WINTER IS ON THE WAY

With the longest day now behind us, the days are getting short and short. Summer is a thing of the past and Winter is on the way...

Lucky for us here in Cape Town the weather should start to improve with the Summer wind starting to drop off. Isn't this just the best time of year? So many public holiday and half the world is on leave, in fact half the world is always on leave!!! Me on the other hand, I love being at the office over this time of the year, the roads are quiet and the phone almost never rings. So I find I can get a lot more work done and I even get the leave work early for time to time... Enough about work, I'm here to tell you about running!

Public holidays alway shout long run, long run on the mountain, and last Monday was no different. The I listen carefully to the call of the mountain and plan a route as to cover the ground I'm called too...

Vlakenberg was shouting my name, but the truth be told the route I started to think about would ahve killed me, it was up, down, up, along, up, down, up, down, and I would have being out for long over 3 hours. At this time of the year my body is pretty worn-out so I changed the plan to Up, Down out and back, up, down, with 2 hours being the mark. Then I put a call out to a couple of friends and while most had plans (there was another 10km race), one of my star lady runners joined me.

Making it look easy

It was her first time on the mountain and she made it look easy, if I take she up a couple more times she will become quite the trail runner!!!

One of the reasons I didn't run the race on the Monday, was there was another evening 10 on the Wednesday, and 3 10s in week would have just been too much. I was at the Waterfront for the midweek 10 and while I thought I could find myself running hard I wasn't going the aim at a time. While making my way to the startlineI saw a couple of the 40+ guys and with 3 guys who can kick my fat ass any day of the week, and a 4th whom I know would make me run harder than I wanted, I decided to pace a friend...

38:30 was his target, and with wind to think about I set the pace at 19:00 for the first 5 along us to slow in the 2nd half.
1km was easy and while we had start easy we passed the mark spot on and he was looking good, 2km and 3 and he was still there, but I could see he was starting to work a bit.
19:02 at 5km and he was still with me... 6km and while we had caught a couple more people he was not a happy camper!!! By 7km he was toast, but I was still hopefull...
Remember we had a little time in the bag for the 38:30, but now the time was slipping away... and while I know I could pick the pace up it wasn't about me, so I kept hanging back to help him keep going, then with 1km to go I felt him to come home in 39:00 while I fought a bit of wind at the end to finish in 38:40.

Good thing I'm so fat or the wind would have had me!

I was happy with my last km and my friend was happy with the 39:00 he had run...

The week again find me out and about, but this time round it was the slopes of Devils...

My team mate Eddie making it look easy...

It wasn't all sitting around and smiling at the view, some of it was hard work...

It was a long climb...

2hour 20 later and we had covered all of 22km (only 750m climb) and found ourselves back at the cars... 

I have a couple of days of work as the Office closes so any guesses as to where I plan to get my running done?

Have a great Chrismas, more from me in the New Year.

I LOVE RACES

With this Wednesday evening's 10km race being just down the road Dawn and I headed out to Race!!! Dawn loves this race as back in '98 she ran 38:35 her PB, while I haven't run any really fast times here it's alway nice to run hard at the end of the year...

It wasn't a big field as we gathered in the grounds of Pollsmoor Prison maybe 400+. Before we started the field honored the Late President Mr Nelson Madela with a moment silence and the National Anthem!

Then the gun set us off I got into my running, the first 200m was into the wind and I went with the lead group so as not to have to fight the wind, we then turned right and right again... Tanith (Yes Tanith Maxwell who ran the marathon for SA at the 2012 Olympics!) was tucked in behind me, Lenka and Nelson were just ahead, with Rich and Byron a couple of m behind... (was hoping to get a couple of the boys to run a good time)
3:20, fast yes, but it is an easy km as I had warmed up properly...
3:27 Lenka and Nelson still 5m ahead, I think Rich was still close behind, through the joggers path and on to km 3
3:22, I don't think we running to fast, the next couple of km have a climb out of the cycle track and a couple of turns
3:37, we now on Firgrove and it's a long pull up, only Tanith is still with me, we took Nelson and Lenka on the cycle track and they fell of the pace...
3:35 5km 17:24, past the school and still climbing, I take the turn... I'm a little naughty and find myself slowing a touch to let Tanith stay with me. (I don't feel I could catch Nichoals and the 2nd 40+ about 50m ahead and didn't want to run alone!)
3:40, dam need to start working again...
3:32, 500m left till the turn I can feel some-one chasing us. We turn and I tell Tanith if she wants it she needs to use the down hill to make up a bit of time.
3:33, It's VOB's Warren Jeppi, and Lenka isn't far off... 6:50 needed to break 35... I go for it, my pace doesn't really change, They feed us onto the grass just before the turn back into the prison... I find myself closing the gap on the 40+ guy... a left turn in the prison send us up (can't call it a hill, but at the top I catch the 40+ guy, I've dropped Warren and Tanith, and Lenka didn't have the legs to race on.
3:31 it's now 2 old men running together, I think he got a bit of a fright seeing the 40's on my vest. We are now running into the wind, and I am tucked in behind him... I can beat him if I can get to the grass finish, 400m to go and I find myself lossing touch. Why is my head week, where is the fight. We hit the grass, 200m to go... I'm catching again, but the grass isn't really a trail and I've left to much to catch him...
3:27 finish 3rd 40+ man in 12th place with a time of 35:10

Another 10km race under the belt number 212!!!!

A TIME TO REMEMBER

Over the years I have been lucky enough to have had many memorable runs, but most of them have been races:

• I can remember running in the inter schools during my last year, the first race of the day was the 3000m and the 3 schools packed the stands, it felt like I was running in an Olympic final, with 1 lap to go there were 4 of us still together, all 3 schools still in it... But with 300m to go I kick and come down the home straight alone... An hour later I lined up for the 1500m again I kicked with 300 to go and was able to drop the other guys!
• I can remember running the Voet in the same year as Josia Thugwane set the record (1995), I finished 11th with a time of 2h38, good enough to win the race on many occasions.
• Knysna 1996 will also stay with me forever, as I ran an almost perfect race leading from the gun and winning in would would be my 2nd fastest marathon... 2h33
• There are other 10, 15 and 21.1km races that I remember well, but not today...
• it's not often that a non race stands out as a memorable run, but if you run with me I can tell you stories about running in the hail and pull ice out of my hair! I can tell you about running on the mountain as the Cape was in the grip of the storm. Or about swimming in the dams on the mountain in the middle of a long run, but those or all stories for another day...  

• In the mid 90's I had a group of friends and we met 4 times a week at 05h30 for an easy morning run before work... It was a dark chilly morning on 8th of May 1996 like so many other mornings before, I climbed into my car and set off on the 3km drive to Monica's place... I remember the windows of the car were misted up and visibility wasn't great! (the drive isn't really long enough to really clear the windscreen.) Like most mornings at that time I was still half asleep and then there ahead of me I saw a group of guys walking in the middle of the street... I slowed and had to cross the road, I remember thinking: I hope they aren't up to no good, then as I was past I saw a cop car following them from some distance! Again I only thought it was good to know our boys in blue were keeping the suburbs safe while the rest of the world was asleep...

•  A few minutes later I was parked and we set off for our run, Chris, Monica, Noo, Nicky, Velda... Up the road and then... There ahead of us were this group of guys, still walking slowly and taking up half the road! Dressed in heavy dark coats I wondered if the police were still around, then Chris (ever alert, and friendly) greeted them, the way he greeted everyone we past: Good Morning Mr President!!! 

• OMG it was the President, Nelson Mandela was out for a morning walk... 

•  Over the next couple of month we would see him a number of times, and Bobby who wasn't with us that first morning, never missed a run there after...

This morning at 05h00 when I got up for my morning run I check Facebook while getting ready and the news of his passing was the only thing out there...

As I set off alone this morning down the quiet deserted streets I took the time to remember the life of this man who has change this country for the better...

R.I.P. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela