Urban Assault

At last the weekend arrived for our Urban Assault event. We were anxiously watching the weather for any rain and was holding thumbs that the weather would hold. The route was planned to minimize crossing over intersections and to keep it in the surroundings of the neighbourhood. 2.55km per lap, not a big distance but with enough sharp little hills to tame the legs and lungs. With everyone here and all the teams registered, the rules of the event were read and explained. A " baton" (a raw egg) was handed over to each team for safe keeping and was to be kept in perfect condition till the end of the race. Lots of penalty points were explained to the teams before taking off on their first lap.

The point scorer was Hybre, a previous teacher who is very stern, which resulted in all the teams playing according to the rules, except for a few unruly members.

One of the teams, Team Bling, was clever enough to get a pro to take part in their team. Jason,  better known as the Bling Machine,  did many consecutive fast laps, resulting in the rest of the team, resting, braaing the meat, loafing and laughing around. Well done to Jason for being such an inspiration to us all and for all the tips and do's and don'ts advice he offered throughout the day. It was fun having you around.

The event was in the form of a relay, so most members of a team would do a cycling lap and then hand over the "baton" to the next team member. Every 4th lap was a running/walking lap. The team members would anxiously wait in the street to see if there was any sign of the member out on the course. Of course, different teams were waiting in different ways for their team to come in.

It was tougher than anyone thought it would be. In the early hours team mates were still eager to complete laps, but later in the day it was difficult to decide who was going to do yet another walking/running lap. By noon we had a lovely fire going and soon the smell of the meat cooking,  drifted through the air. Everyone was ready to do a quick Boerie roll to still the hunger pangs. Round and round we went and the number of laps were piling up.

Coming 6pm, while I went out to get more charcoal for the evening, a decision was reached by the teams, calling it quits. They had enough and would rather end with a nice social around the fire. I wasn't going to complain. The winning team was crowned and their prize handed over.

It was good sitting around and milling the day over in one's mind. Well done to Team Bling with their 1st place; 48 laps doing a whopping 122,4km. Second was Team Bandana with 44 laps and 112,2km under the belt, followed by Team Speedy Conzales doing 40 laps, 102km and Team Caromba's bringing up the rear with 36 laps and 91,8km. They started late and Mario put in a huge effort to ride with his children as well as riding his own lap.

This sums up the whole event: GREAT!