Top of Price Drive

I have decided to have a stab at learning to draw after following Jill's Today I Saw blog I really have been inspired. I doubt I will be as frequent (everyday) but I will see how it goes.

What I am going to draw is what I saw on my runs. Cape Town is an amazing place to run and the Constantia Valley has lots of variety and there should be plenty of things to draw.

Last Tuesday we ran to the Top of Price Drive (Extension) in High Constantia. While catching my breath at the top I tried to take in as much as I could and this is how I remember it.

Sketch #1Top of Price Drive

Route:Distance: 9.0km
Grade: Extremely steep hill
Climb: +239.2 / -246.4
Surface: Tar 50%, Jeep Track: 25%, Single Track 25%
Technical: 2/5
Dogs: Groot Constantia farm workers houses, mostly locked away.
KML: Google Map of the Route.

Commentary:
The view at the top is great for a view of the most the the Southern Peninsula but the long single track trail section makes the climb up price drive worth it. The single track is unspoilt Yellow Wood forest. The path is well maintained with erosion prevention implemented.

Running in the dark

One thing I have noticed is when I am running in the dark with my uber-nonfashionable reflector vest people driving cars love to put their bright lights on. I think they like the way it looks all lit up. That would be fine except for the immediate blindness that follows. I have also assumed another possibility that they might think that I have a death wish and will jump from the pavement and damage their car as they ride me over.

Sometimes when cars see you running in the dark it can be a bad thing. Last night we where running in the dark all reflector-ed up. Towards the end of the run we needed to cross a busy road near an intersection. We crossed to the painted island in the middle of the road and were waiting until it was the right time for us to cross. A car then decided to do us a “favour” and just stopped (in the middle of an intersection while the traffic light was green) to let us cross. This was so unnecessary. Clearly the reflector vests were a distraction and prevented the drive from noticing the 4 cars behind him. The horrible sound of breaking in busts as cars slammed on breaks and swerved. Fortunately none made contact with each other. I am sure the cars in the back assumed we were the culprits and must have muttered “Stupid runners” or something along those lines under then breath.

Crazy Store Table Mountain Challenge – Relay

I ran the 2nd leg of the relay last weekend. I really enjoyed it. I ran the same leg and ran a bit slower this year than last year. The race is a 3 leg relay, 8.6, 10 and 17km. The guy that did the first leg was really quick, so this meant I started with some really fast people. This turned out to be a bit frustrating having to stop to let faster people pass me.

The temperature was perfect with now wind and only a slight drizzle towards the end.

I remembered it being flatter last year, the was a section where we went up what must be 100 m only to come straight down again moving only a few meters as the crow flies. I am not ashamed to say I sat on a rock to catch my breath. I was glad that I did not go though with running the whole thing, especially when I handed over to the 3rd guy doing the 17km and much more technical stretch. He was wet and bleeding when I met him at the finish (after I had a shower and breakfast).

The organization was good, and I am happy with the cap and t-shirt. Apparently it was the largest field of runners on a trail race in Africa.

My Garmin 305 struggled to get signal in a few places, so I had to fill in the blanks with SportsTracks software, strange how the Garmin software lacks that functionality.

The KMZ/KML file if you want to see the 2nd leg in Google Earth: Crazy Store Table Mountain Challenge Relay 2nd Leg

Addiction

Okay so wanting to run is not like needing a fix of tik, but I understand how I person can do something they know is harmful but do it anyway because they “HAVE TO”. On Tuesday I had to run, I even tried to not leave work but the next time I thought if I should be running or not was after 6 km. Once again one week too soon, I also notice that I see a week as a magical length of time where everything can be fixed. I have personal graphs that prove otherwise. Guess it is the difference between knowing and believing.

1009 km only 600 to go (1000 miles = 1609 km)

This year’s running so far has been harder than last year. I only ran 1001 km last year and no I have passed that before the end of August. August saw me running the least in one month since I started running. All of a sudden 1609 km (1000 miles) seems so far away, 4.84 km a day keeps mounting up. Last night I thought I was ready to start again but alas once again on week too soon. Added to the stress is a relay I am doing in September and a race I really want to do in October (that I have already paid for). I stand by my belief that no one ever goes to physio for just one session. People have noticed I am running with a sore leg and they ask me what’s wrong but I don’t want to be “The guy is that is always injured/complaining about niggles”.

Right now I am doing a lot of soul searching and asking myself if I enjoy “being a runner” or the act of running.

Sticky Situation

Last night I was running and it was great, towards the middle I started to feel something sticky in my left shoe. I have had changes made to my orthotics so I thought maybe the glue was melting or something. I thought well there is nothing I can do about it now so I started to ignore it and then forgot about it. Which is why I was so freaked out when I took my shoes off when I was about to shower.

    

Cleaning up was a bit of a mess, Luminol and blue light would make things look interesting.

It is amazing how much blood can come out of one toe. Also it amazes me how toes don’t complain much so I can see why people with Diabetes need to look after their toes.

Favorite running partner

I never realised how much I missed running with my Colleen until we went away last weekend. We went to Houw Hoek Inn (we go once a year). I was feeling a bit stressed because being in the land of no hills really killed my hill climbing. Houw Hoek has a pretty good mountain to run up so that is what we did. Also took the camera along, I need something that I can attach my camera to. As usual I had already mapped the course using Google Earth.

It energized me to be running with her. She amazes me how she glides up hills (being roughly half my weight helps) and lifts my spirit when we are together. Also managed to see places off the N2 that we have driven passed and never knew about. It had been ages since we last run together even before I went away. Also ran on a railway track quite a workout, because the sleepers where forcing me to take smaller strides. In the end we did not run far, but so far it will be one of the more special kilometers of the 1609 I want to do this year.

Found it!

I finally managed to run around what I now call “The Google circle”. Good thing I did because in few years it will just look like an intersection of paths through very tall trees. I never planned to run last night it just happened only realized this when I was driving along the Rhine with my heart rate monitor strapped on. I see from my watch that I only started running at 20:30 that would be a crazy time to start running where I come from. I did not want to find it too soon because then I know I would have not run as far but I did not plan on running 11 km before I found the place. I was so happy when I did, I ran around the circle. I love drawing in Google earth with my runs, just wish my GPS was more accurate. I saw more bunnies and a deer type thing. But no foxes I think they wiped all of them out here. I started to get frustrated and only after sunset according to my watch did, I find the ring.



There is no way anyone would be able to find it easily because it is surrounded by very tall trees. In a few years I would love to come back there one day and sit on the benches round the big tree in the middle.

Another interesting run

Well it was interesting for me. It all started when I was looking for other runs that people had been doing in the Rhenen area where I am now. Most of them looked really boring. So I was looking around on Google Earth and found this really interesting circle where all the trees had been removed. I could not resist wanting to run there, don't know why. So I was really anticipating the run when the company I am working at decided that everyone needed to unscrew all their desks so they can get smalled ones. The only thing is everyone needed to do their own, desk. Lucky me I am sitting in what I imagen must be a mega manager's desk that is away for a few days. So geting all the screws unscrewed took some time. A good thing was that they gave everyone pizza for their trouble. So without having to make supper I was off, got back to the farm house got ready, punched the closest road into my German GPS for the car and I was off. Well I soon discovered that the "road" was not a real road, but a bike track something a sign would have helped before having to reverse a km :(

While looking for the road I spotted a sign for a castle so I could not resist. Drove into this really tiny village with tiny houses and tiny road and fast cars and lots of big motor bikes. I just ran through the castle gate and carried on running inside the grounds. It would be cool to have a house like this one, with a moat and draw bridge, one day *grin.





The ran around the grounds the castle, and then all hot and sweaty I got into my German navigated car. 2km just to run around the moat.

Well eventually I got close well what I thought was close to what I was looking for. So I stopped the car and dashed off. I the forest was amazing even saw bunnies and a couple of birds.



Also what I enjoyed the most was that it had a descent hill to climb. So I ran around looking for the circle I never found it. But even so this was the best run I have had since I have been here. Now it is off to the UK to run in another country. Trying to do 3 countries in 7 days. So far two for two.

Mobile communications

It took me a week to find out that the SIM card I was given to be used while I was here expired on the 2nd day that I arrived, what timing. The SIM cards can't be reactived, thank goodness that I managed to get a local to find this out for me, it even took him 5 minutes on the phone to the call center.

So now I am in the search for a SIM card, something you can even purchase on the side of the road in South Africa. Here you can buy "airtime" in most shops but no one can tell me where to get a SIM card or maybe they don't understand me. Last night I went to the SPAR in Kesteren (yes the SPAR - "Every good town needs a SPAR) the place where I bought airtime last week but they don't sell SIM cards and the childworker at behind the till couldn't tell me. The people in the queue all seemed to agree that Rhenen is the place to go for such things. So now I am off to Rhenen with my cell phone and fist full of Euros, well not really that much. I think I will run there, pity though I have just showered and am squeeky clean.

Hashing - running on the white stuff

Last Sunday I was happy to connect with a crazy bunch of people that did a thing called hashing. I was desperate for a run with a group of people and as it turned it was just what I was looking for. When I heard they were going to run on some hills I was even more interested, and there actually was a descent slope to run up and down. Not quite Southern Cross Drive and good for here.

Let's explain what Hashing is because last week I had never heard of it before. Well someone marks a route using saw dust or in the hash I went to flour (apparently really cheap here) and they throw flour against a tree and on the path every few meters or just far away enough for people not loose the path. The front people who see the marker shout "On on!", and then everyone who is running behind them running in ear shout shouts "On on" until the last runner/walker/whatever. As time and distance passes people will begin to spread out to counter act, crossed out circles are marked on the ground called check points. These points are usually at a point where there are several alternate routes that can be taken but there next markers are made a reasonable distance away from the check point. This forces the front people to run down several potential routes to find the path again, normally shouting "Checking" this will give them some more exercise and allow everyone more chance to regroup. After all it is quite a social thing not anything serious.

The relaxed approach was brought home to me when I the hash started late so people started drinking beers. Then after the run there was a sing along and more beers and snacks. Unfortunately I needed to leave before things got going but I could see that the whole thing was a great idea.

I was wondering about hashing in Cape Town, after all I am obsessed about running and why have I not heard about it before. Turns out there are two hashing groups in Cape Town, well if you exclude Hermanus (150km from Cape Town) there is only one. They can't be a very regular group otherwise I am sure I would have noticed white flour along the greenbelts or they are a very tidy bunch and clean up after themselves.

The last Sunday during the Hash the weather was great and did at all during the run. The people were friendly and inclusive in conversation. If ever you get a chance to join a Hash I would recommend it. It made a lonely stressful weekend in The Netherlands a bit more bearable.




For detailed/less confusing info regarding Hashing click here.

and this was the Hash House that I joined last Sunday Wageningen Hash House Harriers.

Running where it is flat

It did not take long and I had my running shoes on. Being far away from home it helped keep my head clear and take away a bit of stress that I was experiancing.

My first few runs where from a place that was near a small town called Uden. Running in a foreign country is great; new scenery, different environment and different rules. I still am not used to running on the otherside of the road. The places that I have been staying have been really rural. I am really happy about that, I don't think running in Amsterdam would be as great as running through forests and past farms with goats, cows and horses. Also the traffic is different here people on bikes might creep up from behind, so far I have been lucky. The cyclists own the road here.

The sunset after nine is fantastic, it really lets you do so much in a day. I would never have thought of running after 8pm at home, but here it is posible. Good thing I won't be here in winter because I am sure they pay for all those sunny evenings. Well to say sunny would be a lie. I have not had a day here that is has not rained for some part of the day.

Uden was great because that was real farm lands with a town nearby, but now I am near Kesteren which has a great mix of small villages and farms and dykes, which are great for hill repeats. Running to the next village is no big deal.

Fortunately not all my runs have been lonely and run with a guy for a few kays in Uden and also met a bunch of crazy people who do hashing, to be explained in a later post.

So far the only problem runningwise has been to keep my right leg shin splints at bay and toes that are looking a little worse [than normal].

If you have google earth installed click on these links to see the routes that I have run so far.

Netherlands

Uden

08 May 7.17 km 09 May 6.19 km 10 May 9.11 km

Kestern

12 May 8.48 km 15 May 8.51 km

Nearby (>20km away)

13 May 9.18 km