JJDT

With all the rain and the terrain it is going to be a proper mudfest and the mud are the clay type of mud that clings to everything.

Broke mine about 5 years ago and in hindsight there was a couple of things that I would do differently. Most of the points raised already I was not informed about e.g. Physio and Exercises. The surgeon on duty at the time of my fall was actually specialising in feet as opposed to the full monty. Today my "alignment" is somewhat out looking in the mirror and compare my left shoulder against my right shoulder there is a difference in posture. I do not have pain but my power in the arm has drastically declined. To summarise: choose a good surgeon who did this kind of thing before, go for physio and lastly do the exercises although it maybe boring but it will help towards full recovery.

Price on handlebar...busy fixing an old 26er for just as an extra fun bike.

Just love the old school tech that could not yet be replicated. Newer aircraft may have more tech but one can not deny what these engineers achieved with limited tech resources in the early 70's. The Blackbird SR71...loved the stories by the men who flew this awesome aircraft. Concorde my alltime favourite passenger airplane.

Well at this time I think there is a lot of jittery people...waiting for the unknown and known. All the best to the riders...we will be with you, following you and shouting to keep going.

@Slowbee yes the gas operation is still functioning known as Egoli Gas now. Speaking of the Plaza was there about two years ago after a long absense and although from the outside it looks the same, most of old shops are gone. Remember in the one corner of the center building there used to be shop that sold jeans...about every make and sizes you can think of and sadly this place is no more.

No...Enter The Ninja was a 1981 film... Long before Die Antwoord.

Chlorine bombs...the old 2L coke bottels had this black piece of plastic as a footpiece, this was our bottle of choice for these bombs. We used other liquid as well that mixed with chlorine will cause a major chemical reaction which also ends in flames. (will rather not post the liquid name in fear of the young kids that might stumble upon this post and try it with some nasty surprises). Who rembers the small slingslot that were made from coat hanger wire with a normal elastic band and the ammo was a piece of wire with a U shape that we used to shoot each other...Afrikaans it was also known as "Lemoen Kettie" or "Kram Kettie". The ammo was not only wire but also paper rolled, small parts of an orange hooked around the elastic.

In the early mid eighties there was these bunch of Martial Arts movies especially enter the Ninja. We were so caught up with these things we made our own swords out of flatbar, those climbing hooks, even those that fits on the feet and hands. We also made our own stars and even bought some of them...we would sometimes in school holidays board the train at Florida Station to Braamfontein Station where we will walk to the Oriental Plaza just to buy some of these stars as there was one shop that was relatively cheap with all these gadgets. We also used conduit pipe of various lengths to make an aresenal of blow pipes. The darts were made from nails which was bought at the hardware store which was further sharpenned...the "feathers" were made from wool. We used to shoot each other and these things would pierce the skin and sometimes even penetrate the skin...nearly got my eye shot out one time as I just turned my head and this dart penetrated my upper nose bone next to my eye... Will I do it again now that I know the danger...without a doubt yes...we had some wild imaginations at that time... Next post chorine bombs experiments...

@Fanievb you are lucky to receive your payment so quickly. Wife filed on Monday last week...No word since....

Also did the half marathon. Was not that bad after the fuss on the start that it was tough and very technical. For me the first 15 Km was somwhat technical but not that bad. After that it was some nice flowing single track and open roads. The youngsters in the half marathon racing for podium spots got lost after a gate that was not opened. They took the positions of about 8 Km to go for final podium spots.

It is not Rugby alone...Athletics is also in the mixture. But Rugby is the B and all of Schools sports in primary and high schools. It starts at a young age and some parents are also to blame for the culture of winning at all costs. Way back in 2004 it was parents who coached the Gr R - Gr2 boys "Welpie Rugby" as it is known. Was just basic skills, pass, tackle and to a smaller extend rucks to retrieve the ball. I performed coaching duties in 2005 and 2006 and the comments from some parents were shocking. The winning at all costs was so bad that on one instance the comments to individual small boys was "Don't expect a certificate if you keep on playing like this..." This is where everything starts. When you are slected for the 1st XV, the stakes to perform is even higher. My son was elected for the 1st XV at primary school and later he did not enjoy playing rugby anymore. He just decided one day enough is enough and said to the coach he will no longer play rugby for the 1st XV and went to the second team and told them he is availble to play for them. He opted to play hockey in high school, needless to say that more than half of the primary school 1st XV quitted rugby and opted to play hockey starting Gr8.

My few cents. There seems to an issue with the older boards and the timing equipment, (my view) I took my board to number collection to have it scanned for ease of collecting batch sticker and it did not pick up my board signal. I received a new code and programmed referencing my board number. The clipboard at the end is the "backup process or cross referencing" for queries if results are not found. As for vendors especially food I can not comment on but I do not think it is an price issue because your "regular" vendors were present i-coffee, crank'd clothing and anatomic. Medals are another issue as there were some debates here on the past about medals. I do not really care about a medal (nothing special imo) as all medals are the same whether you are last, somewhere in the middle or first (can not really comment on podium finisher medals as I do not know if they are different). For medals it is a personal preference in the end. If they really want to save on costs they can do away with this silly "goodie bag"

I'm more incline to 21H00 finishing, about 100km's to go and at this stage I doubt that he can avg 25km/h for another 4 hours and I think he will rest a bit at RV5 before going out again.

Looks like one hectic climb...just looked at the "dot" MM and current speed 7.6km/h or he just relaxing up the climb.

What does the HUB feel about a possible tadem category seeing that is just one long unending gravel road?

Pitstop strategy...

Karina Britz now only at race village 2...still a long way to go with the next two riders about 17km in front...Mind games now for her...But from me still huge respect to her for doing 390km's so far.

See Marco is on the first major climb of the race...this guy is on a mission...would love to find out what will his thoughts be on this last 200 odd km's of the race.

Marco Martins on the move again... How long can your body cope with this extreme, lack of sleep + assuming your avg HR is about 70% for hours on end? Last question is it good for your overall health...not immediate but long term effects on what this guy is doing?

Going to be interesting from now on especially the sleep tactics with the leaders only resting for a few minutes only.

All the months of preperation is finally here, to all the hubbers starting all the best. Also from my side to everybody respect for lining up for this huge challenge. Whether it will be a dot for a hubber or just a dot for somebody complete unknown we will be watching dots... I just had a thought who is more sane Riders going out and do the race or us staring at our screens at moving dots.

@Mojoman...No this race is far from Magalies. In short Free State to Cape direct, not passing through other provinces.

29 days to go for Hubland to stare at dots again for a few days. Hope that training for Hubbers that enterred is progressing well.

Kap hom Kwagga...doen dit nou...