In the eye of the elephant
Today I went for a run with a guy whose photo is in the current issue of GQ magazine!
Yeah right, you say.. who might that be? Is Di Caprio jogging on the beach? Did some supermodel residing in Camps Bay give the Gripmaster a call to ask me to come over for a run to the coffee shop?
I wish.
No, none of the above… It’s South Africa’s fast man Ryan “Sandman” Sandes from Hout Bay who has agreed to take me along for a chat-and-run on his rest day. Ok, I say, how bad can it be…it’s his rest day… still, should have eaten another big steak the night before! ’cause that guy is in shape! He’s the local, so I let him choose the route. We start in Tokai forest, and my best 20 minutes are those actually IN the forest: the sun is already bearing down at us at 10 a.m. like it wants to melt the core of the earth! Whenever we come out into the open, my european brainwaves start becoming microwaves, while Mister Sandes is hardly sweating. Not that you’d notice, that mad suicidal character is wearing long sleeves and a 3/4 Exo-tight! It’s obvious, he has underestimated the heat and is soon going to collapse next to me on the trail!
I wish.
As we climb up in his personal Mario Bros-Nintendo-Playstation terrain (the trails are named Level 1, Level 2, ….to Level 5!), it is me who sees double while the young chap in front of me keeps up the conversation…
But he is a truely nice guy with good manners, lets me stop for a drink here and there and even for a quick shower in some waterfall, or life-support system as I would call it.
Highest point of the run is a magical place – the elephant’s eye cave is a monumental hole in the mountain, overlooking the city. It looks like it has been turned upside down, the green plants are growing from the ceiling, not the ground… but that might just have been my impression, did I mention the brainwave thingy…?
We then worked our way down the levels again, but much faster than up, and I learned a lot about this humble athlete, wo has just come back from winning the jungle marathon, despite his acute phobia of snakes…
It also did not surprise me he wasn’t hot, he was actually named the “sand man” after winning the Gobi Desert March in China in march last year and going on to again dominate the Sahara Desert Race in october 2008. For his next desert run in Chile, he tells me, he sometimes trains in the heat wearing multiple layers and two jackets…
He is, however attacking Antarctica this year, and I will make sure we get to run on some snow when he comes to Europe next march. We’ll probably have to rename him – the snowman
One Response to “In the eye of the elephant”
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Hey Gripmaster
Brilliant story and images…Send the Sandman over to the Island – he’ll be the Snowman in no time… Happy Holidays – see you soon!!