Its hard being the athlete and the photographer, and large cameras make people nervous here, so excuse the iPhone’s lack of an iFlash…

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After 3 long months of hard work demolishing my house (while packing away some hard training) I spent a week on my parents farm to say good bye to them and Africa before hitting the US for some serious racing.

Because internet in Africa is slow, expensive and hard to get, this story (and a few to come) are only seeing the interweb now. Also, if you only have a week in paradise with your folks, sitting on the computer is like a prison sentence…

Here are some of the highlights:

My dad would join me on my recovery rides, and let me tell you, I was on the ropes most of the time! Quite something for a 66 year old “ballie” who beat colon cancer 3 years ago. As you can see, he also rides for Specialized Factory Team as he is the one with the REAL genes in the family. My friends calls him “Tarzan”.

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Two time Olympian, three time Xterra World Champion,(off road triathlon) 5 time All Africa Triathlon Champion and 5 time South African Triathlon Champion.

With this type of resume, I knew an interview with Conrad Stoltz would be hard to come by for my FISTPUMPFRIDAY column…then an email from Conrad popped into my inbox. One word: Stoked! Taking the time to write to a little guy like myself really demonstrates Conrad’s down to earth personality. Even before I started to really dig into triathlon world, I knew of Conrad. He is a legend and a wealth of knowledge.  Hopefully, you can learn something from Conrad and catch a laugh (he talks about running naked?!) from this truly remarkable person and athlete.

Ryan: In my interview with Rich Cruse, he said, “Conrad Stoltz is by far the most fascinating athlete I have ever met. Beyond his  Read the rest of interview here

Airport bed from a previous trip. Cant remember where.

On my recent 35hr trip from Roodewalshoek Farm, South Africa, to the USA:

4hr drive to the airport with my dad. We seriously considered going on his motorbike,(see previous post) as I have little luggage this time. Fortunately we didnt as it POURED with rain most of the way.

On the 16hr leg from Johannesburg to Washington I sat next to a Brigadier General who is stationed at the SA consulate in Washington. During the Apartheid years he was a Freedom fighter in exile, during which time he was trained in East Germany and basically fought the apartheid ruled SA Defense force. (mostly underground fighting- he was smuggled through the border in garbage trucks, infiltrated the mining hostels etc) Now he is the Brig General of the army he fought against! Thats the speed at which change in South Africa happens! A really cool man- we had some great discussions, including the worrying developments surrounding the murder of farmers and in particular the very worrying racial tension surrounding the recent murder of AWB right wing leader  and farmer Eugene Terreblanche.

He still trains to stay in shape like he learnt in East Germany, but  I did manage to give him a few training tips…

On the 3 h30 leg from Washington to Denver I sat next to a retired F14 fighter pilot, on his way to a job interview.(He was later involved in the Raptor drone programme)   Some seriously interesting stories there: When remote controlled Raptors were still a novelty, (and unarmed) the Iraqi MiGs were constantly attacking them, the 1st armed Raptor was sent up on 17 Dec 2002 and engaged in a dog fight with a MiG. It fired 3 missiles at the MiG, (but they honed in on the MiGs incoming missiles instead) in the end the MiG managed to shoot the Raptor down. Soon thereafter the Iraqis gave up the air fight and buried all their fighter planes in the sand at the end of the runway…

So on the last 1h30 leg from Denver, I sat next to a fat guy reading a cheesy novel. He insisted on taking the whole arm rest, I tried to diplomatically nudge a little spot for my elbow so I could type on the laptop (catching up on admin) but to no avail-  he obviously wasnt going to do “halfsies” or the “20 min you/ 20 min me” thing, but then I finally caught on: With a stomach like THAT, you HAVE to take up both arm rests, even if you DO tuck your elbows in. I think air travellers should be weighed WITH their luggage. Lets start a Face Book Group: 1000 People for Air Travellers Should Be Weighed With Luggage and measured in cubic inches (or cm)…

This is my dads’ story about his recent bike trip through South Africa. As you can see, its in Afrikaans. This blog post is not aimed at the public, but rather a way for my dads family and friends to be able to read it. (He wanted to type it on a typewriter and mail copies, but I had a small victory- he spent 2 days typing it on my Mac) If you really really want to read it, you can feed the text into the amazing Google Translate

N LANG RIT NA VRYHEID
deur Gert Stoltz

Voordat ek begin wil ek net eers die ding van n motorfiets en n bike uitklaar. Daar is ouens wat definisies het van wanneer jy n biker is en wanneer nie. Vir die doel van hierdie storie gee ek nie om om nie as n biker te kwalifiseer nie. Maar ek wil graag na die ryding as n bike verwys bloot omdat die woord 4 letters het en motorfiets 10. En onder die broers en susters wat hierdie vreemde beheptheid het, staan die voertuig bekend as n bike.

“Bikebedonnerd” is n goeie beskrywing vir ouens wat hierdie ding het oor. Ander voel waarskynlik net so sterk oor hulle besondere belangstelling, maar om iemand “seëlsbedonnerd” of “rolbalbedonnerd” te noem klink net nie reg nie – die konnotasie met oer-instinkte is net nie daar nie. Dit gesê, glo ek dit is noodsaaklik dat, ter wille van jou geestesgesondheid, elkeen een of ander begeesterde beheptheid het, al is dit ook net tydelik. Dit red jou van n staat van totale apatie en verveling – tipiese kwale van die huidige tydvak. Dit is sekerlik n interessante studieveld vir sielkundiges wat soek na antwoorde vir hulle pasiente wat vrae vra na die sinvolheid van die lewe.

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