No pics as I lost my good Samsung phone and camera.
My Laptop; Phone; Cards and various other stationery items were stolen on 31st December. This was a bit of an upset for me but I have decided to immediately put this behind me.
Thursday 1st
I am on Lifeguard duty all day at Summerstrand. The duty is HECTIC with thousands of people coming to the beach. There is an easterly blowing and the Rip current is pulling people in a Westerly direction towards Pollok Rocks. We have the issue or people who have been drinking the previous evening and through the night and also people who bring alcohol to the beach. Ally joins us in the afternoon and this is good experience for her... Trying to deal with a large numbers and people who should not be swimming.
By the end of the day we are exhausted and ready for a shower and bed.
Saturday we have a good run of about 17k up Walmer Boulevard and along to Admiralty and back to Hobie beach. Helouise; Shannon; Elmarie. After a swim; I am no longer a director of Parkrun, I am able to go home for a relaxing afternoon.
Monday morning is a tough day for me as I am hardly able to walk / run. My knees are all swolen and my Achilles tendon is hurting. I take a short cut with Adrienne and Annie. They are quite gracious and walk with me. The following day is the same so I walk around Grey with Chris. We bumb into Svenje who is taking Lucas for a walk. She suggests that I should try Anti Inflamatories. As soon as I get home I take one and on Wednesday morning I am able to run again.
Wednesday 7th I drive to Plett in the afternoon and then on Thursday morning I go to Oudtshoorn where I advise our staff that we will be closing this shop by the end of the month.
That evening I am back in Plett and Friday morning drive to Mossel Bay and Then George where I conduct stock counting. Friday evening I am back home.
Saturday 10th. I enjoy another long run of about 15k and then do the parkrun making a total of 20. I help Adrienne doing the scanning and we have a total of about 550 runners .... The most we have ever had.
I have a swim and then go to Pollok where I am on duty for the day. Ally is already there and we spend the whole day until 6pm on the beach. It is busy with bathers and beach goers. It is hot and I get a bit sunburned. From the beach I am home for a quick shower and then we are invited to have supper with Bobby. A great and relaxed evening where he braai's a most delicious filet steak and pork sausages with some roased veg and he neighbour makes us a potato bake. This is finished off with Ice Cream and fresh rasberries. With us this evening are Gary and Sue Hageman; Melissay and Rory Riordan and Margaret the neighbour.
Sunday 11th. I am at Nippers for the morning. We are able to go for a bit of a paddle on the Malibu boards to the Pipe and back as well as doing some swims and run. I love Nippers and the Children who take part .... each time I see a growth in their ability and confidence it gives me a huge boost.
Joshua and Daniel have started Nippers and seem to be enjoying their group As long as they are not forced to swim too deep then they are fine.
This afternoon Barbara and I drive to Woodridge where we have Lunch with Delene and Matthew and Liz. A delicious meal of Kudu Stew and veg. Unexpected as we had anticipated coming for afternoon tea.
Having no computer makes life at work a bit difficult. I dont have the same ability to move around as the desk tops continually are "full" and I have to save to the desktop where I am currently working and hope to be able to find the information at a later stage. Head Office does send me a Laptop but I am not able to get it connected and have to return it for set up.
Week starting 12th. I have a week at home. Run Langenhoven on Monday and Target on Thursday. Monday afternoon Ally, Daniel, Joshua, Jessica and Ryan all go to Grey where we do some sprint training. This is part of Ally's training program. Later this week Ally and I do some hill training in Mill Park.
Friday morning I take Michael and Liesl down to the beach for a 5k run and swim.
Saturday morning there is a 15k race at Bluewaterbay.
I pick Elmarie Botha up and we drive to BWB together. We register for the race and then line up but get pushed back as the start line is about 10m behind where we are standing. The last time that I ran this event was when I had the heart problem and had to pull out. The following Monday I had a stent put in an artery that was blocked. Today the race had some significance for me.
Two years ago the run started at the school while today the run started at the Spar shopping center. Very popular with a huge contingent for the 15 and the 5k events. Meanwhile at Hobie beach - I later heard - they have over 600 participants which is the highest number ever.
At the start I meet up with the Achilleans; Bob; Percy; Bruce' Paulette; Gail; Liz; Ken and his son; Graham; Shane; MoF Michael Botha; Michael Bester; Robin and a number of newer members whose names I dont know I start off with Percy. Percy had an operation about 18 months ago and is not able to run at the same pace that he used to. Difficult for a talented runner like Percy to be at the back of the field running at a 6min pace.
We run along the ridge and then down Tippers. Turn right to the loop where we see some of the front runners come charging along already a kay or two ahead of us. We run the loop and head back towards the Club house on the beach. Under the Freeway and past the first water table at the Lifesaving club. The road is clear of sand which is quite a bonus as it is a difficult road to keep clean with the east wind blowing sand across the road.
There is a slight incline up to the T junction where we again see a number of our talented runners going past us. We turn left and do the loop until we are heading towards Bluewaterbeach. Run past the turn left back to the start which the five kay runners use. We still have a loop of the suburb to do. I have met up with Barbara Foot and we run together for the second half.
Barbara says to me that she wants a negative split. I dont wear a watch so I do not know what our time was for the first half but I do know that we are going to have to work hard as we still have the Tippers Creek hill to climb.
I kind of urge and push Barbara to run harder. Maybe a bit too hard as, when we get back to the clubhouse, she starts to walk. From there we work together to keep up with Robin and Chris and get to the bottom of Tippers. I know that it is going to be slow but to walk is not a Leg thing but more a Mind thing. I continue at a jog to the top and wait for Barbara. Then I force her to run as hard as possible to the finish which we do in about 86minutes.
At the event I see Herman who is 70 years old and still going strong... I know Herman from doing these races and from Biathlon. He tells me that he is doing Biathle on Sunday afternoon at Theodore and I agree to meet him there.
Elmarie comes in a minute later and we leave for home. She has some chocolate Steri which is supposed to be good for replacing sugar. Tastes good..
This afternoon I dont do much at all. Later this afternoon Barbara and I drive to Woodridge. Meet Matthew and Delene to look at a possible house to stay in but the layout does not suite Barbara so we kind of put that Idea on the back burner.
Sunday morning; David and I cycle around the Moffet and up to Builders.
Then I have Nippers Training. John is going for his lifeguard award with his son Bradley.. I take some of the U14\s for a paddle on Malibu's to the Bird Rock. It is a perfect morning and we have a good time.
Sunday afternoon we all go to Theodore School where we take part in the Biathle Trials. Daniel; Joshua; Ryan; David and myself. Daniel and Josh have to swim 50m and run 500m. It is a run/swim/run event; One of the good things of this event is that it is quick and once you have completed your event you are able to leave immediately. Registration is at 2.30 and the first trial is at 3pm with the very little children Yolanda and Martin are the organisers. Ryan Peter is the local champ and his dad is Graham who is injured but could be a challenging competitor.
Danny is first off and runs an excellent race. His swim slows him down a bit but he manages to run the full distance. Then Josh and Ryan go off and they too slow down a bit on the swim. They are not fit for a full 500m run and stop to walk once or twice. That will change with a bit of training.
Then it is my turn and I have a 1000m run and 100m swim -- I enjoy the event. Last is David. He runs well but the swim slows him down. He has to run 1500m and swim 200m He finishes but will have to do some swim training if he wants to continue with this sport.
Sunday evening I have church duty. It has been a busy weekend.
Monday 19th I run Langenhoven again. It is raining and I am on my own after falling behind in Diaz road. This evening we have our first Cell Group meeting of the year.
Tuesday to Thursday I am in the Garden Route for work. Stay in Plett.
Saturday 24th: Achilles has the \helpers run from behind builders warehouse. I run the 10k and stay with the back markers and end up running with Lauren (nee Collier) and Samantha. During the run I was alternately with Graham Nel and Michael Botha. From there I go straight to the Parkrun where I assist Adrienne with Scanning.
Sunday 25th Morning: cycle the Moffet up to Builders warehouse with David. Our final training before next weekend Herald cycle. Then I have Nippers. It is a competition for all age groups at Kings Beach. The water is cold but our group of Nippers does well and competes against some strong KB children. Joshua and Daniel take part and do well in their age groups.
RETRENCHMENT
Monday 26th. fly to JHB and Head Office where we are told that Electric Express is no longer and we are all going to be retrenched. Certain of the Regionals are given positions but I am retrenched and am no longer -- as from 60days employed in JDG. This process takes two days and we finally go home on Wednesday afternoon. I now have a changed future ahead of me. Challenging and exciting.
While this is going on -- Cathy is also possibly changing career and will go for an interview the following week. And Nicky has just concluded a deal for Public Relations Officer on a contract basis for a company in Cape Town
Thursday morning I have a wonderful run through Target Kloof and back
And then I go to work with no real future in mind. It is difficult for me to focus on the business as my mind is actively planning my own future.
Ally is training hard for Athletics and goes to the NMMU track where she trains with Andrew. On Friday afternoon they are on the grass track where she has to pull a weight as she runs.. Ally is getting fitter and feeling better about the running.
I go to Coimbra and buy Slime Tubes for Davids bike. I really do not want to struggle with punctures on the MTB ride on Saturday.
Friday afternoon I conduct my second level testing of the Nippers. This is at Kings Beach. I take the Level Two group and enjoy doing it.
This afternoon David and I ready the bikes and set up for our ride out at Addo in the morning. We will put the bikes in the back of the Bakkie.
Saturday Morning 31st January 2015
\We load up and check our gear. Make sure that we have a Helmet, gloves, Water bottle, Tyres pumped up, Spares and tools, Some porridge and fruit. All set and we leave home around 5.15am. Later I realise we should have left about 30 minutes early. We drive at a reasonable pace and get to the Addo Polo grounds about 6am. Our leg of the race -- 30k -- starts at 6.30am sharp. We only just have time to off load and set up and get into our lane before our start.
We start off on a reasonable narrow road with a lot of dust and jostling for position. David goes ahead and waits for me. Then we are on a narrow jeep track and that is the last I see of David as he is strong on the hills. We work our way along the track and past the irrigation channel. Here I am with Neville and Cathy who I seem to see at this event each year. Also at the start were Pat and Gerals; Chris and Elmarie; Cathy and Husband and Julien Nel.
This is David's first event and he is going strong our ahead of me, We climb the only real hill and then there is a nice fast down hill where you can really let go. At the bottom is a refreshment table where I grab a Powerade.
Here I ride for a while with Warren Collier and meet up with Kevin Campbell -- The next section is a long district road before turning back onto farm tracks where we ride through a muddy water section which just adds to the fun of the event.
From here we ride along a road before turning at the farm and then a long straight section of farm roads again. Finally with about 10k we reach the second water table, It is an overcast morning and I do not have my annual waterpool swim. But I do grab some sweets before setting off again. I am not exhausted but am reasonably tired as we reach a sign saying five kays to go. I am glad that I choose the shorter route and have had fun..
As is tradition we finish with a cycle through the packhouse and then up to the polo field again and into the finish, David is waiting there and after a short chat and greeting friends we leave for home.
I have a busy afternoon; Fetch a couch for David and wash bikes and then finally am able to put my feet up. Now I am tired.
This evening David and Charlotte have invited some friends over for supper which Charlotte has prepared. A delicious meal of Curried chicken and curried lamb on rice with amazing chocolate brownies to follow.
David had so enjoyed the MTB event that he wanted to sign up for the Road event as well. So we put slicks on his bike and set it up for the Sunday ride.
Sunday Morning 1.2.2015 we again set off early and got into our chute at the front of the AM section. The first of the 55k riders.
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| DAVID AND PETER AT THE START OF THE ADDIO HERALD 30K EVENT. |
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