Ja well no fine, the Ultra has come and gone, and with it and surrounding it also a few stories, so let’s share it with the members. In planning a race of the magnitude of the Modern Athlete takes time and effort. For years Irene had a race committee that takes care of just that, planning etc. In order to facilitate correspondence between members a WA group was established. We all know social media is always under scrutiny from everybody, and especially from the Running Reporter.
To save possible further embarrassment I will not reveal names, but I will walk you through a text conversation between two members on WA, when the one member though she was talking to her beloved, but it turned out the race committee members all got the message. Excuse the pun but bear with me as this is in Afrikaans. All the line except the third line was from our lady so in love. The third line was from one of the race committee members.
Goeiemôre my Beer
Hoe het jy geslapies?
Dankie die beer het lekker geslapies.
Sorry!!
Yes social media can be fun, but also embarrassing. Rest assured, we, the insiders, saw the romantic and the funny side of it.
Like I said, planning the Modern Athlete required many a meeting and more so for our club manager Wynand, who also had to attend a meeting with the Joint Operation Centre of Tshwane, where all major functions and events are planned, and permission granted for such. These meetings always take place on a Wednesday and Wynand had to attend the last meeting in the week before the big race on the Sunday. Wynand arrived at the venue in good time and was for once the first person there. As time dragged on Wynand became concerned that he was the only one attending this important meeting.
Wynand subsequently phoned the chairman of the meeting who politely informed him that the meeting was on Thursday. Shocked and flabbergasted Wynand asked when this day and date was changed, and in turn the JOC chairman informed Wynand that the last meeting of the month has always been on a Thursday.
When Wynand consulted his notes with the diary of meeting dates he realised that it was actually printed in bold red letters that the last meeting of the month was on a Thursday. Wynand, who has a way of pointing out to members that they should please read information before acting, had in this instance not practiced what he preaches.
Long before branded clothing became the in-thing, people had a preference for certain items like certain oil, barbershop, restaurant, make-up, and even vehicles. Our chairman, Louis, is an ardent fan of Toyota and in his opinion, there will never be a vehicle to equal or better a Toyota. Due to congestion on race day (too many cars for not enough tar) the start of the race was delayed with 15 minutes that become 20 minutes because of the lead vehicle not wanting to start when it was all systems go. You guessed it, the lead vehicle was a Toyota, and Louis was one of the people having to push the Toyota to get it going. Difficult for Louis to swallow, but facts speak loader than personal opinions.
Just how big can the male ego be? Someone once said when it comes to the male ego, the head is just like a hot air balloon, it gets bigger and the brain falls around inside, because the brain does not swell with the head. One of the athletes, a petite, pretty young female on the Sunday unfortunately locked her car keys inside the car. The first reaction was to call a locksmith which proved to be unsuccessful as he could not open the vehicle. This vehicle required “special” tools etc and it would cost at a minimum in excess of R2500.00 to start with. After a short discussion it was decided that a new window would cost less than the specialised locksmith.
Louis, the chairman, called over CJ Gresse and asked him to help the lady to break the window with the aid of a hammer. As was suggested CJ took up the task with vigour and with a gentle tap of the hammer broke the window. The glass was kept in place by the anti smash and grab and CJ proceeded with the palm of his hand to “smash” the window out. The anti smash and grab held firm but gave way enough for CJs hand to go through the glass and he sustained a nasty cut. The window got its revenge on CJ for the blow with the hammer.
CJ, I guess the deflation of the hot air balloon type ego was a bit of a letdown, but so we live and learn. You did your good deed and we stick with that.
Nadene, our chairman’s wife, is a seasoned runner, and it must have been a real ‘Doffie” moment when she packed her running gear for the last time trial before the Ultra race. She arrived at the club without running socks. Weighing up the costs between riding back home or purchasing a new pair from the clothing shop, neither idea appealed to her and she opted to run without socks. Taking the “Doffie” moment even further she attempted to do the 8 kilo time trial without socks, trusting her skin to be just as tough if not tougher than the inside of her shoes.
Eventually, just before the blister stage, sanity prevailed and she stopped and took off the shoes and started walking back to the clubhouse, barefoot, and ego in tatters. Nadene, I trust you have lost this round of running, but have learned a valuable lesson.
Our last story is a bit a bragging session about Gauteng North runners and about a runner that got so fed up, or as they say in Afrikaans “Gatvol” with a race. During the SA Marathon championship race in Durban, 109 runners representing different provinces took part. Out of these runners only 49 completed the race. The cause of this dramatic number of none finishers was, to sum it up in one word, “humidity” It was very warm in Durban with unbearable humidity, and most runners had difficulty breathing. Gauteng North entered 17 runners and all 17 finished. Now that is something to write home about!
One of our runners, Ansie Breytenbach also suffered severely in the heat and humidity, almost to a point of giving up, was it not for the encouragement of Wynand along the way. The race was a two lapper and on the second lap Ansie could not take the heat anymore, and when passing the swimming pools on the Marine Parade, just stopped for the day. Fully clothed in her running gear (skoene en al) she dived into the swimming pool and swam a length. When she climbed out on the other side, she felt so refreshed that she started running again and completed the race, finishing 3rd in her category. The tenacity of the Gauteng North team and that of Ansie, (swimming included) earned the Gauteng team, three out of four team prizes.
Well done!! Ansie, was your race called a duathlon?
Well folks that’s it for this month so cheers vir eers.
The Running Reporter
To save possible further embarrassment I will not reveal names, but I will walk you through a text conversation between two members on WA, when the one member though she was talking to her beloved, but it turned out the race committee members all got the message. Excuse the pun but bear with me as this is in Afrikaans. All the line except the third line was from our lady so in love. The third line was from one of the race committee members.
Goeiemôre my Beer
Hoe het jy geslapies?
Dankie die beer het lekker geslapies.
Sorry!!
Yes social media can be fun, but also embarrassing. Rest assured, we, the insiders, saw the romantic and the funny side of it.
Like I said, planning the Modern Athlete required many a meeting and more so for our club manager Wynand, who also had to attend a meeting with the Joint Operation Centre of Tshwane, where all major functions and events are planned, and permission granted for such. These meetings always take place on a Wednesday and Wynand had to attend the last meeting in the week before the big race on the Sunday. Wynand arrived at the venue in good time and was for once the first person there. As time dragged on Wynand became concerned that he was the only one attending this important meeting.
Wynand subsequently phoned the chairman of the meeting who politely informed him that the meeting was on Thursday. Shocked and flabbergasted Wynand asked when this day and date was changed, and in turn the JOC chairman informed Wynand that the last meeting of the month has always been on a Thursday.
When Wynand consulted his notes with the diary of meeting dates he realised that it was actually printed in bold red letters that the last meeting of the month was on a Thursday. Wynand, who has a way of pointing out to members that they should please read information before acting, had in this instance not practiced what he preaches.
Long before branded clothing became the in-thing, people had a preference for certain items like certain oil, barbershop, restaurant, make-up, and even vehicles. Our chairman, Louis, is an ardent fan of Toyota and in his opinion, there will never be a vehicle to equal or better a Toyota. Due to congestion on race day (too many cars for not enough tar) the start of the race was delayed with 15 minutes that become 20 minutes because of the lead vehicle not wanting to start when it was all systems go. You guessed it, the lead vehicle was a Toyota, and Louis was one of the people having to push the Toyota to get it going. Difficult for Louis to swallow, but facts speak loader than personal opinions.
Just how big can the male ego be? Someone once said when it comes to the male ego, the head is just like a hot air balloon, it gets bigger and the brain falls around inside, because the brain does not swell with the head. One of the athletes, a petite, pretty young female on the Sunday unfortunately locked her car keys inside the car. The first reaction was to call a locksmith which proved to be unsuccessful as he could not open the vehicle. This vehicle required “special” tools etc and it would cost at a minimum in excess of R2500.00 to start with. After a short discussion it was decided that a new window would cost less than the specialised locksmith.
Louis, the chairman, called over CJ Gresse and asked him to help the lady to break the window with the aid of a hammer. As was suggested CJ took up the task with vigour and with a gentle tap of the hammer broke the window. The glass was kept in place by the anti smash and grab and CJ proceeded with the palm of his hand to “smash” the window out. The anti smash and grab held firm but gave way enough for CJs hand to go through the glass and he sustained a nasty cut. The window got its revenge on CJ for the blow with the hammer.
CJ, I guess the deflation of the hot air balloon type ego was a bit of a letdown, but so we live and learn. You did your good deed and we stick with that.
Nadene, our chairman’s wife, is a seasoned runner, and it must have been a real ‘Doffie” moment when she packed her running gear for the last time trial before the Ultra race. She arrived at the club without running socks. Weighing up the costs between riding back home or purchasing a new pair from the clothing shop, neither idea appealed to her and she opted to run without socks. Taking the “Doffie” moment even further she attempted to do the 8 kilo time trial without socks, trusting her skin to be just as tough if not tougher than the inside of her shoes.
Eventually, just before the blister stage, sanity prevailed and she stopped and took off the shoes and started walking back to the clubhouse, barefoot, and ego in tatters. Nadene, I trust you have lost this round of running, but have learned a valuable lesson.
Our last story is a bit a bragging session about Gauteng North runners and about a runner that got so fed up, or as they say in Afrikaans “Gatvol” with a race. During the SA Marathon championship race in Durban, 109 runners representing different provinces took part. Out of these runners only 49 completed the race. The cause of this dramatic number of none finishers was, to sum it up in one word, “humidity” It was very warm in Durban with unbearable humidity, and most runners had difficulty breathing. Gauteng North entered 17 runners and all 17 finished. Now that is something to write home about!
One of our runners, Ansie Breytenbach also suffered severely in the heat and humidity, almost to a point of giving up, was it not for the encouragement of Wynand along the way. The race was a two lapper and on the second lap Ansie could not take the heat anymore, and when passing the swimming pools on the Marine Parade, just stopped for the day. Fully clothed in her running gear (skoene en al) she dived into the swimming pool and swam a length. When she climbed out on the other side, she felt so refreshed that she started running again and completed the race, finishing 3rd in her category. The tenacity of the Gauteng North team and that of Ansie, (swimming included) earned the Gauteng team, three out of four team prizes.
Well done!! Ansie, was your race called a duathlon?
Well folks that’s it for this month so cheers vir eers.
The Running Reporter
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