Thank you and thank you and main 2012 goal

Two times thank you and then the news about my main 2012 running goal.

1st thank you everyone for all the good wishes and blessings for our marriage. It is all appreciated very much.

2nd thank you is for Jill who's Secret Santa package finally made it to Africa. I warned Jill about "Africa Time" and I was not wrong about that. The package I sent also made it to the USA last week.

Jill sent me some awesome goodies from Colorado. A lovely book! A great Rocky Mountains t-shirt, some Colorado playing cards, Colorado jelly beans and some stickers. Thanks Jill!

All of these goodies from Jill was sent to me to get me excited about my main running goal for 2012. That goal is to run the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado in August.

Yes, I plan to take my lovely wife on a trip over the ocean and will combine this with a little mountain hike up Pikes Peak. I will of course be joined by Jill herself and she already convinced Ewa to come along as well. I'm sure there will be some good blogger meetup or even multi meetups during this trip.

So I am off to train very hard right now!

Have a super week everyone!

We did it!

Got married that is! This past Saturday I married the woman of my dreams.

You may kiss the bride...

Done!

On our way to a short honeymoon...very happy!

2012 New Years Race

Hi everyone! I wish you all the best for 2012. Sorry for being MIA for so long, but life is crazy at the moment with our wedding just a few days away.

Running is going well and I ran my first 2012 race on 2 January. I ran the New Year’s race at the Pretoria Botanical Gardens and had a very good time. Everyone was in great spirit and we all were just there to enjoy our first race of the year.

A few pics from the race:

Lovely venue for a race.

Starting my first race for 2012.

There we go!

We started inside the botanical gardens and ran to a gate at the top of the gardens. We then went out onto the road and ran around the outside of the gardens. It was a lovely, warm morning and everyone was in a very good mood at the beginning of the new year.

I ran with some good friends. Here is Samuel (green) and Anthony (Red).

  

I ran my butt off to get this photo of Anthony from the front. Usually I just see his back for a short while. I won’t mention the 80km he ran at the year to year race that finished the day before.

Samuel and Emmy, a good friend that is running her first marathon at the end of January.

This area of Pretoria is very hilly and we were soon reminded of this as we made our way around the top part of the gardens.

Proof that the fast guys also walk sometimes.

There are a few places in Pretoria where the roads are made from concrete and not the normal tar roads we have around the country. The reason is that on hot days the tar melts and run down the steep hills. So if you find concrete roads you know there is a very steep hill to get over.

Spot the runner… no, only walking here…

Going down. I prefer a steep uphill above a steep downhill like this.

We made our way right around the gardens and entered again at the same gate where we went out earlier. The gardens are really beautiful at this time of the year. We finished with a 2.5km loop through the botanical gardens.

Lovely place to run.

A last sting in the tail. More walking.

Finish!

I enjoyed the run a lot and was glad to do my first 2012 race. I was happy to receive my first medal for the year.

With that done I am now focusing more on my wedding that happens this Saturday (14 Jan). I will start my build-up for the longer runs of the year on 20 January. For now I’m just keeping a strong base.

Happy running everyone! May you all achieve great goals this year.

How I Peed On A Leopard

OK everyone. The 15th point of my previous post is explained below. Not that big a story but still one to tell...

How I Peed on a Leopard

Years ago I was fortunate enough to go on a 5 day hiking trip with a friend of mine. I had some contacts in the army that allowed us to do a hike on army property. The army bought 7 game farms and turned one into a military base. The other 6 were merged for later use but remained “untamed” for many years.

We decided to do a hike that would take us over the six game farms and just slept where we found a good spot. It was an amazing experience and we encountered lots and lots of game very close up. The best part was the feeling of total freedom we felt the whole time.

On the third day we decided to have lunch on top of a mountain with a spectacular view. My friend was busy preparing lunch and I was standing at the edge of a ravine admiring the unbelievable view. There was a ledge about 3m (9ft) below me that went all the way along the top of the mountain we were on.

I decided this ledge would be a perfect spot to pee on. Yep, I was a free man in my early twenties and this appealed to me…J So I did the P thing 3m down while admiring the great view. The next moment we heard a growl and a leopard suddenly got up right below me where I was doing the P thing…right on him! He got up with a growl, looked at me, and then walked away on the ledge…not pleased at all.

We didn’t hang around to see where he went or what he did next. We had our lunch an hour and a lot of kilometers later. I can’t remember if I completed the P thing or not. I can confirm that at least I didn’t do more than the P thing…it might have been close.

And that's how I peed on a leopard!

Thanks for reading! Have a super week everyone!

21 Random Things About Me

AJH at Age Groups Rock did a 21 Random Things About Me post a while back and I thought it a good idea to do the same. So here are 21 random things about me.

1. I am a very big stats fanatic.
2. I’m seen as quite the nerd.
3. I have very green fingers, everything I touch grow out of control.
4. I drink a lot of coffee.
5. I don’t drink tea at all…never!
6. Although I live in Johannesburg, I’m stopped very often on my way to work for cattle crossing the road. I love it!
7. I breed tropical fish and have literally hundreds of baby fish at home.
8. I love chocolate cake and sometimes bake my own for carbo loading before an important race.
9. I love chocolate milk and use it as my recovery drink.
10. Living in Africa is special for me.
11. I don’t like eating out and can easily skip restaurants for ever.
12. I love nature and being outdoors makes me very happy.
13. I love swimming but hate cycling so I stick to running.
14. I have completed 4 triathlons including one half iron man.
15. I accidently peed on a wild leopard once – true story!
16. The radio in my car has never been used although I use the CD player sometimes.
17. I finished my first cross country race with a broken arm.
18. I ran my second cross country race with my arm in a cast.
19. I’m the youngest of 4 children.
20. I don’t need much sleep and get by with 4.5 hours a day comfortably.
21. My best time for a marathon is 3:48.

Thanks for reading and happy running everyone!

RAC Tough One - Short Feedback

Hi all

I'm crazy busy at the moment so just a quick summary of Sunday's 32km (20 mile) race.

I had a great run! The weather was not bad at all and it was not as warm as it sometimes is in November. There was also some wind that cooled things down a bit.

I was taking things slow and easy, just hoping for a sub 4 hour finish. At halfway I was feeling so good I could hardly believe it and this was the same a few kms later.

I kicked things up a bit and ran a 12min negative split! Yep, I ran a negative split! Something that hardly ever happens to this slow runner.

I finished in 03:27:09 and is very happy with that.

Detailed report with photos as soon as I have the time.

Work is crazy and then there is a wedding on 14 January that I will tell you more about at some stage. :D

Have a super week everyone!

Charity Announcement

Hi all! Sorry for being so absent but things are really crazy on my side. Good news is that running and everything else in my life is going well and strong.


I have joined the Sudan4Jesus team for the 2012 Comrades Marathon. Joining a religious charity was not planned but literally shown to me as being where I was needed. I've never been ashamed to tell people I'm a devoted Christian and it is time to give back in the way I love to what matters in my life.

To me this is a leap of faith and doing so publicly is also part of what I need to do. I know some people won't like this and that's just to bad for them. I'm not changing and this blog is not changing but I will certainly give the space and time required to this journey. Sudan is probably one of the worst places for anyone to live on our planet. If I can make a difference I will.


I'm running the RAC Tough One (32km/20miler) this coming Sunday. It is one of the harder races around but I'm really looking forward to it. I will be running in my new club vest for the first time. The club t-shirt I've been running in is just to warm for summer racing. Even if I don't run good I will at least look good!

Happy running everyone!