scotty

Always happy with Solomons.

Its from a previous race but still chuckle when I see it

When it comes to active participation, Parkrun are on a steep growing climb, manageable (even my lazy brother and sister in law are regulars), convenient and best of all FREE. Looking at their site North Beach had the most participants this past week (1561) and also holds the record of most participants (2527). No fancy aerodynamic carbon, electric shifting, skin suit wearing, gel munching etc involved.

Mentioned it before but will repeat it again. Years back there used to be a road race in Edenvale sponsored by coco cola. I found myself in B group front bunch when we caught and as we were passing the Elite women some guy mentioned them been caught by boep pens amateurs, this obviously struck a nerve with them as next thing we saw was a blur as they sped away leaving us to eat their dust.

Its so obvious I do not think its deliberate, although a red flag should have shown after the MTB race held a week before.

The lady winner in A has duplicate results for 947(group A and H) road and 25km MTB (A1 and A8). I suspect she has 2 chips registered in her name which someone else used.

Keys, small plastic coin bag with some money and cellphone left pocket, gels, bars etc right pocket and middle pocket starts as empty and filled with used gels, wrappers etc. On the plus side I did not see anyone deliberately litter on Sunday but noticed a number emptying their pockets at bins at the end.

So how did it go ?

Is that for the 820 ? I paid R2401.00 Sept 2018 and when unit gave issues again in July this year I had to pay R2500.

I've had two refurbished 820's and both have had mapping for UK and other European countries. I think all that they do when they arrive here is load SA maps with 90 days warranty.

Cycling up the stretch as you exit Kyalami a father and young daughter riding on an old 26" MTB tandem passed us. While the daughter was small and could not have weighed much the father was quite big and still they powered past all the riders.

Replacements will likely be refurbished. I suspect that units handed in as faulty are shipped back overseas and repaired there.

I would hand it into local Garmin, a replacement unit for 820 is around R2500 so i expect a 520 to be less.

No gripes around the running of the race, from the parking (left Boksburg at 4.20am and was parked in by 5:30am) , batch loading was working, PA was audible including the neutral zone warning, plan was not to stop at WP so we could make our 4 hour mark but decided to stop at 1 on the M1 for some Coke when we found ourselves ahead of schedule, plenty of water spray points to cool down was welcome, some more climbing off the highway, kayalami and few other "bumps" then nice fast last km's. Most cyclist behaved and were predictable but odd few that had me scratching my head, we rode 2 abreast left of the road unless overtaking slower riders or groups but still had the odd few that insisted on coming left and trying to push us out right.

Video snip doing the rounds on whattsapp about footage taken in the neutral zone showing a cyclist travelling at high speed taking out other cyclists.

Saw some at the expo so should be

2211 finishers for the 40km route, that's a good start, likely a lot moved from the longer distance where there are 15606 finishers.

Happy enough, fell back a few batches to ride with a group, aim was for sub 4 which we got with 3:48 plus loose change. Wind made it challenging at times, really felt for those starting in later batches.

I enjoy it for a good workout, 3 different routes well marked and while not truly technical they do offer a challenge. It's got an expiration date though as the land is ear marked for development in the future so best to give it a go now.

Riverfields security has improved, they have security on the premises funded by Finish Line and donations.

Usually go Thu AM but went PM today and was much better, Malibonge off ramp was a breeze contrasted to previous years. Parked at VA and walked straight to number collection with no queue. Quick browse walk through expo, bought 2 Gatorskins marked down on special at Cyclelab, Versus socks and gels and was out within 20min.

2 days later refund reflecting in my account Money for beers and pizza post 947.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

Been watching couple of episodes on these guys. They take no cr@p and although they have links to police, they do their own investigations and arrests. https://www.nightguard.co.za/armed-reaction/

If ts Lotto we will probably never know. Lotto are no longer making their list of beneficiaries public.