Category: this is south africa

Just Did It

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I couldn’t have wished for a better race this morning. Aside from the weather, which hit hard as I headed up the infamous Southern Cross Drive, making everyone look like they had literally been dumped in a swimming pool, everything went according to my plan, such as it was. I finished my first (and last) Two Oceans Half Marathon in about  two hours and twenty minutes.

Before the rain hit, I was lucky enough to have some awesome support from my wife and kids at the top of Edinburgh Drive. There’s something very reassuring about watching your 5 year old son knocking back sachets of Energade at 6:30 in the morning and knowing that you don’t have to deal with the consequences. Running down the M3 seemed like a breeze compared with that.

My concerns about my dodgy right calf proved unfounded (although I ran with it strapped) and after a very slow start due to 15,999 other idiots out there, I got into a rhythm of between 6 and 6:30 minutes per kilometre and kept it there. The weather was outrageous: we were running through ankle deep water at times and watching bins floating down the gutters on Rhodes Avenue. Even the finishing straight on UCT sports field was covered in puddles and I got there much earlier than a lot of people (who, admittedly, were running a lot further than I was).

My headphones gave up at about 12km, my GPS at exactly 18.2km and me just about at the finish line. Perfectly paced by one out of three anyway.

After the finish, I found that the shuttle buses back to the start were non-existent and so I had to walk 3km back there (fortunately all downhill) and then cycle home from there (another 3.5km, all uphill). That 6.5km is probably why I’m feeling so broken right now. I got home at about 9:30, very cold, very wet and very cold.

After a quick shower and some breakfast, we headed up to watch the Insurance Guy come through Kirstenbosch in equally appalling conditions to finish his tenth Ultra (56km), putting my sense of achievement firmly in perspective.

But I’m contented enough. And I don’t ever have to do that again.

Happy days.

Run

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Hmm. Yes. In one of the worst kept secrets ever, it seems that I have inadvertently signed up for the Two Oceans Half Marathon this weekend. By that, I don’t mean that I signed up this weekend. No, I signed up ages ago, when this weekend didn’t actually exist and I thought that there were seventy-four different ways in which I could weasel out of actually running 21.1km (13.1miles) up, down, up, down and up the hills of Cape Town.

It seems now that that belief was somewhat misplaced.

That first lump is Edinburgh Drive, which I’ve been training up and down for the past couple of months. The second bigger lump is Southern Cross Drive, which I once drove up. So what could possibly go wrong?

I’m still not 100% sure why I entered. Part of me thinks that it may be due to my subconscious, which, subconsciously approaching a milestone birthday, thought that it was either now or never, in which case, I’m confused as to why it didn’t just take the never option.
Again, maybe having just come out of hospital, I needed to prove something to myself or someone else.
It could just be that I was drunk. After all, I don’t actual recall signing up – only getting the confirmatory email.

Yes. That was probably it.

Any road, I’ve been running around the Southern Suburbs a bit over the last few weeks and that’s pretty much what I will be doing on Saturday morning as well. In the dark, in the cold and in the rain. I can’t imagine that it will be much fun.

I really don’t understand the whole running thing. When I switch on my endomondo, it counts me down and then tells me

Release Your Endorphines!

where

Go.

would surely suffice. Yes, it’s got me fitter, but I don’t “enjoy” it. I don’t sit at work looking forward to my evening run. And if there are endorphins being produced then it would seem that they are being slaughtered by my internal and illiterate Japanese fishermen just as fast as I’m churning them out.

I’m built (and always have been) for shorter, faster runs. I’m a sprinter, not a runner. I’m a lover, not a fighter. So Saturday will not only be my longest run ever, but it will also be my longest ever run. Yes, I’ll probably still stick in a few five and ten km runs each month from now on, but it’ll be out of necessity to keep fit, not with any goal in mind. For me, running is like gym in that respect. (That gym post remains a great read, by the way).

My first aim was to finish on Saturday. Training has shown me that I can actually “aim” for “a time”, so I will now be “aiming” for “a time”. I’ll probably let you know how I get on sometime over the weekend.

Blades wins poll “fairly overwhelmingly”

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Yes, I clicked through on this Sport24 story thinking it had something to do with Sheffield United. It didn’t.

Instead, I learned that Hugh “Blades” Bladon had been voted SA’s favourite rugby commentator in a poll on the Sport24 website.

Apparently Hugh’s was a “landslide victory”, polling, as he did, 34% of the vote. His win was described by the site as being “fairly overwhelming”.

Can something really be “fairly overwhelming”? Isn’t that like being “a bit unique”? Surely when wanting to downplay the meaning of “overwhelming” somewhat, you should just use the word “whelming”?

Some Science

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That “getting towards the end of summer feeling” is upon Cape Town. It actually rained last week and the night time temperatures are regularly dropping into the depths of the mid-teens. With this period of mild moistness comes the plague of mosquitoes. Not billions of them, necessarily, but just one or two all up in ur bedroomz, dizturbin ur sleepz and drinkin ur bloodz. I’ve mentioned before that I am the primary victim in our household and this hasn’t changed. What has changed is the my body’s reaction to these bites. Each one now produces an erythemic reaction anything up to 4cm in diameter. And the itching. The itching…

Previously, I had always thought that this was down to Immunoglobulin E and the degranulation of Mast cells, but the reason given on this infographic I found seems far more plausible.

Presumably, you’re scratching like I am now.
And that’s a good thing, because sharing is caring. 

Up The Junction…

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A trip to Agulhas this weekend abandoned for technical reasons, we took the kids to Ratanga Junction today – and what a day we had. While I hadn’t been to the park as a proper visitor before (I was there for some corporate do back in 2004, but had three prolapsed discs at the time), Mrs 6000 had taken the kids along over the summer holidays this year, and they’d had a great time. But they had stuck around Hippo Hollow, doing the kiddies stuff.

It was while we were doing the kiddies stuff today that Alex noticed a giant tap attached to a tower and I used his curiosity to get him up and onto the Stargazer: A “supertubes” ride that you do in a tiny inflatable boat. We went down at high speed, Dad got a very wet bum and Alex couldn’t wait to have another go.

From that point, there was no turning back. Suddenly, the Monkey Falls log flume, complete with its sheer 19m drop, was Alex’s target. And where Alex (almost 6) went, his 3 year old sister was sure to follow. There was a slight moment of concern as we were at the front of the queue, as the attendant had to get her clipboard out to measure Scoop against the minimum height mark (107cm), but with a teensie hint of tippie toes and some ever so subtle stretching, she made it. My daughter is 107.1cm tall. I know adults who are only a ruler and a half taller than that. Scoop will be there by age 7.

What followed was a revelation to myself and my wife. Our kids, usually pretty backward in going forward and trying new things, couldn’t wait to have go after go after go on the log flume, Alex describing each time the “funny feeling” he got when we went down the big slope. We finished the day soaking wet, very tired and very happy. I managed to tick the Cobra:

a suspended looping coaster which catapults riders from a height of 32m along 779m of track at up to four times the force of gravity and speeds of close to 100km/h. Adding to the thrill of the ride is the suspension of riders beneath the track, feet flying free. This ride is not for the faint hearted.

off my bucket list, having driven past it many times, although not quite at that speed.

We had such a great family day today that I’m sticking this one in the elusive 6000 recommends category. Ratanga Junction isn’t cheap (adults R152, kids R75), nor will it compare favourably with that famous theme park you visited in America, but it still offers great value for money if you do it right. And that means picking your day carefully, arriving early, and – it seems – having kids above 3 years of age, and above 1.07m, but below 1.30m in height. This last one means that they’ll be able to enjoy just about all the rides on offer.

Queuing times were minimal. 10 minutes tops for the Cobra, Stargazer and Monkey Falls, walk straight on to the kids’ stuff. I can imagine that you could have a nightmare time when the queues are an hour for each ride, but that’s why you must choose your day carefully. Parents will want to take a couple of spare sets of clothes for the kids (and maybe for yourselves) as you know that once kids get wet, they may start to get cold and once they get cold, they start to lose interest. We didn’t quite hit that point, but then again, we did take some spare clothes.

Photos, such as they are, (the gravitational pull of the Cobra and the hydrological aspects of the Monkey Falls not being conducive to active photography) can be found here.