Diary of some MADmen – Entry seven – 23 February

Diary of some MADmen is a weekly entry from three crazy guys who are part of the #TEAM18 for MAD2run. They will be running from Joburg to Cape Town, in relay, to raise funds for the MAD Leadership Foundation. For those of you who know the three guys; Josh, Kurt and Allan, what they say in their weekly diary entry could more often than not, be taken as them fooling around. But, as they are all Elite Athletes, we aren’t entirely sure if they are…

If you’d like to get involved and support the cause, click here to do so.

ALLAN

Dear Diary,

So last week’s running was good. Objective achieved; running on tired legs. But boy have they been tired this week. Nothing wrong with that, that was the intention.

The valentine’s night run was cool but there are just too many people who took part, so the first two to three kilometres were too congested, and the overall time was not great. At least, that’s the excuse I’m using.

Sunday’s Pirates 21 was, well, tough! A tough start which goes directly by my front gate. Good thing the house keys were in my car back at Pirates sports club.

Overall, my legs were tired, and I continued to employ my tactic of walking when I want to, in stead of having to. So there was no PB on this 21. Instead I stopped and had a chat to one of the marshals at the start of the last hill, which took us up to the top of Northcliff hill. I then ran by a mate I hadn’t seen in a while and we ended up shooting the breeze as we made our way over the mountain and then down the other side and onwards to the finish line.
It really does make things easier when you have someone to talk to. This is why I talk to Carel Nolte while we run Comrades. Even though he says I annoy the hell out of him by talking, I reckon that it actually helps him run faster because he wants to get away form me!

So, what’s the plan this weekend?
well, I am currently sitting in Clarens, in the Free State, having arrived last night. I am here for the annual beer fest which is co-organised by mates Natalie and Stefan from Clarens Brewery and Gavin Kearns from Shift Concepts, a friend of MAD2Adventures through his ticketing system and Jump City GP, where, when you enter you can donate the cost of the medal to MAD.

In between the beer fest, which starts today (Friday) and finishes tomorrow evening, we will be running a little bit and going for a hike or two. What is cool about Clarens, besides the beer fest, the amazing vibe, proximity to the Golden Gate Highlands National Park is that it sits at an altitude of just under 2000m, which will help with the training, working on less available oxygen and all that.

Tomorrow morning, Josh, Kurt and myself will be taking a small stroll towards Golden Gate and then a hike with a few other mates. We will then celebrate this accomplishment with a full day at the beer fest before retiring to our humble abode.

All in all, it will be a super weekend with great mates and quality training.

Four weeks to go! Holy crap!

This week we have the Comedy evening. If you haven’t got your tickets yet, get them here.

R300 gets you comedians and a music performance and access to the auction of some quality items.
You also get R100 towards your bull, so you’re basically paying R200 for all of that. A bargain if you ask me!

Catch you there.

xoxo

JOSH

Hello World!

It’s been a whirl-wind couple of weeks (not complaining, the ‘right’ busy is good and provides you with energy). Not entirely sure where this energy comes from, but I sure hope that I will have some reserves in the tank for when the going gets tough in the middle of the Karoo come March!

As I am writing, I am reminded that we are 4 weeks away from the crazy journey across SA in our attempt to raise funds in support of the MAD Leadership Foundation. The fitness side of things are under control, need to do a bit more work on the mental side though… Al is constantly reminding me to not take everything so seriously (I guess he does have some wisdom after all, he IS a ballie, and I should maybe listen to him and slacken off a bit on a few things).

Anyway, enough serious and deep thoughts!

The team (Al. Kurt and myself) are off to Clarens for the weekend. It’s strange not to be taking a bicycle with me, as the last few trips to Clarens have been to race bikes. Our well-timed altitude training camp, just happens to be on the same weekend as the famous Clarens Beer festival. (I will let you decide if it was coincidence or whether our mate Al had a hidden agenda to this ‘running’ weekend).

I am looking forward to catching up with the guys this weekend and FINALLY getting our long-awaited team run together!

What are your plans for the weekend? If you are in Clarens drop us a line and let us buy you a drink, if you aren’t have a fantastic weekend and enjoy!

Till next week!

Ciao

KURT

Dear Diary,

Ciao for now!

 

Entry six – Diary of some MADmen                    Entry five – Diary of some MADmen

Entry four – Diary of some MADmen                Entry three – Diary of some MADmen

Entry two – Diary of some MADmen                 Entry one – Diary of some MADmen