Brad Brown

I’ve been meaning to write this race report all week but things have been pretty hectic so here goes. Last Sunday the 28^th of November I did my second triathlon, the Tshwane African Cup at the Pretoria West Power Station. If I had seen this picture before I entered I don’t think I would have.

Where we swam at the Pretoria West Power Station

I’m sure there are better venues to have a triathlon in Pretoria. The water wasn’t the cleanest I’ve swum in to be dead honest I’m worried I might have a pair of boobs growing out my back in a few years from now.

As far as the race goes, I wasn’t planning on Read more…

What an amazing day! I am humbled by what has happened and extremely grateful for all the kind words and encouragement at the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge yesterday.

On the start line of the 2010 Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge

As far as the results go, it wasn’t the quickest race I’ve ridden this year but I didn’t set out to go fast. I wanted to experience the ride and this amazing city we live in. I took a whole bunch of Read more…

The Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge is happening tomorrow and I’m actually really looking forward to it. It’s been a long and stressful build up to this year’s race. We’ve managed to raise close on R250 000 for the PinkDrive, we have 200 cyclists riding in pink kit and I am extremely grateful to every who has contributed to make this initiative a success. Thank you. We didn’t raise the million rand I wanted to but if you don’t set lofty goals you will never get close to achieving anything big.

PinkDrive cycling kit for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge 2010

On the race itself, I have been in two minds about whether to race it and go for a decent time or have a social ride and see what happens on the day. I am super chuffed to have my dad and brother riding in pink with the rest of us tomorrow. My bro is a bit of a racing snake (Did Ironman this year and is hectically fit) and I’ve managed to do a few races with him this year already. To be dead honest I am super psyched to be able to ride with my dad tomorrow. He is in his 60’s and is in pretty good shape. He has 11 Comrades Marathons under his belt but hung up his running shoes after his last one in 1995. I’ve decided to ride with my dad tomorrow as I have never done anything like this with my dad before. I was able to do a bit of a ride with Dad on Tuesday morning out in the cradle. I was able to spend a couple of hours out on the road with him and had an absolute blast. If you’re riding tomorrow I hope you have a safe and enjoyable ride.

My Dad out in the Cradle on Tuesday

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

Bailey Schneider and I were talking about the Garmin range of sports GPS units on the afternoon drive today. As part of the entry process for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge Highveld Stereo are giving away 20 Garmin Transitions packs, but only if you enter before 1 August 2010. You can enter by visiting the Cycle Challenge website. In that pack is the Garmin Edge 500 cycling GPS unit. I don’t train with that particular unit, I use the Garmin Forerunner 310XT which I absolutely love, but the functionality of the two units are very similar. If you love gadgets you will love training with a Garmin. Below are the details of the ride I did on Sunday afternoon. Take a few minutes and analyse the data to see what nifty little gadget it is: (by clicking on the view details button at the bottom)