Garfield2010

This will not end well. I see myself crying at +- 10 o'clock

You dont want that believe me. The following days headlines will read something like "Midlands Ultra cancelled moments before scheduled start as the race director dissapeared under controversial circumstances - still missing"

I am sure you can somehowe rig it. Just measure it deeper.

Indeed

Bwahahaha! Thats one way of looking at it!! Pay them to have the negatives destroyed. What was your race number? I wanna buy you pics and then blackmail you.

We also spoke in depth about the whole ref red card thing this weekend as I was also red carded in EL under very controversial circumstances. Why not time penalty everything? So someone handed you a bottle.......... so put you in a penalty tent for 2 minutes or even 5 minutes instead of DQ'ing and pulling you out of the race. I can promise you that in the P-tent you feel like an idiot already and will not repeat the mistake again. The same with "littering" on the run (take note only the run). When you get tired you sometimes lose focus I have seen it a lot - its a mistake. Some refs makes the guys go back and pick up whatever they drop and then let them off. Other refs gets a hard-on and DQ's you on the spot. Double standards bottom line I have seen it happen more than once and experienced it. We are used to keeping saches on the bike but the run is different. After 14 hours of racing the brain isnt normal anymore and in one moment of not focussing you could let anything drop. Getting to IM cost us a hell of a lot of effort and money and to destroy it all in a moment of stupidity (from both sides I guess) is just silly in my view. The organisers are changing everyone into being too scared to do anything. Example this past weekend again. At the far point of the running course they decided to put 2 guys to hand out water. No litter zone nothing. People took water saches and dropped them 30 metres afterwards. Non litter zone. If there was a ref he would have had a field day. I assume that the organisers realized the heat and mad a contingency plan which I gladly appreciate but how can you DQ a guy on the other side of the track dropping a sache 2 meters after the litter zone when on the other side everyone is littering out of zone in any case. This did not happen but just sayen it seems the shoe is worn when it fits. Look at EL again. Argus like bunches on the way back. Everyone drafted and I mena everyone yet only a handfull got penalties????? Again, T-Penalty everything first time round. if the okes does it again then red card him. But ja, then you mail them and they just ignore you. It is clear they dont listen to the athletes. PS:- In trail running we also dont litter. We do however always have a sweep. A person that runs the whole course last and picks up any junk that may have fallen (volentary or by accident) so the course is clean. Again why the major issue on the run? You only gotta sweep 3km's of road and clean up after the race (as 2km is repeat road) this past weekend.

I would be very interested to see who is behind this race. It is nothing to do with that Robben Island race? (see also the thread a bit further down)

You too? Oh and I didnt really wanna complain but some of these refs are really on a power trip. Sheeesh!!! Seriously. If you card me then at least explain and clarify. I still dont know what the yellow was for. I am Assuming I was going too fast and the ref wasnt happy with the gap I was opening to DaveM... Oh and also if you give me a YELLOW then dont keep me in the tent for 3 minutes. you get 2 minutes for drafting which also by the way is a black card. Not sure what 3 minutes meant couldnt find it in the race guide. Oh and I also dont know how these okes can ride 100km/hour on a bike and make a drafting blocking call in a matter of 3 secs while looking over another okes shoulder while wearing a big old helmet. Honestly, get pasolas which are silent and check us out for a longer period of time. I wont mind as I am an honest racer. Sometimes things dont always seem as they are. I dont do drafting, I dont do blocking but if you come up from behind at 100km/hour and say I was just about to pass a guy and I all of a sudden decide to slam on the brakes due to an oncoming Sprite at very high speed then yes it may "appear" like blocking or even drafting. If you hung on to your card a little longer you would have seen I rode 95% of the course on my own away from everyone else. Just one last question to the refs. Does taking out a card give you a hard-on the same way it does for Bryce Lawrence when he cards a Bok? You see there I go again!

Have you ever had "32GI-Tea"? I swear my bottles were as hot as tub water when I take my bath But no one said cooler boxes arent allowed in transition. No, JGR on a serious note I think the problem was that the transition closed something like 90 minutes before our race started and 3 hours since the last group so them bottles heated up quit nicely. No chance to quickly put in cold ones just before race start......

I only have a profile on the swim course for Midmar. --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Haha Dave. I think most okes suffered cause they are used to training in the cradle at 8 degrees temps and all of a sudden wham bang 34 degrees in dry heat. I guess I was lucky in the fact that I did a 38km trail run last Sat in the Magalies berg. Yes it did take me 5h35 and yes I did pass out 3 times due to heatstroke but it did make me immune against heat the following weekend at Bela. HTFU man!!! come on!!!! Abu Dhabi is in the middle of..... yes you guessed it the DESERT!!!

Looking so forward to Midlands. I am going to destroy your bike course compared to Bela Bela

Ja and at the next race, I want a Blue Seventy wetsuit in my goodie bag as well as some spare tubes and gas. That would make it 100% complete for me.

Dave I have nother brilliant idea. How about we patent a battery operated protable transition waterbottle cooler? You put it next to your bike on you towel and switch it on. Then when you come into transition you just grab the 2 ice cold bottles and transfer them to your bike, replace the empty slots with beer for after the race and off you go??!!

Hey Dave everything you say is also true. Maybe instead of having 45min intervals they can rather group us in 1 year groups and let a new group roll every 5 minutes..... Under 26's roll out. 5min later under 27's etc.

Bwahaha! Me too!! Crazy! And then when I got to the penalty tent I filled in the form took about a minute and then the guys said your time starts now. 90 secs later (already 150 secs since I got off the bike the oke ask me what card i got.) I said yeallow and he said oh **** sorry then you can go. Lost about 3 minutes and I still dont know why. No worries however.

Hey Brad. Ja I must admin I have been very vocal with regards to the high entry fees for tri events. This race however has been worth every penny especially if you compare it to the Germiston races which is fractionally cheaper. The organisation was flawless. It was like IM but only over the olympic distance. The infrastructure and vibe was awesome (the same as IM) and there were plenty of volunteers. The only critisism I have is that they allowed vehicles onto the cycling route which in my opinion was very dangerous especially on those roads as we hit speeds of 80km/hour and then an ou ballie comes around the corner in the middle of the road with a 4m wide Jurgens behind him. And also as per usual the TSA vultures were there in full force to collect their pound of flesh right at the start. In short I will very much reconsider entering Germiston races again. I hope that oke that passed out was ok? Anyone know?

Was a great event. Yes it was warm etc but the water points were awesome.

Haha true! And I guess I can send it back the day after the race and pick it up on arrival. Seems like Swissvan wants to take it with for me. I am buying the plane tickets next Friday

Thx I got pretty much the same figures. Expecting to pay around R13k per head excluding some exploring afterwards so I am working on R30k for my wife and me and a 7 day trip. THe only thing I wanna clear out is the bike. Can we rent a bike there? its gonna suck traveling with a bicycle all the time........

Thx

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Ja its really fast! My whole life I have been modding my roadbike with little success. This will only be my third time on the new baby but the first race! So looking forward!

Here you go Seeker!

Stay away from the "Stairway to Heaven". Ran it this past weekend. They made a mistake. It is actually oneway stairs straight to hell.