FEBRUARY 2011
BARBARA BIRTHDAY
REDHOUSE RIVER MILE
SUNDAYS RIVER OFF ROAD TRIATHLON
PICTURES ALL FROM GERALD SCHEEPERS
Saturday I purchase some Slime-Green R50 and take out the mountain bike. I apply the slime green to the front and back tyres and give the bike a bit of a clean up. I make sure that the breaks are set so that there is no friction and pump the tyres. I take out the helmet, gloves, water bottle, pump and have everything ready for the Triathlon at Sundays River the next morning. I set out my swim and running stuff and feel ready for the morning. We are in bed early.
SUNDAY 27TH FEBRUARY 2011.
Today is Barbara's Birthday. It is not going to be a huge celebration for her as we have a jam packed action day. Ally is in the church music group, I am leaving early for Sundays River and we will be outdoors for most of the day. Michael leaves for Cape Town soon and just generally it is not a celebration for her.
Sunday Morning I am up early and load the bike, cooler box and some chairs into Barbara's Bakkie. Ally will be playing drums in the Church band this morning and Barbara will bring her to Sundays River a little later. Lene will also come with Jessica, Joshua and Daniel. I head down to Sundays River and off load my stuff. It takes two trips and then I forget my Goggles and have to rush back for them. I find Gerald and Pat with Ronel. Ronel is the person who inspired me to try this off road Triathlon as she did it last year. Rob Ermes, Nina Bodishe, Dave Emslie, Lyn Roche and Kerry Weeks (who ran with us at 6th Avenue many years ago) are also entered.
We rack up the bikes and walk to the start which is up stream just below where Jill and WIllie van der Marwitz used to have a house. We dive in and as usual have to wait for the start. The gun goes off and we head for the bridge. The water is shallow in places and it would have been possible to have walked some of the distance if you wanted to. We swim on, I look up and see that the front swimmers are already under the bridge while I have a long way to go. I settle into a steady (but slow) rythm. As I swim under the bridge I have this sense of doing something that I have never done before and feel good about it. Then we can see the area where Swimmers are already running up the bank while we have a fair distance to cover at this stage. We have to swim around a buoy and then up to the small white buoy before reaching the bank. As I exit the water I hear Gerald calling me to look at the camera.
We run into transition where I have this tiny little stool that I use for putting on my running shoes. I am not good at sitting on the grass. Helmet, Gloves and shoes on; Now I start on the cycle leg. Almost immediately I almost fall as we hit some really soft sand. Under the bridge, past the V. D Marwitz house and up a slope. Then the route takes us onto some road works where there is some kind of track. Then we cycle along the railway track where the thing I find fascinating is the number of empty wine caskets that we pass on the track.
I pass some cyclists and many pass me. I realise that I have the front shock on the FIxed Setting so it is not working as a shock at all. I adjust this and start to get the feel of the gears. The track is full of thorns, soft sand and stones. We pass many cyclists who are repairing punctures. I am VERY pleased that I applied the Slime Green. I will never do an off road cycle event without the Slime Green. I could see thorns and deviltjies stuck to my tyre and I am sure that I would have been sitting on the side fixing punctures in the dusty heat of the morning if it had not been for the slime green. And even having fixed a puncture it is likely in this sort of event that you will get a second puncture. I am greeted by a policewoman who knows my name. Probably a customer at Morkels. We cycled a circular route and then over the bridge back to Colchester. I passed Rob Ermes who was aready on his run. Then down to the grassy area next to the river and along here to the transition area. I hear Viv Bullock shout my name.
Gerald is there with his camera. I had heard some of the chaps moaning about no water on the run so I grab my water bottle and run out of transition. Stanford Slabbert is announcing and calls out my name. We run the same route as the cycle. Along the embankment, through the dusty scrub area and over the bridge to the village. I meet up with Laura from Jeffries who is doing her first Triathlon. We jog along the grass and back to the finish area. I am so pleased that I have done this event. My last, and only other off road tri, was a disaster with me getting two punctures and having to carry the bike back. Today was succesful and I finished all three legs.
I push the bike and my stuff to where I had left my chairs and cooler box and phone Barbara. She is on the bank right below me and I carry the stuff down to her. Jessica is swimming the Cross River swim and Ally is with her. Jessica does not appear very happy when she finishes. But she has done the swim. It seems that some spectators moaned at Ally thinking that she was competing.
Ally and I walk to the start of the Ladies Mile. It is a longish walk and a hot morning. I leave her at the start and start walking back. Patrick and Terry Billson are at the start watching their two girls Carmel and Lauren who will ultimately win todays event. Gerald is looking out for Ronel and Pat. I have to walk fast to keep up with the front group of swimmers. Ally is lying around 25th the whole way. I have all of her stuff and have to jog the last bit to where Barbara and Lene are sitting at the finish area.
I drop the stuff and make my way back to the Mens Mile start. I dont see Ally finish but later hear that she became disoriented towards the end of the swim and lost a few places. I am not at all concerned as I feel a huge sense of pride seeing her swim this distance at all. Ally ended up 29th overall in a time of 2123 minutes. Friends of Ally who are also "in the mix": Natalie Billson, Shimone Gordon, Tarryn Els, Christie Vaughn, Jessica Liss who was leading but who was overtaken at the end when losing her way. Ronel Scheepers 26 minutes and Pat Scheepers 40 minutes. Viv Bullock 27 minutes; Therese Boulle 28 minutes; Lexie Vaughn at 10 years old does 34 minutes; 215 Ladies finished the mile.
I make my way to the start. Ant Skinner, Mally Richardson, Kerry Weeks, Peter Marriot, Markus & MC Burri are some of the swimmers I see today.
We pass through the check in area. I have arrived Just in Time: Perfect; I wait less than a minute and we jump in the water. The usual wait as the marshalls try to force swimmers back to the start line. Then the hooter goes and we start this mad flurry of swimming. Legs and arms are everywhere. Even though I try to separate myself from the mass there is this bundel of swimmers that I cannot seem to avoid.
I am able to settle into a reasonable pace. I decide to swim crawl for as much as I can. And apart from short breaks to orientate myself I am able to maintain the pace. The only problem with this swim is that I have no idea where we are. Each time I look up I see the beautiful blue sky with the green bush that adorns the sand dunes on the other side of the river. The only break in the vista is where the sand dune is bare. I only breath to the left so it is blue sky and green bush, blue sky and green bush.
There are some buoys to guide us but I had not counted them while walking to the start so have no sense of distance at all. Blowing Bubbles into the river, breathing to the left and trying to maintain the pace is all that I think about. Finally I see what I think is likely to be the finish area. I swim past the Stormforce banner on the right. Now I know that we are almost there. The white buoy signals the final staight and I swim in.
Again I hear Standford Slabbert announcing my age and name. I have finished in just under 35 minutes. This is 10 minutes before the cut off time. Roger Fraser greets me. I make my way down to where Barbara and Ally are and we pack up and head off home. We have decided that we will not stay for prize giving and the lucky draws.
The three Jones boys; Wayne, Jason and Daniel do very well. Chad Ho wins the mens event. MC Burri does 18 minutes with Markus just behind in 20 minutes.Christian Fraser swims a 20 minute mile. I have swum a 34 minute mile and end up 251/310 swimmers.Kerry Weeks was just ahead of me. Rory McDonough and Juan Nel were a couple of minutes before me. Rob Ermes swam a respectable 28 minutes and was 17th in the age group. Ant Skinner and Mally Richards were just ahead of him while Jason beat his dad by two minutes. He announced this to me as I finished.
In the Off Road Triathlon I found the following results (out of 98 competitors):
Rob Ermes 27th 1:25
Ronel Scheepers 61st 1.34
Peter Giddy 82nd 1.51
Imran Moosagie (Nippers Dad) 86th 1.57
Lynn Roche 49th 1:29
Charlie Hills 59th 1:33 Him and Rory Hilton the only other >60's competing.
David Enslin 42nd 1:28 Ex Achillean.
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