk paid off and I finished the stage strong (37min ahead of second athlete) but a little tired and shaken from seeing three snakes. I remember climbing up a hill on all fours and seeing a set of eyes looking at me from a large hole in the ground. I would like to think it was a large lizard but I did not hang around to get a closer look.
Thanks to everyone for the messages of support, they help me keep going when everything says stop!
Off to the hammock…
Cheers
Ryan

Even if you’re not into trail running, you seriously need to keep an eye on Ryan Sandes, he’s an absolute machine and is cleaning up around the world.

Well done Ryan,  there are a whole load of people cheering you on from back home, we’ll welcome you back with a win! Phenomenal stuff…

Click here for Ryan’s blog.