Heia Safari Zero2Hero Check - got the T-Shirt, and met up with school mate Charles Els, here be a photo of the two of us after finishing:
For some reason this next photo of me at the start got a lot of attention from friends and family on facebook. BTW It was pretty cold and overcast that morning, and I had a bit of sniffles so didn't want to take the chance of catching a cold, hence the jacket.
Then there was the CANSA Lost City Cycle Challenge at which I narrowly missed being in the pile up of a large portion of the group I was in, coming away with another pink tattoo (small scar) on my calf, didn't have a particularly good day on the bike suffered a bit with aches and pains everywhere, but still did OK. Here is me nearly at the top of one of the few hills. If you look closely you can see the scratch on my left leg. I think I missed meeting up with another old school mate Ashley Gonsalves at this event... next time bud.The following Saturday nearly ended up with me being murdered when I did this ride 'Breedts Nek via Magalies, Western Cane and back' 145Km route plan predicted 7h30 or something, I said it would be more like 8 at least. However after a 15Km detour and fighting wind on the way home I also dropped the planned stop at my Dad's house, my phone battery didn't last, and when I got to the bottom of my road Garmin said 158Km, there was no way I was going to leave it at that, so rode around the block a bit till it got to 160Km, when I came down our road my wife was standing in the street about to phone a friend to come looking for me this being 10 hours 20 minutes after I left home at just before 7h00. As it happens recalc of the route still had me a few hundred meters short of the 100 miles so I missed out on my 100 mile MTB ride anyway... still there is always a next time.
A couple of days before the Silverstar Mountain Bike challenge, which I had decided not to do in favour of doing some floating bridge practice at Heia Safari, I was getting SMS's informing me of number collection locations and times, which I thought was strange, but put it down to a bug in the event organisers system, but then I got a seeding notification?? I had forgotten I had entered months earlier for the little jaunt through Kings Kloof, it being so close to home I decided to warm up by riding there and doing a short 'recovery ride' back up Krugersdorp hill after the race. Ran into Mark Ehlers and daughter Nicola who were also taking part, and whilst chatting at the finish was surprised to hear Nicola's name called as she was the third lady in the 20Km race. Another acquaintance Nadine Visagie was second lady in the 40Km race. Here be a shot of me at this event.
Next Event was the Karoo 2 Coast between Uniondale and Knysna, I had heard about this event a few years earlier and had decided it would be good to do, and to double it up with a visit to my sister Emily, but didn't really have the opportunity (money) till recently, thanks to Geraldine for providing myself and Ria accommodation at 'Waves of Wonder' it was a blessing to stay there, with a wonderful view of the heads (well one of them anyway, and the second with a bit of a lean, I knew Niven Wood would pass me somewhere along the way, with all the mountain climbing he does around the Cape Peninsula, the lack of a seeding was really just a way we could actually meet up at the finish, in the end he passed me around the 85Km mark (I thought it would be sooner) but the slower riders at the back slowed him down a bit too.Just a bit of useless information since I mentioned a bunch of school mates, there is a rather famous South African Cyclist who was also at our school 'Princess High' he's a bit younger than this crowd of old farts and a lot faster (even if he is retired) If you don't know and can't guess who it is look out for my next post.
In case you have forgotten one of the reasons I'm nearly always in Cow Kit is that I'm trying to raise funds for CHOC, the main target for this year being to raise R20,000 .... so far I have 1 donor who has come through, there are are few promises but please do follow THIS LINK and donate to the project, none of these donations come to me and it is a worthy cause, providing all sorts of assistance to children with cancer and their families.
