FEEDBACK: Saturday 30th April 2016 - Simon's Town steps to Kleinplaas and Scala Battery

We had a nice turnout for the medium and slow group only. 

We started out just after 7am as the sun was rising. It was the perfect weather for a run. We started out at Long Beach parking area and headed up the steep stone steps off Cableway Road via the quiet streets of Simons Town to the Just Nuisance grave. We then took a gentle run across the Red Hill road towards the Kleinplaas Dam where we had a bit of single track running. We rejoined Redhill Road and headed towards to the Scala Battery barracks. This is where the old WW2 9.2. inch guns are located. The first instalaltion was in March 1939 and the second was in October 1939. They were commissioned in 1940 after they were stripped and corrected for firing. 

We made our way down the concrete road and ran the last strech along the beach back to the car park. The medium group covered approximately 11km and the slow group covered 9km, we finished within 2 hours.

Run Manager: Joanne Boswell

FEEDBACK: Saturday 23rd April 2016 - Slangkop lighthouse to Noordhoek beach and back

The calm after the storm...

A beautifully crisp morning saw a smallish group of runners meet at the Slangkop lighthouse at our later winter start time of 7am.  It was really super to have Pete and Pat back with us. :)

On the way out, the beach was deserted but for the hundreds of birds and kelp 'snakes' - the millions of kelp flies! Is there a special name for those? (One we can use on the blog!)

After yesterday's Earth Day storm, when Mother Nature had a complete tantrum, the waves were enormous! Fortunately, Allison's reading of the tide tables was spot on and the tide was out, leaving the beach embossed with beautiful patterns, almost scaly, like a reptilian giant's skin. Later on, Noordhoek beach was to be completely underwater! 

Some of us wondered if we shouldn't call this week's run a 'duathlon' given the depth and breadth of the water we had to wade through to cross the beach between Kommetjie and Noordhoek! Some took their shoes off and others didn't, but all of us were wet up to the knees. Do you know the saying, "Some people feel the rain and others just get wet?" Well, this was really "feeling" the sea water! Not to mention smelling the smell. Moving swiftly on...

There ended up being just two loose groups - a full distance group and a turn-back-earlier group. The full distance group did 14kms in 2 hours. 

Our Run Planner this week was Allison Lamb, who was unfortunately sick on Saturday, and the Leader on the day was Pete Rogers.
Once again, so many stunning pictures by the photographers: Liz Brash, Jo Boswell and Lorraine Nevin. I've chosen a few to share here. More on the facebook page too.

 

 

FEEDBACK: Saturday 16 April 2016 Rhodes Memorial –Plum Pudding -King's Blockhouse

A chilly morning for a change, and darker than we've become accustomed to over the past few months, but clear and dry and perfect for a jog on the mountain.

A large group assembled at the Old Zoo parking at a slightly later start time than previous weeks and split into two groups after a route briefing by Randolph. The Fast group was led by Hein and the Medium group by Natalie. There were quite a few newbies as well as some of Tim's/Mates groups, and some returnees from days long past.

Plum Pudding and Heartbreak Hill were their usual stodgy, heartbreaking selves, reducing us to a huffing-puffing bunch of red-faced plodders. (I speak for the Medium Group here - I'm sure the Fasties raced up in no time at all!) Once at the turnstile however, we careened round the bends of the boardwalk and tore through the rocky single track like lightening, zig-zagging between the green mossy trunks of young trees and boulder hopping like dassies.  The final stretch of jeep track brought us out into the sunshine of a beautiful autumn day.

The main group did a lot of kilometres in a little time, and the Medium Group covered 11.5 kms in just under 2 hours.The Slow group are sorely missed with the gap between the two groups becoming seemingly greater each week!

Congratulations to Hein on his 50 sorties with the Trailers and Michelle Barnard on her 25.

FEEDBACK: Saturday 9th April - Hole in the Wall (Boyes Drive)

 

An unexpectedly large group of 38 trailers gathered in the pre-dawn at Hole in the Wall on a beautiful warm calm morning. The long uphill at the start hadn't put people off!

The fast group was ably led by Gregg Smith and did around 13kms in 2h37 - the route including going up Pecks valley, up to Higher Steenberg peak and up to the Amphitheatre!

The medium group was led by committee and completed 9kms in 2h05 - not so many hills...

Both groups split at the end with some people going down to Bailey's Kloof and back along the road and the others taking the trail back to Hole in the Wall, so times and mileage were marginally different.

Liz Brash

There were so many beautiful photos of the run by Liz, Jo and Lorraine. We have selected only a few for the blog. Many more on the facebook page.

FEEDBACK Saturday 2nd April - Signal Hill/Lions Head

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