Tuesday 19 October 2010

Saturday 23 October, Simon's Town Scramble


What a pleasant outing.  I can’t claim to have run much of the route, Peter had us running uphill right from the get go.  I was rather glad that no one turned up for Fay’s walking group and that she decided to join us.  It gave me the perfect excuse to keep her company on the stairway to hell (signal school actually – just felt like hell at the time).  Truth be told I could not have run up those stairs even if you paid me.  Some of the more enthusiastic even managed to count them! 

It was quite sad to see the state of the old signal school, it was very run down.  The surrounding fynbos was stunning though.  We took a slow run along the road to Red hill and the Scala Barracks and Battery.  We then carried on past the old WW2 coastal artillery guns and a host of other military buildings and things.  Peter Rodgers turned out to be a subject matter expert and was a very informative guide; I think the others will agree that he has the potential to be a SA Tour guide.

After the military tour we carried on down the hill, back to the main road and then along the drag to the beach and back to the car park.  A great run, thanks Peter for organizing this one for us.

Remember that you need to request permission to access to the military grounds before running through them!

To view all the photo's please go to the Picasaweb album.











Wednesday 13 October 2010

Greyton Mountain Trail Run - October 2010


Ok, so this is not officially part of the VOB Walk/Run group thingy but it is a great opportunity for bragging rights – I finished my first trail event.

This past weekend Joseph and I set off to Greyton to run our first official trail challenge, we chose the Greyton Mountain Trail run (12km).  I must admit that it was a totally fun experience, I did learn a few things and thought that I would share them with you:

  1. You don’t have to be a size 8 to run trail events.
  2. If your friend happens to be a local and suggests wearing a hat, wear a hat.
  3. If you lie down in the path to take photos, you scare the other runners.
  4. Smiling for no apparent reason is allowed.  So is crying and talking/swearing to yourself (although I expect that this is a back marker thing).
  5. Walking the tough bits is expected not frowned upon.
  6. Antihistamines are a good thing to add to your first aid kit.
  7. Drinking tequila the night before is not a good thing.
  8. You can’t carry too much water.
  9. You only tread carefully through the first river crossing, after that you simply run through the water being thank full for the opportunity to cool off your aching feet. The third crossing is used to wash out all the sand that stuck to your wet socks and gave you blisters after the second crossing.  By the end of the race you have learned to tread carefully through all river crossings.
  10. By the time you have finished you have sworn never to run a road race again.






 





Monday 11 October 2010

Constantia Neck to Skeleton Gorge and back

A record number turnout this week - 15 at my count.  An easy route lead to a slightly faster run this week with some of the newbies heading off at full steam.  The group split up a bit making it difficult to keep the group together.  Peter, Greg and I had a short chat about this and it looks like we will have to split the group into faster-slower groups in the near future if numbers continue to grow.  Luckily Greg has offered to take the front of the pack so yours truly can still hover around the middle taking photo's.  Peter will run at the back with those wanting a more leisurely pace. Over the next few weeks we will sort out all the logistics of how our group will work.  The idea remains to offer a starting out / ending off group for those folks not keen (or ready or able) to join Tim's faster/longer runs.  We will set a few ground rules though to ensure that the group remains fun for all who join in.  For the time being the following rules will take effect from next week.

a.  All those attending the walk/run group must sign in at the start and sign out at the end. 
This is to keep track of those running with the group as well as to ensure that everybody gets off the mountain ok.  We would hate to leave some poor soul behind.  If you need to leave and/or don't want to wait for everyone to finish - please make certain that the group lead (Greg) knows that you are off the mountain.

b.  Greg Snyders (thanks for this Greg) will take the lead group, all runners must stay behind him.  Those wanting to run faster or who get tired of the stops (waiting for us mortals to catch up) will be asked to join Tim's "slow" group.

c.  No runner will be left behind, Peter will be the tail end charlie and will be the group's sweep.  If you can't stay with the group then Peter will gently suggest that you join Fay's swift walking group. 

With that little bit of house-keeping out of the way.  It seems that we all had a great run, except mabye for Pat who managed to get grumpy to new levels and Joseph who is now officially the first member of our tribe to be awarded the inaugural "Jungle Joe" award for being the first nut to take a tumble and produce blood.  Well done Joseph!  In his honor we have named our version of the Sailing Sandra after him.

Welcome to the newbies, hope to see you all next week.
 


 
Double click the slide show to go directly to the Picassaweb album if you want to view larger immages or download any of the pictures.
 

Sunday 3 October 2010

Table Mountain service road - Gorillas in the mist


2nd October 2010, oh my aching calf muscles, I had forgotten what a long uphill the jeep track is.  Loads of newbies this week.  Instead of taking the shorter route we opted to push on past Nursery to Skellies and did an extra loop around Cleft Peak.  We had a very misty run that was at the same time tough and wonderfully pretty. 13.5km in 2h33min.  Peter has promised to keep next weeks run under 10kms.....

The conditions made photography difficult but I managed a few.