The objective of making an appointment is normally to see someone at a pre-determined time. That is, if all parties play their part. Travelling to the long awaited Rhodes Ultra Marathon a few members from our club agreed on meeting at a specific place; like the Ultra City and at a specific time like 04h00 to all travel in convoy. The parties that agreed to this travel style were The van den Raad family, the van Vuuren family and the family Koch.
On the day of the convoy’s departure Gerhard & Johan were there on time and ready to roll, but Chris was running a bit late. Well you know me; I always exaggerate, so when I say a bit late, I actually meant something like 3 hours. I am not going to speculate as to why the family Koch were this late, but they left long after the agreed time. I am saying it a bit tongue in cheek but something like a suitable alarm (very load and in working order) could be a well worth purchase.
And last but not least, because of her size, we have our club captain Joy. Now a person with a green number for Comrades is not new to the running game. Joy arrived at the Zwartkops lapa to participate in the race on the day. The fancy excuse she offered was that she actually just wanted to do the 5k fun run and then changed her mind and entered for the 10k. The truth is she forgot to bring her licence number with and was forced to buy a temporary licence in order to take part. Nice try Joy, but your explanation was not bought. Do not pass go, do not collect 200, go straight to the dog box.
Our last story is more a sad story rather than a laughing one. When a grand master who is a multiple podium winner has only one medal to show for his entire running career and that being a gold medal, then something terrible is wrong. Piet van Loggerenberg was a victim of a house breaking and theft. One cannot believe that something as worthless money wise for reselling purposes as race medals would be stolen from a person’s house. Piet, unfortunately lost every medal he ever earned during his entire race career longer that most people’s arms in one housebreaking incident. Piet, rest assured, we know you competed and competed well, and whoever this despicable thief is, may he/they suffer the consequences for the errors of his/their misguided judgement.
I was going to ask some of our members to donate some of their medals they don’t want any longer to Piet, but he would need a pickup truck with a large trailer to move the medals.
On that sad but true to South Africa note I bid you cheers vir eers. Make sure your alarm is set, the dogs are released from their kennels, the revolver/pistol is loaded and the pepper spray is within easy reach. Don’t worry about switching off the lights, the cable thieves will ensure the lights are off.
The Running Reporter