Ja well no fine, Comrades has come and gone and we should get over it, that is, the ones like me, licking our wounds and nursing our bruised egos. Amidst all this there were a few incidents I would like to share with you, now that I have ventured out onto the road again, and not in a car but with my running gear on. Don’t be fooled, I did not say running, but I am out there. Most of the stories are about Comrades, or shall I rephrase, about our clubs runners at or preparing for the Comrades.
What sparked me off in doing this report was me eaves dropping at the club just before our last league race and someone mentioned a remark that was made by none other than Oom Gerard. Now this is second hand info so if it is not entirely word for word correct, I am sure you will still get my drift. Oom Gerard, our caravan man, had a slip of the tongue or maybe a slip of memory. The location that we had our league race at was also the venue of a race that we attended not so long ago. When Oom Gerard read the address of the venue, which was Moretele Stadium in Mamelodi he threw his toys out of the cot and in an ardent voice proclaimed that “they don’t know what they are talking about”. Since when is there a Mamelodi in Moreletta Park? There is no stadium in Moreletta Park” Gerard claimed! Apparently it took a calm Wynand to explain that it is actually Moretele Stadium and not Moreletta Stadium. Age can be very cruel.
My next story is somewhat tongue in cheek about what people’s perception is about sport. While our members were down in Durban for the Comrades Petro Smit with hubby Arno and the twins were in a hotel on the coast and would you believe it the Rebels team from Super 15 fame were in the same hotel. As usual all and sundry were trying to get the players signature and Petro was not going to lose out on this opportunity. The twins were quite perturbed about this signature “hunting” and did not agree with it but Petro was on a mission. She approached one of the Rebels team members and asked for his signature, offering a pen and paper.
He looked at her earnestly and asked, just to make sure, “you want my signature”? She replied in the affirmative flashing those big baby blues of hers, and he went weak at the knees and gave his signature. As the proud owner of a signature from a member of the Rebels squad, she returned to their table and flashed it in front of Arno with an “I got something you don’t have” expression. Arno ever so nonchalant looked at the signature and ran the names of the players through his mind but could not find this player. The signature Petro obtained turned out to be that of either the baggage manager or the physio but definitely not a player. Keep it Petro, maybe one day he will become famous.
When a person manages to make an appearance on TV it is ‘something’, to have someone mention you on TV it is something special. If you appear on TV and a world famous person mentions you on live television, where the worlds eyes are on you then it becomes a big story. Alhasan Jallow, one of our members, was aiming for a Bill Rowan or so I presume. Unfortunately he just missed his Bill Rowan with 30 secondsL, give or take a few.
Now Alhasan, on occasions puts in hair extensions (commonly referred to as dreadlocks) just to prove he can be fashionable. On Comrades day he had these “dreadlocks” in and Bruce Fordyce was commentating on live television. The athletes were cutting it fine for the Bill Rowan and Bruce made the following statement on TV. “The people entering the stadium really need to pick up their pace if they are going to make the cut-off, especially this lady here, referring to Alhasan. Well done Alhasan, you participated in two categories in the race, male & female as far as the commentators were concerned. Last question for Alhasan, is your wife aware of this double life you live while out on the road?
What is the difference between normal size beer and Windhoek Draught? Well I assume you all think about the fluid contents but this is not what I was referring to. One of our veteran members, who had a long layoff from running, was conned into entering for the Comrades this year. Running on experience more that on training, Werner Zandberg still made it comfortably under the 11 hours cut off. As a matter of fact, Werner had enough time to first stop at the Irene tent at the finish and enjoyed a nice cold beer with his mates, just to get closer to the sub 11 hours time. If the beer was a draught he probably would not have made it as his finishing time was 10 hours 59 min and many seconds. What a thirsty runner won’t risk for a cold beer.
What to do and prepare for a very good Comrades on the morning of the race? Our first man in this year for Irene was Bennie Roux. Although he was digging deep the last 28 odd kilos he persevered and finished in a good time for his silver. Bennie, on the morning of the race prepared his usual mix, like a shake, that he normally drinks. Unfortunately, be it pre race nerves, or just being to blasé to concentrate, Bennie made a mistake.
Part of the “shake’ that Bennie was preparing had to get a raw egg in the mix. Bennie did add the raw egg but not to the shake but rather to his mug of coffee. Now I don’t have more info in this regard as to whether Bennie ate/drank the egg coffee, or did he break another egg into the “shake” but this is worth exploring. Bennie, you may have just stumbled onto the new silver running pre Comrade’s mix to help the less able runners. Incidentally, what do you call this mix, eggffee or coffegg?
What is the price of fame? Or shall I rather ask the price of shame/embarrassment? It is not uncommon for Irene members to be on the podium at races and in particular people with the surname of Breytenbach. Regular’s representative of the Breytenbach name, are Ansie, Zelda & Nadine, and of late Wynand, our club’s general manager. Now I have tried to find an explanation for what has happened but the truth has evaded/eluded me until the time of the publication of this article. Was it the sudden shock when Wynand was called to the podium and he had to be dressed in Irene attire?
I know Wynand is 65 years old so he does dress by himself, of that I am certain. The only other alternative was that Wynand might have spilled something on his shirt and in an effort to hide the spill put the shirt on back to front. I took an unsuspected walk around the back of the podium but alas, the shirt was clean as a whistle at the back. So what possible reasons remain? Did Wynand, on purpose, put on his long sleeve Comrades shirt back to front, or was it a blonde moment? Knowing Wynand as fairly bald it is difficult to play the blonde card, as I cannot tell for sure that he is blonde.
Whatever the reason, Wynand smacked himself with the broadest of planks when he appeared on the podium at a race sporting an Irene shirt back to front. And I bet 95% of the clubs members never realised it, not even after the photo appeared in the news letter. So to save you all the trouble of having to go back to that specific news letter I am posting it in the Running Reporters report. Eish.
What sparked me off in doing this report was me eaves dropping at the club just before our last league race and someone mentioned a remark that was made by none other than Oom Gerard. Now this is second hand info so if it is not entirely word for word correct, I am sure you will still get my drift. Oom Gerard, our caravan man, had a slip of the tongue or maybe a slip of memory. The location that we had our league race at was also the venue of a race that we attended not so long ago. When Oom Gerard read the address of the venue, which was Moretele Stadium in Mamelodi he threw his toys out of the cot and in an ardent voice proclaimed that “they don’t know what they are talking about”. Since when is there a Mamelodi in Moreletta Park? There is no stadium in Moreletta Park” Gerard claimed! Apparently it took a calm Wynand to explain that it is actually Moretele Stadium and not Moreletta Stadium. Age can be very cruel.
My next story is somewhat tongue in cheek about what people’s perception is about sport. While our members were down in Durban for the Comrades Petro Smit with hubby Arno and the twins were in a hotel on the coast and would you believe it the Rebels team from Super 15 fame were in the same hotel. As usual all and sundry were trying to get the players signature and Petro was not going to lose out on this opportunity. The twins were quite perturbed about this signature “hunting” and did not agree with it but Petro was on a mission. She approached one of the Rebels team members and asked for his signature, offering a pen and paper.
He looked at her earnestly and asked, just to make sure, “you want my signature”? She replied in the affirmative flashing those big baby blues of hers, and he went weak at the knees and gave his signature. As the proud owner of a signature from a member of the Rebels squad, she returned to their table and flashed it in front of Arno with an “I got something you don’t have” expression. Arno ever so nonchalant looked at the signature and ran the names of the players through his mind but could not find this player. The signature Petro obtained turned out to be that of either the baggage manager or the physio but definitely not a player. Keep it Petro, maybe one day he will become famous.
When a person manages to make an appearance on TV it is ‘something’, to have someone mention you on TV it is something special. If you appear on TV and a world famous person mentions you on live television, where the worlds eyes are on you then it becomes a big story. Alhasan Jallow, one of our members, was aiming for a Bill Rowan or so I presume. Unfortunately he just missed his Bill Rowan with 30 secondsL, give or take a few.
Now Alhasan, on occasions puts in hair extensions (commonly referred to as dreadlocks) just to prove he can be fashionable. On Comrades day he had these “dreadlocks” in and Bruce Fordyce was commentating on live television. The athletes were cutting it fine for the Bill Rowan and Bruce made the following statement on TV. “The people entering the stadium really need to pick up their pace if they are going to make the cut-off, especially this lady here, referring to Alhasan. Well done Alhasan, you participated in two categories in the race, male & female as far as the commentators were concerned. Last question for Alhasan, is your wife aware of this double life you live while out on the road?
What is the difference between normal size beer and Windhoek Draught? Well I assume you all think about the fluid contents but this is not what I was referring to. One of our veteran members, who had a long layoff from running, was conned into entering for the Comrades this year. Running on experience more that on training, Werner Zandberg still made it comfortably under the 11 hours cut off. As a matter of fact, Werner had enough time to first stop at the Irene tent at the finish and enjoyed a nice cold beer with his mates, just to get closer to the sub 11 hours time. If the beer was a draught he probably would not have made it as his finishing time was 10 hours 59 min and many seconds. What a thirsty runner won’t risk for a cold beer.
What to do and prepare for a very good Comrades on the morning of the race? Our first man in this year for Irene was Bennie Roux. Although he was digging deep the last 28 odd kilos he persevered and finished in a good time for his silver. Bennie, on the morning of the race prepared his usual mix, like a shake, that he normally drinks. Unfortunately, be it pre race nerves, or just being to blasé to concentrate, Bennie made a mistake.
Part of the “shake’ that Bennie was preparing had to get a raw egg in the mix. Bennie did add the raw egg but not to the shake but rather to his mug of coffee. Now I don’t have more info in this regard as to whether Bennie ate/drank the egg coffee, or did he break another egg into the “shake” but this is worth exploring. Bennie, you may have just stumbled onto the new silver running pre Comrade’s mix to help the less able runners. Incidentally, what do you call this mix, eggffee or coffegg?
What is the price of fame? Or shall I rather ask the price of shame/embarrassment? It is not uncommon for Irene members to be on the podium at races and in particular people with the surname of Breytenbach. Regular’s representative of the Breytenbach name, are Ansie, Zelda & Nadine, and of late Wynand, our club’s general manager. Now I have tried to find an explanation for what has happened but the truth has evaded/eluded me until the time of the publication of this article. Was it the sudden shock when Wynand was called to the podium and he had to be dressed in Irene attire?
I know Wynand is 65 years old so he does dress by himself, of that I am certain. The only other alternative was that Wynand might have spilled something on his shirt and in an effort to hide the spill put the shirt on back to front. I took an unsuspected walk around the back of the podium but alas, the shirt was clean as a whistle at the back. So what possible reasons remain? Did Wynand, on purpose, put on his long sleeve Comrades shirt back to front, or was it a blonde moment? Knowing Wynand as fairly bald it is difficult to play the blonde card, as I cannot tell for sure that he is blonde.
Whatever the reason, Wynand smacked himself with the broadest of planks when he appeared on the podium at a race sporting an Irene shirt back to front. And I bet 95% of the clubs members never realised it, not even after the photo appeared in the news letter. So to save you all the trouble of having to go back to that specific news letter I am posting it in the Running Reporters report. Eish.
Well folks that’s it for this month so cheers vir eers.
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