17/07/2026
Amazing Nicky! Your such an inspiration
Road runners like to think they’re so tough bragging about running back-to-back marathons every weekend and arriving at trail runs wearing their Comrades shirts. But compare that to the recent race itinerary of Nicky Booyens. Nicky ran the Mac Mac 200 miler for the 6th time from 1-4 July. She won the race in a new record time of 80h39m beating her own record by 2h50m, working a bit harder this year because “It was the first time I had proper ladies’ competition.”
While road runners flood social media with their 5km shakeout runs, Nicky quietly ran the Ice Queen 50km three days before Mac Mac. This is an overnight ultra over “very technical” terrain. She ran with a friend and they tied 2nd overall.
And for a recovery run, Nicky lined up at The Steyn City Ultra Trail for a quiet 53km leg loosener the weekend after Mac Mac. She followed the same itinerary last year saying, “I had no aches when I stood on the start line for Steyn City but I could feel the legs were tired. I knew what was coming and how I would feel, so I just told myself you can do it like you did it last year. And I did suffer, the last 15km were tough but I still managed to run about 6mins faster than last year and my fastest 50km ever!”
I expect that Nicky ran those last 15km much faster than I did. It seems ridiculous to even mention my sore quads from the downhills at the previous weekend’s Knysna Forest Marathon when Nicky was battling for 3-and-a-bit days over 15000m of vert across the Drakensberg Escarpment.
I asked Nicky how she recovered between her 3 back-to-back trail ultras, After Ice Queen I focussed mostly on catching up my lost sleep. And just easy active recovery before Mac Mac.” And then “After Mac Mac it was major recovery focussing on lots of sleep and lots of active recovery.” Nicky also says that, “I like to eat, so eating was also a big part of my recovery and prep for the next races.” and that she is particularly fond of “PVM Protein XTR to help with the muscle recovery between races”.
So after 3 ultras in 3 weekends with 2 wins and a 2nd placed finish I think that’s mind blown and case closed.