New Year's Eve 10km (or Ou Jaar's 10km)

That's my annual New Year's Eve 10km done and dusted. Instead of going to the 10km in Pretoria, which I've done the past three years, I headed out to the 10km in Vanderbijl Park. This town is about 70km South of Jo'burg (about the same distance as the Pretoria run). Way, way quieter than the Pretoria run and quite friendly. Even better was that we left an overcast and on-and-off drizzle in Jo'burg and got a clear blue sky in Vanderbijl.

There were more people than this lined up at the start (but not that many more) - quiet but friendly event.
I'll be back next year ;)

Interestingly, I ran my 10km PB at the 1999/2000 New Year run in this same town; but a different venue and route. I went there with my friend Roger, who has lived in Scotland and a few months ago moved to Australia. And, this same running club hosted a 21/50km run that I went to with my friend Michael a few years ago. I ran the 21; he ran the 50km. Lovely memories of friends and races from other years.

This year's running crew included my mom, Liz, and Sarah and Fred with his wife, Pam, and son, Mike. And then there we were met by Tommy with his wife, Izaan, and sister, Merle, and their friend Ferdi with his two dogs. Nice crew ;) Tommy ran his 10km PB tonight - an awesome 38 mins. He hasn't run a 10km road race since the New Year's one in Pretoria two years ago. He certainly has been running sub-4 mins prior to this run but nice to have it confirmed now. Well done!

 So, nice outing, lovely evening, friendly people on the road and a good start to 2012.

 To all of you - warm wishes for a year ahead that is kind to you.

 xxx

 Lisa

 (For my non-South African readers... 'Ou Jaar' is Afrikaans for 'Old Year'. Where we say New Year's Eve, they say Old Year's Night)