2012 English Channel Swim
7 - 14 September 2012
After having cycled through Africa, completed 5 Ironman Triathlons, run the Comrades Ultra Marathon, Climbed Kili ... I have decided to take on a slightly tougher option ...
... 34km of cold, open water swimming ... leaving the coast of the eternal "wanna-be" soccer nation, over to the "frogs" on the other side ...
Coming up soon is more mountain biking and my 22nd Argus Cycle Tour. The endless hours on the bike are starting to take their toll ... i reckon my grumpy demeanor is related to the training and stress from work and relationship issues ... why does this always seem to happen to endurance athlete enthusiasts ...?
First we still have to do the Cape Town to Sea mountain bike ride ... a nice weekend out of mainstream civilization and hopefully another Robben Island swim if everything goes well.
... and hold your breath and come back soon ... hopefully another crazy project to be announced soon ... i might dive into 18 months of swimming and endless cold water experiences ... ;-)
Eish ... i have been quite slack here. Training hard for the ABSA Cape Epic MTB Ride end of March. The MTB version of the Tour de France ... eight days of torture coming up in under six weeks ... :-)
The Attakwas Extreme was really great. Really TOUGH! 121km and nearly 3000m climbing.An unbelievably beautiful route, but not considered South Africa's toughest single day MTB ride for nothing.
The image shows the relaxed, happy and clean image before the race ... 8.5 hours later was a lot different. Well worth an attempt for anyone who loves a good MTB ride.
Once more we all headed out for a long and tiring day - which most of us say we do willingly and happily ... and no one seems to believe us :-)
It was a rough start with nice swells and choppy seas seeing us off on a chilling morning. Light winds grated away on sore legs as we cycled along and then the mid day heat was rather intense for us crazy folk who invested in sleek black tri-suits ... tsk tsk tsk
Overall a great day for myself - much better than i expected and my fastest time on this Port Elizabeth course. Lets just hope my 11h53 was not too destructive in the build up to another crazy venture one month down the line ... Comrades Ultra Marathon end of May ...
Look at those views ... awesome, clear, "warm" conditions
"mmpfwklmpfff"
Another dream completed ...
Tis the season to be merry ... with the children, whiskey and snow ...
The last sprint for the goal ...
Close, but no cigar ... another 200m to go ...
Come on ... catch me if you can ...
Mykl and Michelle at it again ...
Where to hang my hammock ...?
Off we go again ...
Porta-loo of a different kind
The children all strapped in
First morning views
The Children
The Motley Crew ... Patrick, Michelle and Mykl
I left the Cape on 91kg and returned on 84kg ... not much less, but I recon a lot is pure muscle ... ;-)
I was real skinny and gaunt in Arusha ... 5 days of hectic runs ... but put a lot back on as the food got better closer to South Africa.
I have not been able to take my measurements ... as I do not have an appropriate measuring tape ... mmpph ...
I know I'm going to leave some people out of this ... purely by mistake ... and I'm sorry if I forgot ...
Firstly to all of you reading this regularly ... thanks for sharing this most amazing trip with me! Thanks for the comments and thoughts and those for just reading it regularly.
First and foremost ... thanks for my brother, parents and Phil Head ... for being my contacts back home for queries, needs, computer stuff, blog updates ... and boet for keeping my life back home on the right road!!! I couldn't have done this without you ...
Obviously also thanks to Tammy for looking after the practice.
Thanks to all my family, friends, clients and others who bought raffle tickets and contributed financially to my trip!
Gecko cycles for my bike and stuff and the sponsors of the prizes ... look right on my blog page ... for your contributions.
Lastly thanks to all the riders and staff on this trip ... the organisation and trip itself was absolutely superb! and the riders were real great ... really nice to have met you all ... some more than others, and I'm sure you'll know who ...
There are two things that are near to unbelievable and that I will be forever grateful for ...
The Weather
It was simply amazing! It is crazy to believe that we only had two days where it rained ... I only had a good 40 minute (torrential) downpour in Tanzania and then another good hour or so just over the border into Zambia. Furthermore probably only another two times where it spat briefly ... and we hardly even noticed it. And last year they had three weeks of rain every single day!!
We did have several nights where it rained ... we counted 14 nights in total.
Besides the lack of rain, the temperatures were also really great ... Egypt was not too cold and Sudan not too hot (the hottest though was a good 47 degrees). It really only got chilly again down the west coast of South Africa.
... But therefore it has been pissing with rain for most of the time back in Cape Town.
My Tyres
I didn't need to fix one tube/tyre while on the road ... YEEHA!!
For anyone doing this or a similar trip ... tubeless IS the way to go.
I must admit I did break 5 or 6 spokes over the trip ... but then I didn't have the best spokes ... and I will learn from this!
Regarding the tyres and tubes ... I punctures two tubes (which were in my slicks), but both were filled with slime, so they stayed inflated and I merely changed them at a later stage when servicing my bike. I had to refill the slime in my tubeless off-road tyres once, when there were some holes ... but they easily sealed with the slime. I also had one majorly irritating rest-day where I really struggled to seat my slicks to my rims ... a note to all wanting to use tubeless and fit slicks - try them out and find a pair of tyres that seat easily. All of us tubeless riders eventually ended up using Michelin XCR Road Tyres/Slicks ... they seat real well!
