WEEKEND 28TH MARCH 2009 AND KOUGA KUS 21KAY.

WEEKEND 28TH MARCH 2009
I had a rough week with travel to Mthatha. Monday I had been doing some catching up in the office and then Tuesday morning I left for Mthatha. It is a tough drive of just under 500kays. Feeling tired I had stopped in Komga, a little village the other side of King Williams Town. I had myself a sleep of well over 30 minutes and woke up feeling refreshed and ready for the second leg of the drive. I met Julia in Bradlows and we prepared for the meeting the following day.
Wednesday morning we had all of the Financial Managers at the Green Park Lodge for a meeting and some training. This went down well with them and it was a really successful day. I had planned to be back in PE on Thursday but Julia wanted me to accompany her to Flagstaff. We left early on Thursday morning and drove to Port St Johns and then Lusikisiki and left to Flagstaff. This is a small town near to Kwa Zulu Natal.
We spent the morning there and had quite a productive morning. The problem with visiting a shop that is as remote as this one is, is that one should spend a lot more time in the shop. A remote shop will receive far less attention than one in the city but often is the shop that needs most of our time. We left the shop after 12.30pm and retraced our way back to Mthatha. The road is very hilly and cell phone reception is virtually non existent.
As we drove we received intermittent calls but in particular we received a call from Maria telling us that Alfred had an accident in Peet Booysen’s car in East London. He had been using the car to fetch his own car when he collided with another car and Peet’s car was a write off. He had a passenger and they were both hurt but recovered within a few days. Peet then asked if I would come to East London to fetch him and take him home to PE. I agreed to do this and arrived in EL after 17.30 and then we drove through King where we picked up a hamburger and then home. I dropped Peet off at around 21.30 and arrived home at close to 22.00. It had been a really long day with over 10 hours of driving about 850 kays.

Friday morning I was up early for a short run and then Ally had a sports day. I waited in the car, reading until 08.30 and then watched most of the mornings activities. I watched Ally as she took part in High Jump and was amazed to see her reach a third position on the podium. As far as I know she has not been practicing for high jump but did well anyway. Then she was in a 100m sprint event and came fourth against strong competition. Barbara took over the afternoon session and I went to work. Ally had a 1.2kay run where she came third with Kristie Vaughn second. Both of them benefiting from the endurance swim training. That afternoon Ally attended a birthday party of Matthew Mc Gillivray and Kristie Vaughn. From what I heard later they had a great time including a treasure hunt which went from one home to the next.

Donald brought them down to the beach later that afternoon. Meanwhile I had a busy afternoon collecting Ally’s swimming and her Nippers trophies that had been engraved. Then I took Barbara’s lap top to have anti virus installed, collected my new Office lap top from Nicky and then went to the computer repair place and paid R1500 for the repairs to my own desk top, for the installation of the anti virus and for them to install Windows. They did not install any programs so I had this done by Greg at the office and he installed Office Works.

We had to meet Clint at the beach for Nippers Interprovincial Training and Capping. We met Ally there and had a good session with the team including some sprints and a couple of swims. After this we all met at the clubhouse for a talk by Alec Riddle on Motivation for the Interprovincial Team in Durban. His wife had prepared the venue and it really looked good. Ally was presented with her Cap and T shirt. The shirt is long sleeved and has the insignia of Eastern Province Life Saving as well as the individual names of the competitors. It looks really good and will stand out at Nationals. We braaied and then headed off home.

Saturday Morning I had arranged to pick Tim up at his home at 05.15 and we drove through to Jeffries bay where we met up with Bruce. A group of us climbed onto the back of his truck. Tim, Moff, Graham Nel, Shafiek, Keith Bayliss, Colin from Crusaders and tom Boardman. Some of the ladies, Sue B, Grizelda and Paulette, accompanied Bruce in the front cab. Bruce drove us up to Humansdorp where we paid the R30.00 to register for the 21kay that would take us back to Jeffries Bay. Seems crazy and Colin asked the question: “and so why do we do this?” I suppose it is the challenge and I remember Graham Botha asking the same question of the same race many years ago and his answer was: “Because we can!”

We were soon lined up at the start. Met up with Rob from Selbournians. Rob is a really keen runner and he has a plan to run 40 two Oceans 56kay events. He did the Ironman last year and says that he wants to do the paddle from PE to EL this year. He has never paddled before but has faith in his ability to meet challenges. The Kouga Kus race starts with a short up hill through the town of Humansdorp and into the main street. Then we turn right onto the old main PE - Cape Town road. This race should be a down hill event but once we were out of town we appeared to be doing more up hills than down’s.

Tim & I had started at the back of the field and had slowly passed a number of people including Bob and Ken. We saw Paulette and Shafiek along the road. Shafiek was not feeling well with Flu and had to miss his first league race in many years. I was aware that I was running too fast. But I was enjoying chatting to Tim and knew that I would be slowing down when we reached the half way point. The first 7kays was easy going. I may have been puffing and panting but I was having fun.

We saw Leslie M and Graham N ahead and agreed that we would run together until we passed them. This was at the 10kay mark. Graham took the time at 53 minutes. This was Tim’s cue to move on and mine to slow down. The next two or more kays is uphill to the big circle where the new shopping centre has been built. I walked and jogged this and confirmed to myself that I had been going far to fast for the first half of the race. After 12kays there is a bit of downhill and I was able to pick the pace up a bit. I was very aware, however, that I was being caught and passed by many people and was just waiting for Bob and Ken to make some cutting remark as they caught up to me.

It was at the 15kay watering station that I heard Kenny’s voice asking, most condescendingly, if I was all right. The three of us ran on and down to the main road that comes from PE and then made a right turn back to the finish. There had been a tail wind from the west and now we had a bit of a cool head wind. As we turned in a westerly direction we seemed to be running slightly up hill. There is a gradual slope going up to the village.

We passed the 18kay watering point. I have run many races with both Bob and Ken and know that they have this tactic of not slowing down at watering stations. They grab and go and then after about 100m they may slow down slightly. So I did the same. But in doing so must have overdone it a bit as I left them behind me and they had a bit of running to do to catch me. We passed the 19kay mark and it looked like a long uphill ahead, but to my surprise and delight there was a marshal showing us to turn left and down to the beach front road.

I never saw the 20kay marker board but it must have been about here that Tim came back to fetch me. Ken had run ahead & I could see that I had no chance of catching him. Bob was a few meters behind me and I knew that if I gave an inch he was come charging past me. So Tim and I ran as fast as I could over the final kay and I finished in well under two hours. Tim had run the 21 in a bit over 100 minutes. We were both very happy with our times.

Back at Paulette’s truck we found our track suites. I had to be at work this morning and Tim & packed up to leave. Sizinso (85 Minute 21kay) came with us as he also had to be back at work. He works at Pick & Pay in William Moffet where he is a merchandiser. He has been employed here for 9 years. He used to work at a grocery wholesaler called Beecham. In his words: “When Mandela came to power they became scared and packed up and left”

When Sizinso had to apply for a new job he decided that being born in 1951 made him appear too old so he lied about his age saying that he was 10 years younger. It appears that Pick & Pay retire their employees at age 60 so he has two years to retirement. And is looking forward to being able to train seriously. This is from a man who runs the two hours from Motherwell to work each day. He has a small kit bag on his back or else leaves work clothing at his place of work. He showers and then after work takes a taxi home. That is if he is satisfied with the morning session. If not then he runs back home again. We dropped him off at P & P where he would spend the next 8 hours, on his feet, at work. I dropped Tim off and after a shower also spent a few hours at work. But this was sitting at a desk.

I received this really complementary email from Graham Channon:
"Hi Peter,

Well done on your performance at Kouga Kus 1hr 44s, that really made me sit up, you must be fit and on the comeback trail? Putting it into perspective that is a 4hr 40m Two Oceans and a silver at Comrades.

Regards,
Graham."
However this is what I heard at the registration of the Two Oceans Half:
I registered and then met up with Bruce, Robin and Graham N. Graham wanted to know where I had passed him on the Kouga Kus 21kay. I knew that I had never passed him. But the results apparently showed me in front of him. Bruce informed me that the results were wrong and that my time and Tim’s time had become mixed up. My time should have been 1.53 and not 1.44.Ooops! As the kids nowadays say: “My Bad!”

Saturday evening Ally made arrangements to meet her cousin, Jasmin, at the movies. Barbara dropped her off while I watched the Sharks beat the Brumbies in Durban. It was great rugby with plenty of tries being scored. I was surprised to learn that Andre v d Berg was one of the older members of the team. At 35 he is the oldest however it seems like just the other day that he started his rugby career in PE. We collected Ally and Jasmine from the Movies and dropped her off at her home. This evening was to be a Power Out evening as everyone who cared was supposed to switch off their lights for an hour. We did so and promptly fell asleep.
Sunday morning I was up early and fetched Riana Green to meet Andrew Jonas for a Beach Front run. We started off at 05.30 and ran up Walmer Boulevard, along Strandfontein and down Admiralty way. As we were running we saw adverts for the political party COPE. Mvumi Dandala is one of the leaders of this party. Mvumi opened the church buildings about 10 years ago when he was Bishop of the Methodist church of SA.
I remember him telling the story of his Grandfather who worked in the mines. He would have to go down deep into a mine shaft under really horrible conditions. Somehow he had learned to write his name when asked to complete a form for Identification Purposes. As a result one morning when one of the boss boys was off ill and the mine boss asked who could write down the names of people going down the shaft, Mvumi’s grandfather said that he could write. The shift boss then allocated the job of recording names to him. This meant that the Grandfather never had to go down the mine shaft again. Mvumi remembers his grandfather telling the children that it was critical that they learned how to read and write to avoid having to go down the mine shafts. And so began Mvumi’s studying and his career as a Minister in the Methodist church and now more recently his political career.
We had a stunning run this morning. We ran at an easy pace which was kind to me. I had tired legs from the Saturday run. As we were nearly finished we came across Tim, Earl and Theresa. They had started at 06.30 and were just starting their run. After the run I showered and was ready for church. Jonathan spoke in church and one thing that he mentioned that caught my attention was the fact that the Greeks were philosophers, known for their deep thinking, ethics and values while the Jews were considered to be people led by a set of rules and a code of conduct. In our own business we can easily be misled to think that either way is the right way. However there is probably an answer somewhere in-between.
Nippers this morning was an excellent way to end the season. I was able to do some training with our small group of U10’s going to Durban. We have 6 in our age group and there were only four there this morning. I took the four out on Malibu’s for a paddle to the Pollock rocks. Marion is still very nervous and wants to clutch onto me for support. John and Lynn assisted me. After this we did some sprint and some flags and body boarding. We now felt we were ready for the Durban Challenge and allowed the Nippers some free boarding time.