Making News this Week

FROM THE NEWS DESK

It has been a fantastic two weeks for the Team. This run of good news began with the long awaited delivery of our new kit. After long hours at the drawing board and mails backwards and forwards between myself, Pennypinchers and Joe Nesbitt from Second Skins we came up with design for our new kit. It is not as easy as it seems especially trying to make sure that one can get some coverage even when given a ridiculous race bib to wear. Any way it all arrived and not only looks great but is technically very good too.
It was only a day before we got to put the gear to the test. With the Pennypinchers Karoo to Coast Mountain Bike Race scheduled for the weekend Garth made the long trip from East London to take part with Jeff and me. To make the trip worthwhile we decided to throw in a couple more activities and we entered the Goukamma Trail Run on Saturday and took our canoes along so Garth and Jeff could spend some time in a boat before the Eden Duo later this month. Also running in the new kit would be Nic and Brandon our junior entry into the Eden Duo.

My day started badly with somee stomach issues but what a great sight it was see Nicholas heading of up the beach just behind trail running aces John Collins and Rhoan Kennedy. He hung on just off the pace behind these two speedsters. The rest of us followed in a red and black and white line down the beach. We lost sight of the lead trio as they headed into the dunes but Nic finished a very respectable third place and first junior ahead of Brandon.

Nic after his well deseved third place finish . Well Done

With the 16k through the dunes done and dusted we headed on to the beautiful Goukamma lagoon for an hour and half paddle with Jeff and Garth settling into the double quite quickly. After some moans and groans the got a good rhythm going and we headed past Kingfishers and a host of other water birds before coming back and heading into Knysna to pack our bikes and head over The Prince Albert Pass to Union dale for the mountain bike race on Sunday.


Not being registered cyclists and wanting to ride together Jeff, Garth and I lined up in the last batch and were the last people to leave Uniondale when the traditional shotgun blast started our batch. Jeff decided to time trial us through the batch and soon the “red train “and got through the bath as we hit the Ou Wapad which has been fixed and saw about half the people riding up and the other half pushing, although not that much quicker we managed to stay on our bikes and enjoy the technical downhill that followed. Soon after that one gets to the start of the pass and after a short climb a 14 km downhill really gets the adrenaline going (Garth was soon in his element). Unfortunately what goes down must go up and the long climb from De Vlugt saw the gradient and the temperature rise. By the time we reached Bufflesnek Garth and lots of others were feeling the effects of the heat with a bit of cramp. With a few Cramp Blocks and no sympathy from his Team Mates it was another downhill through the forest into Knysna. Pennypinchers Plett owner Sean Gannon finished his first Karoo to Coast despite breaking a spoke, no back brakes and “massive cramps” , “that was the toughest thing I have done” he said to me at the finish.

Happy campers after the Pennypinchers Karoo to Coast

A week later and Natures Valley came alive with the runners and event organizers for the third running of the Otter African Trail Run. The Team has a long standing relationship with the Otter with me taking on the Otter in 2004 illegally with John Collins and then doing many of the route scouts with Magnetic South. Last year saw Jeff and I both compete in the event and the year before Garth ran the Otter and took part in the Southern Storm. Netski has also run the Trail with scouting runs and the Mountain Rescue crew. This weekend Jeannette and I were going to be doing a mid field sweep for the Otter Ramble (the same course but with longer cut off times than the Race on Friday where Ryan Sands blitzed the 42 km in 4hrs 40 mins). Nic had also volunteered his services and joined SANPARKS and Mountain Rescue out on the route.

Sunday morning saw 189 bedraggled runners leaving a wet and rainy Storms River knowing that they had 42 kms of wet slippery paths to contend with. Almost everyone heeded Mark Collins’s advice and took the route slowly and cautiously.
Spending 8hrs 40 on the Trail was great and with very little Mountain Rescue tasks to do Netski and encouraged tired runners along dishing out the odd GU to blown runners and making sure they did not throw in the towel. The route was wet but spectacular with torrents of water everywhere and waterfalls falling off every cliff. Almost all the runners made it to the finish and only 30 odd runners were cut off along the way, a tribute to the organizers and the runners themselves.

This waterfall is normally smelly bit of stagnant water

The beach at Natures Valley always a welcome sight

After having our new Second Skins kit for two weeks now it has all been well tested. The shirts have been put through their paces on two trail runs a paddle and a mountain bike marathon with the whole Team absolutely thrilled. The Trail Running shorts have also been out there with Chris and I both running the Otter in them with no chaffing or creeping. Thanks Joe. What is also great about the newe kit is that the branding is really clear and identifiable.

With two great training weekends under the belt there are just 4 weeks till the Eden Duo and Nic and Brandon are off to Natal to defend their U18 National Adventure Racing title. Good luck boys .

Spring 2011

The days are getting longer and the nights warmer. The team has survived the winter chill and now are gearing up for the next Adventure Racing challenge. The Merrel Eden Duo. With three teams entered we are all really excited. Jeff and Garth will be doing battle in the men's category while New Team member Nic Cuthbert and Jeff's son Brandon will be entered as juniors in the main race . Netski and I will be entered in the mixed category and trying to win back that title which Rhona and I lost last year.





With Chris plying his trade in Johannesburg for a large part of the year we have decided to add another member to our Team . This comes in the form of multi talented and all round nice guy Nic Cuthbert. Nic is at Oak Hill School in Knysna (where the Team has been involved with training the AR Teams for the past couple of years) . Nic is an awesome Trail Running talent but loves the multi sport aspect of AR. He also (like most youngsters today) is a bit of a computer wizard and will be helping us get a Face Book Page up and running as well as keeping the blog up to date.





Team Boss Sean Gannon was on the Breede this weekend with partner Phil Raymond. With the pair fuelled by GU for the first time this is what Phil had to say "Hi James, Thanks for the demo GU products you gave us to try on the Breede Canoe Marathon. Over my 50 Years I have done various endurance events (3-6 hours long)mainly as a "fish and chips " competitor,just wanting a finishers medal .
I have used numerous energy drinks and bars and convinced myself that they were doing something for me. I used the GU electrolyte Brew in my bottles for the first time this weekend
and found it refreshing and not nauseating and I didn't get any of those drops you get from taking sugar drinks. I also used the GU Energy Gels for the first time.This is awesome stuff I can honestly say that you feel it kicking in after 10 -15 minutes. You feel strong and mentally up and I didn't come crashing down like I have experienced with other Energy bars etc. I found it practical and easy to use and very palatable. I will definitely be using these products in the future. Phil"

See you all out there

Petrosa Diaz Half Marathon - Nick Cuthbert

Saturday 3 September - The day was a potpourri of emotions for me, from the thrill of competition, to the despair in locking my father's keys in the car, to waiting anxiously for results, this day had it all.
It began, as races so often do, with a rudely early start. Snatching a bite for break fast, my father and I dashed off to make the 07h00 start in Mossel Bay. Just prior to registration, I saw a teacher I knew from Montessori Adventure Racing School (MARS). A veteran to the race, he offered me the following advice:

"Don't start the first half too fast. It's a there and back race and the second half can be demoralising."

In the chilly dawn, this was a fairly sobering statement which I mulled on for only a few seconds before getting caught in the excitement at registration. Marathon runners certainly enjoy being tagged and numbered and it took some minutes (with assistance) before I could confidently stride up to the jam packed start line on the main street; with the gargantuan sum of prize money at stake, there were many runners and most of them were not racing for the joy of it.

At promptly 7h00, the mad dash started, and I'm ashamed to say that I was blown along with it. I was not going my own pace, and I was to suffer for it later on. The route took us first through the town's shopping district, then looped back past the start line, continuing along the sea side for some time before heading into the less pleasant industrial area and the suburbs. Countries of the world broke the monotony at the water tables, where from spirited Scotland to sanguine Samoa competed for the reputation as the best service provider. It was a fast but flat race and my footsteps was synchronised with my heart rate, which rarely dropped below the 80% mark.
It was also a fairly lonely race, with the only real interaction with other runners coming in at about the 6km to go mark, when another junior came up from behind, as I'd stopped at a corner, unsure where to go. Those last 6km were brutal, as we diced one another. Finally at the finish line, however I managed at last to break free and cross the line before him. It was a matter of pride for me at this point, as I had no way of knowing my position in the race. I finished in a time of 1:27, thanks in a large part to GU.

Falling to the grass after downing a bottle of cooldrink, I stared up at the sky, until I noticed a stickiness upon my left leg. This is where the fun really commenced. My running style combined with the shoes I was wearing, had opened a small old wound upon my leg, which had as a result bled a lot. A Motion Pixel cameraman had evidently having noticed my situation, and drawn like a fly, smelt footage. So I was treated to an interview after which, the cameraman took some close-up shots of the gore. A few minutes after this, I made a trip to the first-aid van, where a couple of bored ambulance men wrapped the small wound in an enormously disproportionate bandage.
The wind outside the van was cold and having chilled after the run, I found my teeth literally chattering. I looked about for my father, but he was nowhere to be seen, so I took shelter in one of the tented around the finishing area at the campsite. During this time, I felt in a strange sense of Limbo- perhaps becuase of cryogenic temperatures and the lack of a jersey. Thankfully I found a school friend who was kindly willing to lend a phone and warm company until my dad could arrive. Thank you :)
Some minutes after this, after having pulled on a warm top and jeans, I managed to lock the keys inside the car, which neccessitated the call out of a locksmith. It was frightening how fast the smith could open a car door. I went to check my results, I was the third placed junior and thirty-sixth overall and by the time I walked (or rather limped) back to the vehicle, he had turned the drum and had the keys out.

My dad had to leave then and left me behind so that I could attend prize giving but he left the image burnt into my mind behind of scraping a pole as he drove off. So it was a day of disaster and clumsiness. The race was fun though. Thank you Pennypinchers Ar Team.



What I (re)learnt:

1. Pace yourself, even in a road race.


2. Carry your own fluids, I feel you have more control over intake and products (e.g. GU Brew electrolytre mixture rather than water, etc.)


3. Train Harder :)

The Trans Bavians Mountain Bike race 2011

Trans Bavians 24hour 230km Non stop Mountain Bike Race (Willowmore to Jeffery’s Bay)

On Saturday morning standing at the start of this slightly crazy mountain bike race with 1250 fellow competitors in Willomore in the middle of the Karoo I was once again “Proudly South Africa” .As the last lines of our National Anthem were sung I got the usual goose bumps and lump in my throat. The Team (Jeanette, Garth and I ) were lined up at the start of a 230km non stop mountain Bike Race with a cut off time of 24 hours, 2800m of vertical climbing a route through The Groot Rivier Poort that no one I knew had ever been through, a large portion of the route would be ridden at night and to add to that the weather forecast showed a maximum tempreature for the day of 12 degrees and a chance of rain late that night (this was correct by the way ( Site nr.yo ).Why so Proudly South African you may ask? Well I ask you where in the world would you find people on a waiting list to do this event, where do you find 20 000 people enter a 89 km road run (The Comrades ), where do 38 000 ride 100km around a city and each one gets his/her own time (The Argus) or how about the Freedom Challenge (ride 2300 km across the back roads of South Africa on your own with no real back up) and the list goes on and on. We are a nation who on the sporting front have an undeniable spirit of taking on the “big’ events and rising up to the challenge.

Back to The Trans Bavians with Garth living at the bottom end of the Garden Route in East London we decided that Willowmore would be a good central place to meet for a race and some training time together. (Jeff put on his racing snake gear and rode with his son Brandon to a very respectable 34 place in the men’s race).

We arrived in Willowmore with the temperature at 3 degrees at about 8 in the morning. The sun was shining but it was cold. The registration was quick and easy and we collected our race numbers. It took a bit of explaining that we did not need our two resupply boxes that could be dropped along the route by the organizers and that our second did not need the maps to the two seconding points because he would not be going there, but we would take the T Shirt anyway. We had decided to carry all that we would need for the race from the start and see if we would get by on what was available out on the route.
After raiding the Merrel Adventure Addicts accommodation for some warmth and the toilet before the start we joined the bunch of crazy people at the start.

Jeannette said this “The 1st 100km where super fast it took us under 4 hrs and we are no cyclists, then it got a bit more interesting with a few hills thrown in but once we hit the 150 mark, OH BOY there it was the Mountain... A stunning technical down hill got us to the bottom of Groot River and then THE mountain started it was steep, nasty and endless” It was here that the profile started to take on the look of a stage of the Tour De France (a hundred kms of rolling hills, then a steep decent followed by 20kms of climbing, another steep decent and then a long steady climb of about 18 kms and then a short fast run in to the finish)
The downhill into Groot Rivier Poort was spectacular and on the limit of my riding ability at the speed we were doing. Garth is a down hill hooligan but had a couple of wake up calls along the way. The cold water of the river allowed us to fill our bottles and contemplate the climb ahead. The climb caused carnage among the field. Most riders ended up pushing at some stage. There were seconds in 4x4 vehicles who were stuck or who had broken down with water in the engine after the river crossing. We did not escape unscathed as Garth picked up some cramp after the river crossing. We did not make it over the summit before dark but the view as the moon rose was spectacular. At this stage we could look forward to a good road into Patensie where most teams would met their seconds and don warm clothes and have a warm meal. Frozen we dashed in Garth had 3 chip rolls , I had one but put chilli sauce on instead of tomato sauce but munched it anyway we had 50 odd kms to go and we weren’t hanging around. After a quick application of Blue Steel to the rather tender butts we were ready. Jeannette tapped her watch and chased us out of the huge vibey pack shed in about 7 minutes and we physched ourselves up for the “Never Ender”. This climb turned out to be tame compared to where we had come from with the gravel well packed and the moon showing the way. One more check point at Zuurbron and we headed to the coast with real momentum until some guy tried to over take me and went head first into the barbed wire fence next to the railway line, I slowed down a bit scared of suffering the same fate.

The finishing banners soon came into site ad with a purpose built ramp over the wall into Kabeljous resort we crossed the line. Medals in hand we headed straight to the Spur Tent to load up on a burger and chips before cycling down the road to Jeffery,s Bay to warm showers and bed.

Jeannette “It took us 12hrs and 44min on my watch and it was a great experience the 3 Pennypinchers worked superbly as a team and it was great fun just to be out there for that amount of time with your mates who see you in your worse state and who are still your mates afterwards. Thanks guys you rock!!”

The nitty gritty was
234,9 km, 2800m of climbing, minimum temp 5 ,average 11 degrees
Our time 12hr 42min , 86th overall (out of 400 teams), 5th mixed 3 Team

With this under the belt the Team is now looking forward to The Pennypinchers Karoo to Coast in September, The Hitec Otter Trail in October, The Eden Duo, in October and then the big one The Salomon Sky Run in the middle of November.

Thanks to Garths Father in law Dave who drove us up to the start and his wife Tammy who feed us enough great food to last us two Baavians trips.

With out the Gu s and Blue Steel we would still be out there so thank you guys for your on going support

TRANS BAVAINS MOUNTAIN BIKE RACE 2011

The Trans Bavains MTB Race is happening this weekend from Willowmore in the Eastern Cape Karoo to the small coastal village of Jefferys Bay. The ride is 230km long which makes it the longest single stage mountain bike race in the world. Once again it is the South African sports men and women who are brave/crazy/fit enough to take on the challenge. The race is fully subscribed at 1200 riders and the waiting list is long. With the ride starting at 10am there is the additional challenge of the riders having to cycle in the dark even the "racing snakes" . The cut off time is a staggering 24 hours and some people dont make it.



With all four regular members taking part the Team is looking forward to being back together again. Jeff is wearing his cyclists hat and opted to race the the race with a group which includes his partner for next years Trans Andes Bike Race. James,Netski and Garth will be riding in the mixed threes category and hope to do well. Wiothin the spirit of Adventure racing the Team has made a decision to do the race with out making use of seconds or the organisers kit boxes that can be dropped alonmg the route. The thinking is that we are used to carrying what we need and that the time we loose by carrying a bit of extra wieght will be made up by the fact that we will keep moving constantly from check point to check point.



So watch this space and think of us as another cold front sweeps the Southern Cape and we ride in the expected maximum tempreature of 9 degrees on Saturday morning.