beer Archives - Page 2 of 2 - The Running Mann

7th March 201820th September 2018

Maritzburg City Marathon (A Return To The Mainstream)

[MARATHON #178 / UNIQUE MARATHON #95 / 25 FEBRUARY 2018]

As a marathon running connoisseur, I consider small town marathons to be the craft beer of the running world – they’re harder to locate, are a bit more expensive to consume and should always be savoured rather than sprinted. Having consumed five fantastic craft marathons already in 2018, it was with some trepidation that I approached a return to the mainstream for the Witness Maritzburg City Marathon, the biggest standard marathon in Kwazulu Natal.

It’s nice to stand in front of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall with just 15km left to run during the Maritzburg City Marathon. Will be standing here again on 10 June (along with 20,000 other Comrades) with a slightly more daunting 90.1km to go.

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14th January 201814th January 2018

The Time I Got Free Beer Whilst Buying My Wife A Christmas Gift

Sometimes stereotypes are unkind and unfair. However, in my case the stereotype of “the husband who leaves Christmas shopping to the last minute” was totally justified. It was December 24th and I still had not bought my wife anything for Christmas…

This is a story with a happy ending: How I scored all this free craft beer whilst buying a last minute Christmas present for my wife.

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12th November 201720th September 2018

Soweto Marathon (Ubuntu for the average middle-class white guy)

[MARATHON #168 / 11th Soweto Marathon / 4 Nov 2017]

The annual trek to Soweto Marathon did not get off to a good start… The Saturday morning race number pickup was frustrated by terrible traffic on the M1 (down to one lane for barrier repairs) and when I finally got to registration it was with a flat tyre and two moaning kids.

Things you need to bring to race registration:

Identification
Championchip
Printed confirmation of entry

Things you don’t want to bring to race registration:

Kids

Things you want to avoid bringing to race registration at all costs:

Moaning kids

Continue reading “Soweto Marathon (Ubuntu for the average middle-class white guy)”

16th September 201720th September 2018

Reykjavik Marathon (and everything I learned about Iceland in 2 days)

[marathon #164 / unique marathon #82]

One of my paradoxical mantras is that, “Every holiday should include a marathon.” Last year, with some exceptional planning, I managed to fit three marathons into a one-week holiday in KwaZulu Natal. Unfortunately, young kids and the steadily declining rand mean that international holidays (and therefore international marathons) are something of a rarity these days. However, August 2017 saw a mini-family reunion scheduled in the Lake District in England and I hoped that this would provide the opportunity to increase my international marathon count (which was sitting at 26).

Travel dates were fixed around the Johannesburg school holidays and I expected to be spoilt for choice with interesting English marathons to pick from. I was devastated to find nothing in the race calendar. It’s obviously far too hot to run summer marathons in the UK – damn global warming! Undeterred I decided to cast my net wider; and was relieved to find the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland where it never gets too hot to run marathons.

Iceland – where it’s never too hot to run a marathon.

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6th August 201712th November 2017

Top 10 Reasons To Grow A Beard

For the last few years I’ve done Movember. Not only did I help raise several hundred thousand rands for CANSA but I also quickly realised that fast facial hair growth is one of my super powers. Despite this evolutionary advantage over other humans, I’ve spent the rest of my time on this planet clean shaven. At the end of last year I finally decided it was time to embrace this talent and unleash the full potential of my unshaven awesomeness on the world – so I decided to Decem-beard.

Eight months on and the world is indeed a better place. Based on my experience, here are my top 10 reasons to grow a beard… Continue reading “Top 10 Reasons To Grow A Beard”