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I feel really sorry for customer service staff at Vitality. Judging from the Facebook ratings and feedback they're taking a beating. A good review for now Vitality stands out like a sore thumb. Seems that the Vitality staff have taken it upon themselves to give themselves a 5-Star rating. http://i65.tinypic.com/15hd5p5.jpg

My mate & I did it 3-times in April. The only thing you need to worry about it your technical skills when doing high speed descents. Make sure you have cash for the parking and post-ride-beer at Berlouri Farm

This was our first Delta Dash and we had a great time. The marshals were awesome and the vibe was great. I was passed a couple of times by some seriously fit guys with fixies. We only had one issue and was with the team in a gazebo adjacent to ours. They were a friendly bunch of kids but when they packed-up they left used tubes, flyers and wrappers where they’d parked. Will definitely be taking part again next year!

My family is getting good value via Vitality from Dischem, Pick&Pay and Woolies I didn’t redeem a single coffee or smoothie via Active rewards because the exercise is a reward in itself. Since I cycle and the wife runs we don’t care much for gym. It was nice to receive recognition for being active and it inspired us to train harder and more often. We’re not going to stop training now that Active Rewards has been watered down. We’re just going to be much more circumspect about anything Discovery related. That being said… If they launch a Fenix or an Ambit deal similar to the Apple watch i'd be first in the queue!

I was chatting to a bunch of weekend warriors -like me- over a couple of beers at the Cradle Trophy. We all find it difficult to justify the spend on HRM (We all want a Fenix3!) so we just use Strava. Since most of us have already maxed out our fitness points for the year on Vitality the whole appeal of the Active rewards programme is gone. (We each received 100 points per day for 10 000+ steps via the iPhone fitness app. 200 points woohoo!) Active Rewards was fun while it lasted and I’m glad I didn’t agree into taking up the iWatch deal. I incidentally saw a guy wearing two Apple Watches at the race this weekend. Hopefully Discovery don’t decide to drop Apple support too!

This is my first Delta Dash. Created a team and roped in some mates just for the hell of it. There's going to be beer right?

I can see why. I’ve largely ignored my Vitality benefit for the last 8-years so my monthly fees have been paying for the Gold & Diamond members’ benefits. With the introduction of Strava I’ve managed to jump up a level in just over a month without a significant increase in workouts. Hell, one 4-hour ride netted me 3000 points. That’s more points than I’ve earned in years I think Vitality based their numbers on years’ worth of gym access data and underestimated just how active their members where outside of the gyms. Now they have to scramble to stop people from achieving higher levels by dropping the points and targets. The Vitality model becomes unsustainable if there are too many top tier members who have to be subsidized by new and low-level members (Think Ponzi)

Love this bit from the MoneyWeb article: “In those instances I can understand why somebody may be aggrieved that the benefit is changing or the comment about the bottom line, but if our underlying premise and principle is about shifting and encouraging behaviour [changes] then you would understand that inherently in that there has to be change.” Yep. Folks will most certainly start changing their medical aids, insurance and investments There’s a lot of anger towards Discovery now but I can’t see them revoking the changes that they’ve announced. Members will bluster and complain but they’re contractually bound to keep paying for their watches and credit cards. I assume that on cancellation the full outstanding fees for gym memberships, etc become payable immediately? This probably won’t make a difference to their existing membership count but the impact on future database growth (both locally and internationally) must still be quantified. Their credibility has gone for a ball of crap and this will affect their ambitions of entering the banking/cell phone market Dr Shrey Viranna will probably have to fall on his sword where after the company will gloss over this unfortunate incident by launching some shiny new product like drop-shipping overpriced vitamins and supplements using drones

At the rate that I was earning points from my weakly commute via Strava I was actually considering getting myself an Ambit3. I even convinced the missus to buy me one for my upcoming birthday… I’d be somewhat vexed if I’d spent all that money on a device that not supported by Vitality

I’ve never really taken the Vitality programme seriously since the combined monthly membership fees, Vitality credit card fees & Annual renewal fees for my family seems to cost more than the odd flight to Cape town an iWatch or a rental vehicle I have to admit though that it’s gratifying to rack-up so many points via Strava and it motivates me to push for 90+ minute rides daily simply to maximise my points. I don’t consider myself a serious rider so I don’t use a HRM. A LOT of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances are in the same boat. Most of them signed-up for the iWatch benefit (Hell, some of them specifically activated Discovery Credit Cards just to get the benefit) Every one of them made a point of going for a walk for lunch and going for a ride/jog on weekends and logging it via Strava, etc. It’s inspiring to see such a large group of mostly sedentary people making the effort to be more active on a daily basis These folk got really invested in the active lifestyle. We created a Strava Club and some of them activated Premium annual memberships. After Vitality’s announcement many (If not all) of them have become disenchanted with the whole affair. It’s tragic to see enthusiasm replaced by such bitter resentment in the space of a couple of days These folks aren’t interested in laborious workarounds, migrating to other tracking platforms or spending money on additional hardware. They’ll pay off the iWatches or try to flog them to recover some of the costs but they’ll be much more circumspect about any new programs/products/packages that the Discovery group launch

I swore never to support Advendurance again after the disaster that was Down & Dirty in 2012 but I caved and entered Dullstroom 2014 I was in C-batch for the Half-marathon and completed the race in just of over 3-hours. I managed to get water at both the 10Km & 32Km water points My official time is pretty close to what I recorded on Strava. There was some congestion where the groups merged but I was lucky enough not to get stuck behind any slow riders (Mot likely because I was one of them) Pros: - Ample parking - Well stocked and staffed beer tent - Beautiful scenery and challenging trail - Warm showers Cons: - Not enough medals! - Pre-ordered a Columbia buff – No stock - 2 Friends ordered new boards when they entered the event. No boards where made and they had to queue for almost an hour to get boards made I genuinely had a lot of fun and will be attending the event again in 2015, but I’m seriously annoyed about not getting my medal

I also prefer Saturday races since it gives one the opportunity to plan an entire weekend around the race with your mates You’d arrive early on the Saturday morning (or even book accommodation at the race venue) complete the race, have a long boozy lunch followed by a looooong boozy braai The next morning you have a quick social ride to shake the last of the hangover following by breakfast where after you spazz out on the couch for the rest of the day

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UltraEldron BoostedGP G-Unit Muddyike Marathon jcza - B Li Mu Bai SeanScalpel Thug WesleyKloppers AJP - B batch David - C Batch I FLY - D batch MikeBike - B Helpmytrap - A Half marathon Riaan Coetzee B Batch Hfx (Jules Nel) - C

I took a group of 7 riders to Avianto Trails on Saturday morning (25 Jan) at 6:30AM after reading about it on the Hub We paid the gentleman at the clubhouse our entry fees but apparently the trail bands where locked in the office? We met a couple of other riders on the route who also couldn’t get bands. Any reports of rogue riders may have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but we also can’t expect the poor guy to be at his post with a box full of cash and bands from sunup every day The start of the track is boring, but the black sections really got the adrenaline flowing and 2nd section of the trail from the tunnel onward is beautiful. The warm showers and ICE cold beers at the clubhouse really wrapped up the day nicely