New Family Blog

My wife has given me the go-ahead to keep track of and blog about her progress in reaching her goals as mentioned in my previous post. I'm very excited about this as she will do some guest posts about our journey as well.

Our discussion about blogging and documenting our adventures together prompted Anette to write a story that's been bugging her for a very long time. We were thinking about posting it here on my blog but then decided to start a new blog for non-running and non-training family and other matters.

The new blog is called "Family Fumes and Musings". Anette's story, "Are our children important to their schools and educators" is the first post for our new family blog. We have some exciting and fun ideas for this blog. Please check it out and follow our new blog.

Running:
I'm running the Alberton City Half Marathon on Sunday. I'm looking forward to writing regular race reports from next week onward. It's been slow and silent in that department and I don't like it.

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!

No Pikes but lots of positive plans.

As you may or may not know, I did not get an entry into the Pikes Peak Marathon in the end. It was quite a sad story as I actually entered in time but then my payment from South Africa failed to process in time. Jill and Ewa got in and I am very happy for them. But we were all geared to meet and run together so yes, a huge bummer! :(

At first I was really sad and went through a downward slump for a day or two. Since then I have re-looked at my goals and with the help of my lovely wife Anette, re-worked and planned the year and even years ahead. I did not marry any ordinary girl for sure!

January 2012.

Anette made the suggestion that we should rather travel to the USA when she is ready to run a trail race there with me. Awesome! This means there are some serious planning going on.

Anette is no couch potato. This karate black belt has done some great sprint and other tri's as well as two 94.7km cycle races. Training hard to reach a goal is nothing new to this beautiful wife of mine.

2006 Nationals - Anette on the left.

As she was cycling next to me on my run last Saturday we discussed all of this and made some interesting plans. Anette came up with some challenges and goals of her own:

1. Run a marathon with me.
2. Complete the 94.7km cycle race in November this year in sub 5:30. (I am willing to do this with her if she goes for it)
3. Reach her dream weight of 60kg as she was while in top form for karate and also some photo shoots a few years back. Oh yes, I married a stunner!

2009 photo shoot.

The bummer of Pikes Peak has had a very positive spin-off for us. Anette has her sights set on a trail race in the USA with me and I might start some cycling with her. The bottom line: we both want to get back into top form.

We both finished our planning with a mention below the bottom line of doing an Iron Man together one year...maybe...oh yes...and there is also Badwater...

Quick Update

Although I haven't run any races  recently, I've been training hard and doing some LSD runs every weekend. My lovely wife Anette has been supporting me on her bike and this works really well. No time for me to be lazy!

Good times!

On Thursday registration for the Pikes Peak marathon opens. I really hope I can secure myself a spot. It will be very exciting if we can travel to Colorado in August to run this little mountain!

Happy running everyone!

Three Things Thursday

Alyssa from Diary of an Average Runner sent me a whole lot of GU just because she wanted to do so! Thank you so much Alyssa! She also included a sweatband and some information cards for the San Francisco Marathon that shows the route as well...tempting indeed… GU is really expensive here in SA so that is a wonderful gift to receive.

Spiral is doing fine with his broken leg although he did eat his cast and it had to be replaced. He also had to wear a cone on his neck to stop him from eating the second cast too. Good news is that he is at the vet as I’m typing this for an x-ray to see if they might remove the cast today. Let’s hold thumbs for that one!

With running I am currently in the process of deciding on and reviewing my main 2012 goals. Training is going well but I need to get my plan for goal no1, the Pikes Peak Marathon, in place. My original goals include the Comrades Marathon on 3 June, but preparing for that might leave me with too little trail and mountain runs and too many road runs. So I am looking into my Pikes Peak training deeper to see what my options are. Pikes Peak remains my main 2012 goal and yes, I will skip Comrades to prepare properly for it if needed.

That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!

Keep it going!

Some SA Running Rules

In my previous post I mentioned something about rules and regulations and not being allowed to advertise in races here in South Africa. This caused quite a reaction so I decided to post more about running in South Africa.

The main reaction was about me saying we have to run in plain/blank t-shirts as advertising is not permitted. This is a very serious and strict rule. If you don’t belong to a club and therefore don’t run in club colors, you must wear plain clothing and not display any brand or logo on your shirt or shorts.

There is a very strong club structure in road running here in South Africa and most runners belong to a club. Every year you register and get a license number for the year from the province where you reside. This is my 2012 running license from CGA (Central Gauteng Athletics). I have to wear this with my club colors for every race I do. Some races will have its own number and then the license will go on your back with the race number at the front. Some races have two numbers but you can’t enter these without your license number or by buying a temporary license for the race.

I have to wear my club colors as it is registered with CGA and ASA (Athletics South Africa). For example, I am not allowed to wear any other color shorts than black with my club vest/shirt. The club color is black and any other color is not allowed. There are hundreds of running clubs inSouth Africa, all with their club colors that the members have to wear with their license numbers for the year. If you don’t belong to a club you have to buy a temporary license at R25.00 per race and wear that on your plain clothes. No advertising allowed!

South African runners are not allowed to enter the Comrades Marathon if they don’t belong to a club. In Comrades you are not allowed to wear a hat or anything that does not have the race or sponsor’s logo on it. It you wear you New Balance or Adidas hat/cap you will be disqualified. With that, as in all other races you have to wear your correct club colors. I remember in 1997 I wore an old Kellogs 32km t-shirt inside out over my club vest the first few kilometers of Comrades because it was cold. At 7km a race marshal pulled me off the road and I had to remove the shirt before I could continue the race.

Trail running does not require club membership yet, but most races will have some rules about clothing and advertising. Most races will also not allow runners to run shirtless. This can lead to disqualification from the race.

All these rules may sound strict and a bit way out to some, but if it wasn’t for the clubs and their members we wouldn’t have so many races to choose from every weekend here in SA. Most clubs host races and that’s why I can literally choose from 2 to 4 races every weekend. It may well be silly rules with club colors and shirts, but I’d rather have that and then many races to choose from than no clubs and few races to run.

Thanks for reading! Have a great week everyone!

Long Live The Cotton T-Shirt!

After reading this post by Molly from I’m a SleeperBaker, I had to write something about my cotton t-shirts. I definitely prefer cotton shirts above tech shirts.

Cotton shirts wipe blood, mud, tears, snot and whatever else off way better than tech shirts do. They also stay wet longer so keep you much cooler, but most of all, they don’t chafe as tech shirts do. Tech shirts are chafe masters, cotton is king!

Well, that’s my experience anyway. I love my cotton shirts! I have 274 new ones waiting to be used…for training. All from various races over the years. I’m working through the piles and are currently at 1997 – 1998 with a few 1996 and 1999 ones popping up in between.

I do have many tech shirts too. 77 to be precise.  I don’t like them much. Some are nice to wear and show off some races I’ve done, but training and running in them sucks.

I do most trail races in tech shirts though. I even do some long training runs in them to get used to the yucky material. The reason is that I need to run with a plain shirt when racing as not to cause any advertising issues. I don’t have any plain cotton shirts left and I don’t buy t-shirts…ever! The plain tech shirts I have were all gifts from family and friends.

So there you have it. I for one…the only one…??? say “long live the cotton t-shirt!”

2012 Goals

As many of you know my main goal for 2012 is the Pikes PeakMarathon as I mentioned in this post. I realized yesterday that I haven’t posted anything else about goals for 2012.

So without delay, here is a list of some of my goals for 2012 in chronological order:

03 March – Sunrise Monster (32km/20miler)

25 March – Jackie Gibson Marathon

15 April – Slow Mag Ultra (50km)

27 April – RAC Looooooooooong Run (60km)

6 May – Colgate 32km (20miler)

3 June – Comrades Marathon (89km)

7 July – NumNum Trail Run (36.5km)

19 Aug – Pikes Peak Marathon

8 Sept – Mont-Aux-Sources Mountain Challenge (50km)

06 Oct – Thule 4 Peaks Mountain Challenge (24km)

03 Nov – Kaapse Hoop Marathon

31Dec – Year to Year 24Hour Circuit Race