South Africa and February

South Africa

Had an awesome 10 days in South Africa, staying near Belfast with the GB team for most of it, and then a few days in and around Jo'burg sightseeing with BJ.
The team were staying in Lakenvlei Lodge, and we could run, row and cycle from the front door.

When the rest of the team left, BJ and I stayed on, and spent a day in Sun City (mostly in the Lost City pool complex), and a day in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve trying to see as much wildlife as possible. We also went to a place called Predator World which had loads of snakes, wild cats and other predators. It also had a litter of 4 month old lion cubs which we were allowed to play with and have our picture taken with.

Our last day was spent with our host in Johannesburg, Pieter Mulder, who gave us a brief tour of Soweto and Mandela Square.

Cross Country

Last Saturday I ran my first (and actually my last) league race of the year for my club. It was a really good warm up for the big one, the Inter-Counties Cross Country which is later today. The course was a long 10km, running through boggy fields, ankle deep mud and pretty hilly in places. We also had 4 stream crossings which some people had real problems with. I was still a bit tired after South Africa, but I ran pretty well in the group from 3rd-7th places from fairly early on, and finished 6th in the sprint finish. My club had a good day finishing 4th on the day which pulled us up to 6th overall in our league.
Results here

As I mentioned, later today I am getting my Warwickshire vest for the first time, and taking part in the biggest cross country race I have ever done (the next biggest was the South of England Schools Champs about 6 years ago). The race is around Wollaton Park in Nottingham, and to be honest I don't even know how far it is (12km?).

Everything else

Quickly mention a few other things. Saw Ash last night at Warwick Student Union. They were pretty good, I put them on a par with The Automatic, but not as good as The Subways, and nowhere near as good as Muse.
Tomorrow I am running in the first National event of the year, in White Downs. Somewhere I used to train a lot about 5/6 years ago so I am looking forwards to that.
Apart from that have just been working a lot. Have had a few deadlines for mapping contracts so have been desperately drawing maps on OCAD and not doing much else. My mapping company is going from strength to strength and I have more offers for work than time to do it.
Website