Emergency Services put out the flames

Its amazing to me how people consume news in today’s world. A prime example would be of this mornings incident at OR Tambo International Airport where a 1Time Airline plane’s engine apparently exploded just before take off. Idols presenter Proverb was on board the plane and posted this picture on Twitter. The tweet he posted with it read as follows “Absolute Drama & Panic! The engine of the plane I was on (fire), apparently Exploded!!! We just evacuated!”

I read about it on Twitter, found the post and saw the picture. Who needs conventional main stream news?

I had a serious field of dreams moment last week wednesday. If you haven’t seen the movie let me give you the thirty second version. This dude has some serious voices in his head that keep telling him “if you build it they will come”. So he builds a baseball diamond in his mielie field. And they come.

I have been travelling around the country for the last six weeks speaking at the Comrades Marathon road shows about the charity initiative I’ve put together for 2011. Last Wednesday we were in Polokwane. The talk was practically in the shadow of the Moses Mabida stadium. I couldn’t help but leave with the feeling that it is just another multi billion rand white elephant.

On thursday morning two things struck me about Polokwane. The first thing was that I don’t think if you herded up the entire town and put them inside the stadium that you would fill it. And secondly that the entire town was infected with field of dreams syndrome. Every third house that I ran past on thursday morning had been turned into a guest house or bed and breakfast. If you build it they will come. They did come. For the few games that were played at the Moses Mabida stadium during the 2010 FIFA World Cup (am I allowed to say that or is it still owned by Sepp?). I was trying to figure out how sustainable all those establishments are really going to be moving forward. I know Polokwane is a town that has quite a bit of traffic going through it but I honestly cannot see all those businesses keeping their doors open. As far as the stadium is concerned I am also battling to figure out how that is going to be maintained moving ahead. Just 3 months after the world has gone home the paving around the stadium is being over run with weeds. After just 3 months. What will it look like after 3 years?

One positive that came out of that run was that I got to run down some of the prettiest streets I have ever run down. I’m not so sure of Pretoria being the Jacaranda City anymore. Polokwane may have very good reasons to claim that title. One of the streets I ran down was laced with Jacaranda’s in full bloom. For as far as the eye could see was purple flowers. The mass of flowers provided respite from the burning sun but had also spared enough to blanket the road surface with a generous sprinkling of blooms.

I got sent this list from Carol Willis, who has also lost a ton of weight and thought I would share it with you. I made a few changes, took a few things out and added my five cents worth where I could. It has been a crazy journey for me but one that has been extremely rewarding. Since July 2009 I’ve lost 50 kilograms. Here are 25 steps to losing that much weight:

1. The first and most important thing you need to get going is a reason to lose weight. You need a light bulb or “aha” moment – this can’t be engineered sadly, but if you are honest with yourself you’ll recognise it when it arrives. For me it was meeting someone who had overcome some great challenges and that inspired me to get moving.

2. Do the math – you need to know your numbers: weight, BMI, BMR, waist-to-height ratio, hip-to-waist ratio and a variety of measurements. Take as many as you can. There are some measurements I didn’t take but wish I had. My ring finger has become a lot smaller. Odd, I know, but my wedding band was fairly tight for me before I started my journey. I cant wear it now, it’s so big for me now it slides on and off without touching my finger! You need to know what all these measurements mean and how they affect your health; this is a great place to start.

3. Forget the math – the next and probably most important step, is to not obsess about those numbers. Know them, be aware of them, but don’t be ruled by them. Sometimes this is easier said than done but it is important not to get caught up in the numbers. Read more…

I never mentioned it to anyone, except my wife, but the story just got a whole lot funnier so I thought I would share.

I just got back from the Kruger Park on the weekend after a 10 day holiday with the family. I managed to get a couple of runs in while I was there (in the camp of course – you couldn’t pay me enough to run in the park on my own). As always I used my Garmin 310XT on my training sessions to monitor my session. After what was supposed to be my second last run in the bush I hit the showers. We were camping so the ablutions were obviously communal.

The day we were scheduled to head home I wanted to go for one last run. I couldn’t find my 310 though. It was absolutely nowhere to be found. We literally packed everything up and didn’t come across it. I then retraced my steps to when I last used it and remembered the shower. I could clearly remember taking it off in the shower, putting it on the window ledge and thinking to myself “do not leave it there when you’re done”. I obviously had. I was sick to my stomach. I went back and it was gone. I asked the cleaners if they had seen it and they all said they hadn’t. I sent my son up to reception to see if anyone had handed it in. Once again to no avail. I was feeling more and more down. I love my 310 and I couldn’t imagine training without the damn thing.

As we were about to leave the camp site after packing everything up a gentleman arrived on a golf cart. In his hand was my 310. I nearly kissed him. Really. It actually crossed my mind because I was so happy. He was from housekeeping and said that one of his guys had found it in the shower and handed it in. I was so relieved having had it returned.

Its a great story of honesty and integrity triumphing over evil. It would have been so easy for whoever found it to try and sell it off and make a little bit of extra cash.

The saga continued today though when I dumped all the info onto Garmin Connect from my recent travels. I have been away on and off for the last month and haven’t had time to dump the data. I was looking at some of the training I had done on my travels. The run along the promenade in Cape Town with my best mate James. The workouts I did in Nelspruit and Witbank. Going through the data from my trip to Kruger I noticed a workout of over 3 hours. I found that strange as I am still nursing my itb and I only ran while I was in the Kruger. But I definitely didn’t run for more than 3 hours. So I opened up the workout for a closer look. Turns out who ever found it decided to try it out before they handed it in to housekeeping.

Below is the workout as I found it on Garmin Connect