I’ve been putting my initiative for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge together over the last couple of months. (Click here if you are a cyclist and you would like to get all the details of the Pink Drive Cycle Challenge Initiative) and it is rolling out quite successfully.

I do need your help though. You may or may not know that I lost my mom to breast cancer in May this year. Two weeks later I took on the Comrades Marathon in her memory as well as in support or in memory of a whole bunch of people affected by this dreadful disease as part of my 89 Memories 1 Race Initiative

I’m at it again but this time I will be riding the 94.7km for anyone suffering from cancer or who has lost the battle. Each kilometre will be for someone. If you would like to support this initiative all you need to do is sms the words ‘race 1′ and the message ‘in support of *insert your loved ones name here* or in memory of *insert your loved ones name here* to 42030. The sms will cost you R30 and in doing so I will ride one of the 94.7 kilometres for your loved one.
If you would like to donate more than R30 you can visit my fundraising page on Race 4 Charity and click on donate (you are able to do an EFT or donate using your credit card.

I will post the messages on this page so please keep checking back here to see how I am progressing.

Below is the list of people I am riding for (their names are next to each kilometre):

1. In memory of my Mom, Lynthia
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95. In memory of my mom, Lynthia

I have just recently got into cycling properly in preparation for the Ironman 70.3 in East London in January and the full Ironman in Port Elizabeth in April next year. One of my biggest concerns and fears if you will has been riding on the road. The amount of traffic, small shoulders and the general state of our roads has been putting me off to be quite honest. I have been

spinning mostly and every now and then head out on the road but don’t really enjoy the experience.

Working on radio on weekend mornings also proves to be a challenge because I can’t head out really early and by the time I do get to ride traffic becomes an issue. A couple of mates have been on my case about going out during the week mid-morning’ish but I haven’t really been giving it much thought as I figured if the traffic on the weekend was bad it will be even worse during the week.

They managed to twist my rubber arm this morning. I’m so glad they did. We met at the Town Square shopping centre on Hendrick Potgieter road and headed out west until the R28. We turned right onto the R28 and then left towards Muldersdrit into the Cradle of Humankind.

We rode along that road until the T-junction and turned around and headed back the same way. We even stopped for a quick cup of coffee at a quaint little restaurant (whose name escapes me right now) on that road.

I thoroughly enjoyed our ride out there this morning and think I have found a place to ride that has great road surfaces, a wide shoulder (in places) but most importantly not much traffic. It is obviously a popular cycling route as we saw a whole bunch of cyclists in the area, even mid-morning on a Tuesday. I can’t wait to head out to the Cradle of Humankind again on Friday for a longer and hopefully more enjoyable ride.

Below are the details of the ride on Garmin Connect:

I spent a bit of time in Cresta shopping centre this weekend. I love people watching and I spent a bit of time watching the folks doing their month end shopping on Sunday. Something struck me that I haven’t really noticed before. I can’t get over how many overweight people there are around (excuse the pun). I’m not sure if it is a sudden phenomenon or if it is just that I’m only noticing it now.

I’m not a hundred percent sure if the only reason I’m noticing it now is because a year ago I was one of the seriously obese people doing their shopping on a Sunday afternoon. But you would think you would notice it more when you are overweight yourself. Kind of like when you buy a new car, it is only then you realise how many of that model of car there are on the road.

Or do you not realise it when you’re obese because you are have blocked being overweight out of your concious mind. You know the problem is there but if you ignore it it will just go away or it is not as serious as it actually is.

What ever the actual truth is, if its always been like that or if the problem is getting worse, there is a major problem with obesity in South Africa. I feel a bit like Miss Piggy at a Weigh-Less convention talking about this because I still have another 20kg’s to lose myself but feel its ok to bring it up because I’ve lost 45 already. If that makes any sense. I see guys (and girls for that matter) the size that I was and wish that there was something I could do for them.

On my weight loss journey this time round (its not the first time I’ve tried to lose weight) I’ve had so many people come up to me and tell me how great I’m looking. Don’t get me wrong, I am truly appreciative of their support and well wishes. What concerns me though is this, I wasn’t born weighing 165kg’s. There are numerous reasons that I got to that weight but not once on the way up did someone say to me “Jeez boet, you’re looking a bit podgy, what’s going on?”. Not once. That to me is concerning. Surely someone noticed I had put on 10kgs. 20kgs. 50kgs and not a word.

Is it that society tries to be so politically correct that you don’t want to say something like that to an overweight person because you don’t want to hurt their feelings? Is their emotional well being more important than their physical well being? Being 65kgs overweight can’t be good for you. So when does your physical health start becoming more important than your feelings? At 100kgs overweight? Or is it then even more difficult to say something? I know this is a difficult bridge to cross for many people but at what point do you stop sacrificing a loved ones physical health in favour of their feelings? I’d love to know your thoughts on this…

Testing. Testing. I was messing around on Twitter this evening and came across a link on a friends blog for a WordPress application for Blackberry. I’ve been looking for something like this for a while because I generally blog by typing a post initially in an email (on my Blackberry Smartphone ) and then emailing it to myself. Downloading the email and then copying and pasting the post into my WordPress Blog. This is so much easier.

My preparation for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge has been going well. As far as gear and equipment goes, it just got a whole lot better. I’ve been riding my mountain bike (which is about a hundred years old) but have been put on a KTM Strada 3000 road bike thanks to KTM Bicycles and Cyclelab until cycle challenge.

KTM Strada 3000

All I can say is wow! It is an amazing piece of equipment. Weighing in at just over 8kg’s its seriously light compared to my tractor. Equiped with Shimano Ultegra components it’s really responsive too. I popped through to Cyclelab in the Design Quarter on Friday to get measured up and to get the bike set up properly before my show. I was like a kid at Christmas. I couldn’t wait to get out on the road and put it through its paces.

Brad Brown & Andrew McLean

I took it out on Saturday afternoon and loved every minute of the ride. The set up is quite a bit different to my mountain bike set up. The thinner wheels also take some getting used to compared to the mountain bike knobblies. I found it a lot easier to climb with to, even though it doesn’t have a ‘granny gear’ like my mountain bike does, I found myself going up hills a lot quicker.

Click on this link if you would like to see the details of my first ride on the KTM Strada 3000 on Garmin Connect

My entry for the Ironman 70.3 on 23 January 2011 has been submitted and accepted so there is no turning back now. The training has been going well and I am loving the process and cant wait to do my first triathlon. I know I must be a bit touched never to have done a triathlon in my life and to go and enter the Half Ironman but the training bug has bitten and you need to set a goal otherwise nothing will ever happen and you wont achieve anything. I’ve actually also comitted to doing the full Ironman in April (although my entry isnt in yet it will be soon). Below is an awesome video of the Ironman South Africa in Port Elizabeth in 2009. If this is what is in store for me, I can’t wait.

I actually forgot to say thank you for the motivation to the bloke with the big mouth on the expensive road bike at last week’s Norie Cradle Challenge out in Krugersdorp. It’s a bit of a long story but bear with me. I haven’t done a cycle race since the 94.7 Cycle Challenge back in 2005 (I think – it may have been even 2004). After Comrades this year I decided to give a couple of triathlons a go so I pulled my mountain bike out a few weeks ago and hit the road.

I’ve been putting in a couple of spinning classes a week and then a longish ride on the road on the weekend. I entered the race out in the cradle last Sunday to see how I was progressing. I am great on the downhills. My hefty frame was built to speed down a hill. Even the guys with their super aerodynamic techniques battle to keep up with me down the side of a mountain. The old saying “what goes up must come down” is very applicable, although in my case the reverse is true. It’s the ups that cause the problem. And that’s where my appreciation for the tonsil last week comes in.

The race had a pretty quick start. From Noordheuwel Hoerskool we headed out towards Munsieville. We screamed down the hill past the Sterkfontein Hospital (at least I did) and then headed out into the Cradle of Humankind. On the first longish hill of the race there was no shoulder on the road at all. There was a bit of traffic and passing was pretty tough going up towards the turn off to Maropeng. There was a bit of dirt on the left hand side of the road but it was really uneven and wouldn’t have been very pleasant to ride on. Even on a mountain bike. A group of about 4 or 5 riders on really nifty road bikes came past me on my right and one of the guys had a bit to say. He pointed out that I was on a mountain bike and told me to ride on the dirt on the left so that they could pass without having to risk being knocked over by a car. That is the polite, family friendly version of the exchange. I didn’t say anything. I gave what he said a few moments to digest. I had two options. The first was to do what he said or to make sure he never had to pass me again. I’m not a huge fan of off-roading. So I change up, got out of the saddle and quietly passed him and his mates without saying a word. I never saw him again. My suggestion to him if he reads this: Ride with your mouth closed chop because it’s creating some serious wind resistance.

The Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge is approaching fast and I see more and more people out on the roads starting to get active. I hope your training is going well (if you’ve started) and if you haven’t, don’t stress too much about it, there is still time to build up nicely in order to have a great ride. My PinkDrive charity initiative is starting to pick up some momentum (excuse the pun) but we are nowhere near close to where we want it to be. So, if I can ask you a massive favour, please can you continue helping me getting the word out there that we, as a group, are trying to raise at least a million rand at this year’s cycle challenge. The money is going towards a great cause and if we can raise the million we will be able to buy another educational truck for the PinkDrive. If you can forward this link onto anyone and everyone you know who is riding the race, is thinking of riding the race or who has ever thought about riding it. In a nutshell it’s pretty easy to get involved. All you need to do is raise R3 000 for the PinkDrive. As a PinkDrive group we have an awesome start time, you’ll get cycling kit to show you’re part of the group and you’ll get to ride along side some South African celebs that have also committed to ride in support of breast cancer. All the details you need are here, Brad Brown’s Cycle Challenge Initiative and check out Race 4 Charity to see how easy it is to raise the required money for charity

I’ve been working on a charity initiative for the 2010 Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge. Once again we are trying to raise some money for the Pink Drive. If you would like to know more, visit the Pink Drive Cycle Challenge website.

Pink Drive Cycle Challenge Charity Initiative

I got emailed a few interesting pictures of Panjo the tiger that during last night’s capture. These are the actual thermal images of him being found and captured.