PhilipV

Now that is kief! How did your BIL do? compared to last year, this looked like a lekker epic to do. My father and I flew up to Durban to watch my brother’s last rugby game. Was a lekker weekend. Trips like yours will be remembered for ages.

Did they go up Irish? I tuned in late, but from what I saw they went up the jeep track?

The Race director is a local. Friend of mine. He has been spending a lot of time in the mountains there this year. And he knows how to host an event.

The gap between gym and lunch is looooong. So a protein shake before I jump into the shower makes life a lot easier. And it is the easiest way to add creatine. For post workout recovery it is way easier than food. But after a race, the shake is ditched for a burger and a beer. Because it just tastes so much better.

Technically Somerset West is part of the Winelands. But we’ll even be happy if you lump as with the Boland just as long as it’s not the N-Subs.

Oh, I haven’t seen so many E-bikes together since riding at Lourensford. We even had a whole team on roadie e-bikes climbing past us on the way to Drew, only to block us on the descent. Ek was nie dik van die lag nie.

What a lekker day out. So much so I might just keep the road bike and ride it next year again. We didn’t finish together. Two riders got into the car at the supporter zones. But we came in nearly 30mins below goal time at 7:32. We made a few mistakes, not planning well led to me being left behind at the top of Tradouw and a fractured team riding down. But riding back into our group was a lot of fun. I Latched onto a lekker group and caught up with most of our team members about halfway to Montagu picking up the last ones just before Montagu. After the stop we stuck together and shepherded everyone across the line. The bigger guys were breaking the wind and the smaller, stronger climbers helped push where needed on those last climbs.Im really glad we did a few warm rides. The heat was rof. At one stage my wife was stuffing her sports bra with ice. I tried to follow suit by stuffing ice in my shirt, it worked but the ice water dripping down into my pants was not something I was expecting. Maybe I’ll take a leaf out of the trail runner handbook and get a few ice bandanas going. The post race braai, fines and rugby game was a jol on its own. And for a last hurrah we woke up to a thunderstorm, followed by more rain than expected. all fine and dandy, except that we were camping. But even packing up and dodging rain was gees with our team. definitely a weekend for the books.

We’re also as ready as can be. What started as a raucous Potjiekos kuier ended up as 5 married couples and two racehorses lining up on Saturday. None of us race road anymore, so it’s kind of new territory. We are a lekker group and the journey leading up to here has been full of gees. This little midlife crisis has led to the purchase of 3 road bikes, 1 new frame, 4 wahoo kickrs, a new wheel build, way too many gels and an embarrassing amount of winning time chips. Our crew isn’t totally useless though, our races in the last year include 2x Comrades, 7 road marathons, 2 MUT Marathons an IM70.3, a Cape Epic and a Munga. We have vasbyt, we just need to apply it on skinny wheels. We are going for the Boswell Wilke medal, under 8hrs.

As a non dealer, I think paying per ad/post is perfectly fair. Even if the cost is proportionally more for lower ticket items. what you seem to forget is that the ad cost is only a small portion of the total cost, and the margin that the bigger items carry is less, and the risk is higher. If you want to run against the big dogs you shouldn’t be whining like a puppy.

Im pretty sure that the call to cancel was made for the organizers by the metro/JOC. The Linkin Park situation and the death of a runner due to falling branches earlier this year probably prompted them to err on the side of caution. And that isn’t a bad thing. I think Faces and the City need to take the lessons and learn from them. Plan for a windy scenario with less structures, better branding or more strategically placed branding, a potential delay to the start and a Plan B for the route. I’m sorry, but the route we ran yesterday was better than the official route anyway. Even if it is two loops of the CBD to Camps Bay it’s better than no race. Cape Epic had a similar situation in Lourensford this year. They delayed the start, marked out a new route, still had a race.

My plan for CTM was to set out slowish, take in the gees, have a jol, build chats take photos, drink a beer and then let the vibes take me home for the last bit of suffering. We were in line for the bus at CTICC when the announcement came through and they disembarked the buses. Couple next to us flew in from Thailand. We were however a lekker group, so we decided to run a marathon anyway. I didn’t want to not run as I took an immodium an hour before AND my mother in law was at home. So we set off from there, ran to the start via fan walk, Promenade, VnA and then back to the prom to head out to 12 Apostles. When we hit the prom for a 2nd time the Gees arrived and we were joined by the masses. It was kief. The vibe was immaculate . We refilled our bottles at randoms parked next to the road who set up water points, and I got to run with my wife and three very good friends (who all had different goals and never would have run together.) I did a 4:29 for my debut road marathon. I’ll take it. Maybe I’ll do another one next year if Sanlam keeps their promise. We finished our marathon in the waterfront, but alas, no beer sales allowed until 11am, so we went home and had a braai. All in all a fantastic day. Although my calfs feels like someone who realised at 38k that a 4:30 was possible I’m not too sore today. I never hit the dreaded wall at 30, never cramped and managed to keep the pace below 6min/km for the last 5k. Ja I’ll take that. But first, it’s bicycles and beach season.

Modern day gravel bikes are nicer than my first 3 mountain bikes. To be fair, the UCI don’t really know how to do gravel either. Also: are all facts not by virtue true? Naah, we want to see drama, and for that, we need the big guns. And the big guns (HAVE NOTS) need to be subsidized by the wallets of the HAVES. It’s the Socialistic- Capitalist way.

You must have missed racing in the early 2000s. True. Also, I think gravel races are cannabalising road and mtb entries. most of the MTB races in the heyday were gravel races anyway.

I fully agree that UCT is ideal. I disagree with “The thing you haven’t considered is a start and finish venue. You cannot start a mtb event at the Waterfront. ” it is possible, and is done around the corner multiple times a year. But a world champs event will definitely need road closures near start and finish. Which brings us back to why UCT and anything against the mountain is ideal. I just really hope it is done on Table Mountain and not shipped out to Tygerberg.

Waterfront used to host a WC Tri event that started near Q4 and ended in Green point stadium. It was a spectators dream. And CT Marathon and Argus CT is held very succesfully at Green Point. Like UTCT, you can probably host it from Gardens Rugby club as well. Most of the spectators will be in the mountain somewhere anyway. flip, with this and 2027 World Trail Running Champs coming to Cape Town the City has ample chance to show off.