JANUARY 2013
New Years day
East London -- B & B Benri in Gonubie
JEFFREYS BAY 15KM FROM MENTORS KRAAL
ALLY IS BACK AT SUMMERSTRAND DOING DUTY
START WATCHING A NEW SERIES WITH BARBARA - BAD
ANGELOS FOR SUPPER WITH BARBARA AND ALLY
SUMMERTRAND MEETING-- AMALGEMATE THE SENIORS AND NIPPERS
GREY 12KM RUN
TRIP TO PLETT
NIPPERS OPENS FOR THE NEW YEAR
Wednesday 2nd I drive to EL for business and find a New B & B called Benri's in Gonubie. It is along the Surfers Marathon route.
I jog in the morning. Very nice place to stay rather than the Chimneys where I have been staying for the past number of years.
Saturday 5th. I drive to Jeffreys Bay with Elmarie Botha and Ronel and Elmaries family. Meet up with Achilles chaps. I run with Elmarie, Ronel, Svenje and Bob at various stages. Svenje is pregnant and feeling the Morning Sickness symptoms. The course takes us down towards Jeffreys, past the shopping centre and then left towards Kabbeljous.
At this stage it is almost all down hill but still I am not at my best. When we reach the bottom of the hill we have a gradual climb before turning right up through the suburbs. Back onto the main road and back to Mentors Kraal. We have a good run. It not an easy course with a long steep uphill back to Mentors Kraal where it starts. Bob is not well and feels low. I am not sure why but I too feel weak.
We have a good run. I finish with Svenje and chat to the Achilles. Elmarie's Daughter, Sasha goes off to the shops while we relax at the finish area. when they get back we load up and head off home.
Daniel joins me as we dump the rubbish at the tip. We take Barbara's Blue Bike and Daniels (was Josh's) bike in for service. Both were badly needing attention to Breaks, Chain and cables.
This morning is a busy one for me as I have to go to work, load up the bakkie with the rubbish that is accumulating after our family left and cleaning up the school.
Michael and Lene have moved out of the main house to the school and now Barbara and Lene are cleaning up and preparing for the school to move to their rooms.
Summerstrand Nippers is now part of the main club and not a separate entity.
Barbara Ally and I enjoy our occasional outings to Angelos for a supper which is tasty and quick. Not too expensive.
SATURDAY 12th. I jog to Grey for the 12 km event. I meet up with our normal group of runners. Margie and Brian, Adrienne and Pat who will walk and jog the 6km. Penny, Selwyn, Trevor, Peter DC and Mike Dean who do the 12k together.
Dean finished strongly
Catherine and Roger Trader at the Grey School run
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The run starts in the school and we jog out along College drive, back down Wares road and through Linkside. THen we run up First Ave and right towards the Golf Course. Back towards the School via Westview Drive. THis is a 6km loop which we do twice. I manage to run the whole way with no Walking. Most of the run I am with Trevor Hawkins who plans to take part in the Ironman in EL next Sunday. I meet up with Helen John and Warren Collier who both run with us for a while.
Second half Trevor and I catch up to Dean Gow. The rest of the run we jog together.
I have to be at work this morning and then later Barbara and I drive to Plett to visit Ena and to have some documents signed. There is a strong East Wind blowing. On the return drive we see a man pushing his bike. So we stop to see if he needs assistance. It turns out Silumko Magugu has cycled from Plett this morning and is on his way to Kirkwood. The wind is just too strong and he is exhausted. It is already past 5pm and he would never make it in the light. So we lift him to Uitenhage where he has friends.
Saturday afternoon we went to Plett to see Ena. She is still recovering from the Fall and Broken hip operation. She now has Winnie the live in companion to assist her.
Sunday morning Ally has lifesaving duty all day. I take her down to lifesaving and then spend the rest of the day there with Nippers and just keeping her company.
Monday morning I leave for EL. Stay at Benri again. I have three days of SAP training.
Saturday morning and it is the Bluewater Bay 15 kay which I have done a number of times. I enjoy this route as it is quite tough but a reasonable course with plenty of support. A small group of us drove down together; Dean Gow; Marilyn, Sjani and Ronel. We parked in the Shopping center, registered and were ready for the run. I really enjoy these local events, greeting familiar faces, Achilles Spirit is everywhere.
This is a Participation League event and Achilles was well represented. We lined up at the start. It is good to be in the Front if possible. Not that we are planning to win, But you can become boxed in when you are in a crowd and the start is narrow. We ran around the school and as we reached to around the One Kay mark I started to feel the chest pain again. I walked for a bit but then decided to give this run a miss. I walked back to the start and waited for the runners to come in.
Robin Fourie is one of the first Achilleans
Sjani -- I think is now planning to run the Oceans 56kay.
Here we have Isabelle and Paulo at the Bridge Street Brewery. Paulo plays and sings beautifully. We sat relaxing and soaking up the atmosphere while they played for us. Dean and his group were there. Ron and Lyn and Charles joined us.
Monday morning after the Bluewater Bay run I took Isabelle and Paulo to Jeffreys Bay. Meanwhile Barbara phoned for an appointment with Mike Dean. I dropped them at J Bay and drove home for the appointment. I picked up Barbara and we met Mike and his team: Julie at Reception, Zaan the Technologist and Janet who does the ECG. Mike sat us down and did a basic chat and interrogation. I then did the running ECG with Janet. Mike sent me downstairs at the Greenacres Hospital for Xrays and then finally decided that I should have an Angiogram as well. He warned me that if he found it neccessary he would insert a Stent.
I went home, gathered a few belongings and checked back into the Hospital. I had recently changed Medical Aid and was pleased to see that the whole procedure was being approved. When in the hospital I met my neighbouring patient who had heart surgery: Bypass. He chatted and Chatted.
I had some work to do and excused myself. But I had hardly answered the few emails when I was asked to Shave myself (Groin) both sides incase the one side did not take. And then I had to strip and put on the funny back to front gown which gives the patient no dignity at all.
The nurses were really friendly and helpful. They wheeled me to the Operating Theater called the Cat Lab where Mike and Jacques Du Toit attended to me. I really felt special as I had Zaan, Sunette and other assistants looking after me. I had been given some "calming pills" so felt no pain when a huge Knitting Needle was stuck into the Artery in my groin. Mike then inserted a tube and squirted dye into the arteries to check where there may be problems. The Xray maching picks all of this up and Mike was able to see on the monitors above, that there was one artery that was narrow. He then inserted a Stent and blew it up with Pressure that is around 9 times the pressure that a vehicle tyre would be. For me the whole procedure was fascinating. I was able to watch all the goings on by means of the bank of monitors suspended above me.
I spent Monday night in hospital. They left the Knitting needle in me in case there was a need to go back up. This means a most uncomfortable night. You are not allowed to turn on your side. But the following morning Mike came to inspect his handywork and found all to his satisfaction. He discharged me from Hospital and I spent most of the following week at home.
by Friday morning I was missing the running so much and took up an offer to go to the beach for a walk / jog.
Sunday morning I did a cycle on the mountain bike with Andre and then spent the day at the Beach as there was Nippers and Ally has lifesaving duty to do.
Monday 27th I was back at work -- Grahamstown for the day.
Barbara assisted Michael to put up some shelves and had a fall onto the edge of a board. She fractured a rib and had to spend the whole week at home trying to overcome some serious pain.
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The rest of the week I spent frantically trying to catch up with the SAP training exersizes that I had missed the previous week. I was able to do Short Distance training runs. Nippers and Summerstrand Meetings during the week. Tuesday evening Adrienne, Pat and I did our Newton Park swim of just over a Kay.
Thursday 31st: I collect my road bike from augustines where it had been in for repairs for the front derailer and an overall service.
This week Ally was in Athletics trials. She made it through the first round into a second round qualifier and then into a Third round as well. Ally has had an ear infection and being seeing Julian Nel: ENT specialist. She has been booked off from swimming until the weekend. Ally continued to attend practice even though it meant being on the sidelines.
FEBRUARY 2013
Friday 1st morning, Ron and I did a Moffat cycle route. I now felt that I had done One MTB ride and one Road bike ride and was set for the Herald Cycling weekend.
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