Race Weekend

T minus 43 hours till my first race of the season and I'm super excited & ready to go. Not 100% fit yet but the knee seems to be fully healed so I can't complain at all. Rest day today, travel up to Milton Keynes tomorrow and race at the crack of dawn on Sunday.

Enjoy the sun this weekend if you are in London. 

It's sunny, time for a braai.

It's 23 degrees and sunny in London today. What a change it makes from the dreary, freezing, rainy weather we have had so far in May. I'm definitely dusting off the braai this evening and firing it up for our 1st braai of the year. 

Interesting day yesterday on the training front, Natale & I went for a swim in the Tooting Lido (outdoor pool) at 06:00 and it was FREEZING, I mean freezing like 3 degrees. There were people swimming there in speedos, are you for real. I figure they must either be insane or be from Scotland to do that. I pulled the old wetsuit out and used it but it is way too big for me now after a long off-season of training so I flogged it to a nice man from Portsmouth and bought a new one. Triathlon is not a cheap sport. Natale tried her new wetsuit out and was like a duck to water; a frozen duck but a duck nevertheless. 

All good.

Run Baby Run

Let's recap the weekend shall we. 

1. Stormers won the most boring rugby match in history. I know they are a defensive team but damn we need more tries. 
2. Sharks won; great to see an Aussie team get a whipping. A cricket score against the Force. Hahaha. Pocock you suck balls!
3. Sarries lost but we don't have ESPN so I have no idea what happened. It was a rather limp semi by all accounts and it seems the Northampton v Quins semi was the game to watch. 
4. I went for my first run in 2 weeks and everything seems to be in working order. TG as I was going mental and getting really bored of just swimming. 
5. Finally, my lovely wife ripped up the trail in Kent on Saturday and did herself very proud. 59:59 for 10k on a trail run, very impressed. The weather was nice and sunny which was appreciated by all after the torrential rain during the past week. 

Stats: 

Overall position - 592 of 992

176th woman of 441

166th in her category of senior women, out of 400.

Here are the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22538412@N03/sets/72157630079461342/

Rhino Poaching & Weekend Running

Have you read the terrible story of a Rhino mum and her calf who were recently murdered in the Kruger National Park? 

The authorities have captured 2 of the poachers and killed the 3rd which I suppose is some conciliation, although not much. It really makes me sad that our beautiful Rhinos are being murdered because of some moronic Chinese people. For such an intelligent group of people they sure do know how to fuck things up. Don't even get me started on Tibet!

Since January of this year, more than 210 rhinos have been killed by poachers in South Africa, with 130 in Kruger alone, according to official data.

If current rates continue, at least 600 rhinos will be poached this year, far more than the 448 killed in 2011. — Reuters

I wish the SA Govt could afford to deploy more resources to help protect our wildlife but I realise this isn't exactly a priority for them. Very sad. 

If you would like to help support the big guys buy some beads: http://www.rhinoforce.co.za/

On a happier note, Natale runs her 10K trail run tomorrow and the weather is looking more promising. I think I am more excited than she is TBH. Race report and pics to follow and no I haven't forgotten the Kruger Park pics, I am just lazy. 

Sunday will be my 1st run in 2 weeks so holding thumbs for a pain free run. 

Have a good one. 

Good news, no fracture.

After a whole morning of jumping through NHS hoops I finally got my X-Ray done and it is good new,  I have the all clear on the cracked tibia front.
The NHS system is a behemoth but after 2 appointments and 2 hours of waiting I did get a free consultation & X-Ray. I know it is not really free as I pay tax everywhere on the island but it is what we call a freemium in the E-Commerce space - geek.

I'm really happy as a fracture would have been bad bad bad. It looks like it is a bruised bone so I can now go for treatment and hopefully be back running ASAP.

In the spirit of the impending Olympics I thought I would share this cool video:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/17786279