How to Woo a Woman Engineer in Just 6 Days

Well, now I have to say that I have thought long and hard about the content of this particular post, and still have no clue what I'm going to say! How can I hope to describe the plentiful happenings of the past week, without including the whirlwind of feelings which have swept me off my feet or the mountain of happiness which I now find myself buried beneath? Ah, I think I'll be forgiven for being a little personal...just this once!

How to Woo a Woman Engineer in Just 6 Days

Day 1:

Anatoli is a fabulous Turkish restaurant in Greenpoint, whose rich colours, exotic smells and mouth-watering tastes are sure to to set the scene for a romantic dinner-date. Then liven the night up at Julep (mentioned in a previous blog), sipping on some of the most genius cocktails Cape Town has to offer.

Day2:

Whisk her away to De Waterkant for a relaxing afternoon, which ends in you helping to break in to a VW Golf with a wire hanger. Note: be very careful of her Engineering aptitude coming out here; she might come up with some creative ideas for the shape of the wire but remember, her expertise lies in designing cars, not breaking into them!

Day 3:

Spend the day at the SA Cheese Festival, sampling some of the most expensive wines, smoothest goats-milk cheeses, pungent cheddars, aromatic olives and perfectly blended pate's on the market.

Be sure to run amok in the animal pens and cause a scene at the picnic tables. Try to get her to try the Witblitz, although this may prove a challenge. Perhaps the chocolate liquor will go down better. While sampling the pestos, be sure to take your own bread; she will appreciate your resourcefulness!

Day4:

This is by far the most difficult step of the 6-day program, but once mastered, you'll be well on your way to woo even the most uptight Woman Engineer.

Get her up at the crack of dawn and drive her out to the most obscure farm in the winelands. Be sure to leave her cryptic clues that are just vague enough so that (even though she's a genius ;) ) , she has no idea what she's in for.


Dress her in a jumpsuit and send her into the sky on a microlight trip. She'll be sure to love the beautiful, triangular simplicity in the design of the vehicle. Make sure she spots springbok, flamingo's and pelicans, as well as having a panoramic view of the Cape Peninsula and winelands.

Then, fill her with a picnic breakfast and ply her with wine before asking her a certain question... (and remember to be VERY surprised that SHE HASN'T ALREADY ASKED YOU!).

((And D.W., just in case you were wondering, he asked me out...))

Next, meander along the winelands, stopping at beautiful wine farms for tastings, including Neethlingshof. Remember to miss the turn off at Vangate mall, before taking her for an MY Diner's treat!

Day 5:

Brighten the already gleaming stars in her eyes by delivering a talk to her project team, highlighting the multitude of exciting projects, overseas trips and experience you have in a most attractive field.

Take a trip to the Company Gardens, and pop into the Holocaust Museum, what better way to induce cuddling? (No seriously, the Holocaust is no joke, but this will give you an opportunity to discuss issues concerning 'the human condition' she feels very strongly about!)

Get both of you absolutely lost trying to find Grand West casino, to watch the Moscow Circus. Make sure to drink box-wine out of plastic cups. ;P

Day6:

Spend a leisurely morning strolling through the Cape Quarter, and drop in a visit to the District Six Museum, to 'educate' her on the history of the country (and city) she loves. Take he to her favorite restaurant to share a sushi platter. Remember to spill your interesting banana cocktail all over her...she'll just love it! :)

Lastly, let her drive you back from a chilled afternoon at Hout Bay, but be sure to have your hand on the hand-brake the entire way (even though she's admittedly an excellent driver).

And thats it! Follow the above easy, step-by-step guide and you'll have her changing her Facebook status in no time! Guaranteed success! Note, that even the above highly-commendable effort is not enough to get her to become a Chennai Super Kings supporter!

The Problem with Pointless Research

My Dean as recently launched the EBE Initiatives for Public Good campaign. This latest endeavor from our faculty is (I dare say) the only one of it's kind in South African Universities. The problem arises from the habit of academic institutions to follow the following procedure when identifying a problem-area in whatever area:

1) A professor or group of professors get together and come up with a name for this identified problem, namely "The health risks of burning tyres"

2) A document is thus drawn up, outlining how grave the situation is and requesting funding for research: "we suspect that its real bad to burn rubber tyres"

3) Upon convincing whatever party that this area of interest is worth throwing money at, the professors give projects to MSc and PhD students and for the next two years, a ton of data is collected about the problem, and the gravity of the said problem.

4) At the end of this long, drawn out and expensive undertaking, a thorough and well cited document is produced, the MSc and PhD students throw on some colorful dress-like robes, are 'dong'ed' on the head by the Chancellor's all-powerful magic wand, and leave with a bit of paper.

5) This report that was oh-so-important and oh-so-expensive and which tells everybody that oh yes, "it really is real bad to burn rubber tyres" (not like we didn't all know that already), sits on various desks for a few weeks, is filed into a locker and remains there until someone decides to recycle it so that the boys at Kramer-building (the environmentally over-eager law building scumbags) can have their recycled notebooks. If you're lucky, the department might convince government to pass a by-law that makes this illegal (but isn't monitored) and everyone goes home feeling like they have mad a real contribution to the environment.

See my point? We'll I'm going to explain it anyway...In this whole long, expensive process since the moment the problem was identified, nothing had been done to try and fix that problem!

Now listen, I'm not saying that this type of research is pointless. It's actually very critical! What I'm saying is that why highlight a problem and not do anything to try and fix it??? Are we not Engineers? Do we not revel in the very thought of tearing apart an engine in order to move around the crank and dismantle every little valve just to be able to put it all together again? Is our first reaction to being given a task to improve something not to grab the nearest serviette and lipstick and scribble a ton of concepts in 2mins flat?

This is plain unnatural! We are fixers, tinkerers, DESIGNERS at heart!

But alas, someone has to do the dirty work (and by that I mean the above-mentioned research).

So our wonderful Dean decided to link these two ideas, combining things such as emissions and health-risk testing, with technology improvement and design, with actual deployment of existing technology...and thus, the TD4SUD project was born. (We have to work on that acronym!)

Technology Deployment for Sustainable Urban Development!

1) Emissions testing over the Cape flats (PhD/ MSc/ other good stuff going on there)

2) Transport node research and design (ok so here we actually make a plan)

3) Health impact testing and monitoring (so we're starting to engage with 'real' people)

4) Implementing sustainable energy solutions for informal catering businesses (ah! now we're talking!)

And in a nutshell, thats the new and seriously awesome project that the EBE (Engineering and the Built Environment) faculty is doing, as part of the Initiatives for Public Good. And where do I fit into all this? Well, Engineers Without Borders is responsible for 4) above; the deployment part of that awful acronym...and I just happen to be lucky enough to be the lead of that leg...

Tonight was the Dean's function, and I got to do a bit of networking. Coincidence , coincidence, I met another lady from Cell-Life, and we're having tea next week! Yay, my thesis is looking good! I have to remember to tell you the story about the water problem in the eastern cape...thats for another day though...Good night!

Clever Little Bag

One quick thought that came to me in an email this morning: PUMA, in an attempt to cut it's carbon footprint, is coming out with "A Clever Little Bag"; a new way to package shoes.

Here's what PUMA say:

'Sustainability necessary'

According to Puma the move will save 8,500 tonnes of paper, and mean a reduction of 60% in water and energy used during the production process.

It will also mean a reduction in transportation, due to the lighter packaging which does away with much cardboard, tissue paper, and various forms of plastic wrappings.

"Sustainability in business is no longer negotiable, it is absolutely necessary, and we companies are overdue in taking responsibility," declares Jochen Zeitz, Puma's youthful-looking 47-year-old chief executive and chairman.

Business is part of the environmental problem; and we need to do what we can to fix it - companies need to lead the way.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8619165.stm

I say, "Well Done PUMA". Although we know that this 'clever little bag' is probably just a 'clever little PR move' (considering the current consumer trend of "going green"), Ole to you none the less. Maybe you'll start a trend in the sports-gear world!

Living the Change You Want to See

I have been quite lazy about updating this page this week, but I have truly had a busy week, which culminated in me leaving campus at 3am on Friday morning, returning to campus later that day for a 9am design hand-in, driving off to the cape-flats to spend the morning in Nyanga and Gugulethu, and finishing the day off with my EWB project's braai which ran until 8pm...

Comments on the above: the braai was great, the first time in days that I could just relax and have a cider and a good conversation...I think that my project team is really starting to gel. It's so different to see people in a social environment, away from the stiffness and formality of work. It definitely eased my view of my position, and will probably go a long way in helping me be a better lead.

Oh, and one of the guys brought his energy-efficient stove!! This awesome, little thing took about 5 minutes to get hot, cooked the boeri in minutes, and folded away into a little pouch that could have fit in my hand-bag! The best part about it was that it used only a couple of twigs the entire night! (the township caterers use a bakkie-load of natural/treated wood in a week, that costs them R250/load!) Well done T.H. for living the change you want to see. (BTW, he also only eats game-meat, and doesn't eat fish due to sustainability issues. Oh yes, and his bakkie runs of Bio-diesel that is made from used cooking oil!)

Saturday was another early morning. I attended a pilot workshop run by HAICU, UCT's center that aims to 'co-ordinate HIV/AIDS interventions in curriculum development, public activities, student orientation and community partnerships.' They run this workshop with health-sciences students as part of their curriculum, and wanted to test how a bunch of engineers would benefit from this type of workshop.

I have to say, even if we weren't paid R100 and given quite an awesome snack-lunch, it definitely would not have been a waste of day! Coming from a medical family, with a dad who has done a ton of work relating to HIV/AIDS, and having sat through hours of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigning, I believed that I knew everything that I needed to know about the condition. I was shocked to find how many points I was unclear of down-right misinformed about! The role-playing activities were quite fun too, something that I can use to jazz up my EWB meetings. (not that they aren't riveting as it is!)

http://www.hivaids.uct.ac.za/

The last lecture was the one that interested me the most. A section 21 company (which means it's an NGO), Cell Life gave a talk about what they do. Basically, its a group of 'techies' and engineers who develop methods and software to 'improve the lives of people who are infected and affected by HIV in South Africa through appropriate use of mobile technology'. Basically, they realize that health-care personnel are great at delivering health-care directly, but kinda suck at making systems of service delivery work well. Piles of paper medical-records and histories of patients (that are often lost at the detriment of the patient) have been replaced by simple and reliable computer software, taking seconds to access. Whats even better, is that patients can get their updates and info of HIV/AIDS sent to their cellphones, or on MXIT!!! It seems so simple and obvious that systems like these are needed, but can you believe that before Cell Life, the paper trail ran long and wide? Check them out:

http://www.cell-life.org/home

So why am I oh-so-excited about all of this? My thesis that I'm going to start in the next few months is...drum-roll...dealing with service delivery systems in public healthcare, and I was hoping to choose an ARV (HIV treatment) clinic as my guinea pig! I love it when stuff like this happens, the way that when I sit back, relax and just know things will work out, they generally do.

As a last thought, I got an email offering me a great opportunity and the chance to be a part of something really awesome recently. Although I was completely psyched about it, I couldn't help feeling like I already have too many commitments. I mean, when will I get time to do stuff like blog, or shower??? But a wise person told me this, and it completely sold me..."In ten, twenty years time, you won't regret the things you have done, only the things you haven't done". So I will rage, rage until the dying of the light, no regrets, no fear, just live it.

Reflections on a Bergie

Somehow, in the hustle and bustle of my hustling, bustling day, I took a moment to reflect on something that caught my attention, or rather someone. Everyday as I walk to the shuttle stop, I pass people who sit on the side of the road, asking for small change. Us Cape-townians have a favorite phrase for them "bergies", which translates from the Afrikaans slang to "mountain-dweller". These people are the street-dwellers of our city, sometimes living nomadic lives on the foothills of Table mountain and Devils peak, sometimes just curling up in a doorway or on a park bench to spend the cold Winter nights.

There's this one guy that really gets me, you know? I mean really throws me off. Most of the Bergies are disabled, or just hobos or crazies, but when you pass this guy, lets call him Bill, he asks you "Do you have R2?" The weird thing is the way he does it though, boldly, with none of that beggerly, pity-party tone that you normally encounter. He has a clipped accent, and a sort-of dignity in his posture and expression, an intensity.
I've stopped to talk to his once or twice, intrigued by his life, and his history. He claimed to have traveled Europe, and had to return for "family business" of some sort, which ended up with him ultimately living on the street. He used to write, but now he just sits, contemplating "a sense of overwhelming consciousness", a "connection of the mind", passing the morning away perched on an up-turned crate. Bill's been looking skinnier lately, I hope he's alright.

Some think that Bill is crazy, and maybe he his. I've seen him parading down main road, hands held high, reciting his moving soliloquies which swirl around me fleetingly as I catch a word or phrase in passing. I've not the heart to tell him that nobody is listening, there is no great audience and he is no grand actor. It saddens me that such a person, so sensitive and unique, could find themselves in such a circumstance. Is it any less fair that an intellectual should be homeless than someone of fewer gifts? If all humans are truly equal, then why do I feel so much worse for Bill than the man without a foot just down the street?


Bill is just so enigmatic, and I admit, I am intrigued. What hideous horror lies in his past? Betrayal? Loss? Rejection? Or is the answer along a completely different line altogether? Is it merely that artists of or time just tend to descend into lives such as Bill's, unable to cope with the pressures of living in our world ruled by constraints? Is his life more of a freedom than poor circumstance? I cant help but muse that Bill knows a freedom that I will never glimpse. And if that is so, then I envy him.

I've been at my desk since 4pm this afternoon, and apart from a short break for dinner and a shower, I haven't moved. Its now 1am, and I suppose I've made quite a lot of progress on my assignment...
Have a look at what I've designed (the drawing of this took about 20mins, I've been working for 8 hours to give you an idea of how not free I am!) BTW, the mountain pics are from my flat's front door. ;)

Circlips and City-chic vs Township-chic

Harmonic gearboxes. Torque. Actuators. Deep groove ball bearings. AC Servo motors.

If these words confuse you, don't worry, you're not alone. Isn't it strange that after more than 4 years doing Mechanical Engineering, the mention of a 'circlip' can still leave me puzzled. I remember my first year, when words like 'sprocket' and 'cam-shaft' in class sent me into a mild panic. Then it was different, I was in a class of 100 and there were just 9 girls. It was half comforting to learn that although many of the guys came from Engineering families and had been taking car engines apart from the time they could walk, most were as confused as I was! (Not that they'd ever admit it). UCT's current first year class has about a 40:60 split of girls to guys, so we're getting somewhere.

I joke with my class buddies that I've had to "grow a pair", as much as I risk sounding like a FCP for that, being around this many guys for this long has that effect on a girl. FCP = Female Chauvinist Pig...

(By the way, a circlip is just a c-shaped piece of metal that fits around a cylinder to hold things in place).

Surprise, surprise, I've actually been enjoying my design assignment. Its real this year, and I'm being exposed to so much! Not just that silly machine component plug-and-chug nonsense that a certain "favorite" lecturer of mine teaches. (Sorry, this is a personal joke for you V.G., I know you feel my pain!)

Yesterday I went to the UCT RAG fashion show, a friend had entered the design competition. All in all, it was fun. I love any excuse to scrape away the grease from under my fingernails and put on some heels and some red lipstick! (Joking!) ((about the grease, not the red lipstick ))

My friend did well, I'm very proud of her. She's soon to be an electrical engineer, and juggling engineering with fashion must be a challenge, bu she pulled it off...Quite literally actually.. (The outfit she designed had a long shirt attached with magnets, which the model tore off half way down the run-way, turning it into a super-sexy dress.) You've just got to love engineers!

I've put up my friend's design below and a few of the other good designs...the theme was township-chic vs city-chic. BTW, RAG, the organizers of the event is the organization that raises money for SHAWCO! So it was all for a good cause :) ...but of course.

How hard is your life?

Well I've been sick all week, and had to drag myself out of bed and downstairs this morning because I had a delivery. Imagine my surprise to see what it was...well, you know who you are, you sneak!

So I've been sick, but still ridiculously busy! I had to cancel the project braai today because of the rain-it looks like the infamous Cape Winter has come knocking. I hope he goes away for a while longer, the cold doesn't suit me at all!

The good news is that I've pulled up my socks finally and have planned out the whole of next weeks event already!

Monday: Focus group session (serious)

Tuesday: Trip to Gugulethu and Nyanga (always great)

Wednesday: Project workshop (my my my...)

Thursay: Coffee with Head of EWB (looks like someone wants to check my progress ;) )

Friday: Project braai (fun/relax/sigh)

In between all this, I have to hand in a huge Design assignment. Life Cycle Cost Analysis, plus an Optimization...I don't even know how to start! And then there's a meeting with my future thesis supervisor to give him a report on our MTN science center project...SCARY!!!

I keep thinking "How am I going to do it, how will I survive?" Then someone I love sends me these pics, "in case I need something for my blog", and I think, "Thank you mum". How did you know? It turns out that I didn't just need it for my blog, but for myself too. Its so uncanny how these things work out.

Well take a look at the pics and ask yourself, "How bad is my life, really?" And be grateful. I know I am.

Coincidence or synchro-destiny?

I just noticed something pretty amazing. In my last post, I quoted a paper written by 'Mistro and Hensher.' I had taken that sentence straight out of a term paper I submitted last year for a course, Industrial Ecology. I hadn't even realized it when I posted it, but now it just seems so coincidental.

The topic of the first workshop I held this year for my project team was The Upgrading of Informal Settlements. I invited a professor from the civil engineering department at UCT to deliver a talk. He had published over 50 papers and was accepted at a resident expert in the field, and guess who it was? Professor Romano del Mistro, the author of the paper I had unwittingly quoted months earlier.

Coincidence or synchro-destiny? It doesn't matter. The workshop was very well attended, and even though we couldn't get the projector to work, Prof del Mistro had everyone on the edge of their seats, wide-eyed and left with swelling hearts. His vast knowledge and deep understanding of the situation, not exclusively from an Engineering standpoint but from an underlying and critical social and cultural one, made him an invaluable asset to kick off our project. Thank you Prof.

The colours of "The Rainbow Nation"

I got a crash course in project management this weekend from a real, live management consultant so I decided to have a focus group workshop. It worked really well and I'm happier about where the project is heading now. We're having a project braai this Friday. FUN!

Afterwards, my dad picked me up and we went to Hout Bay for snoek and chips, a tourist must-do in Cape Town. Hout bay is a very funny place, I have to say. On the one side, you have this stunning scenery, some of the most beautiful stretches I have laid eyes on. There are mansions covering the North-west slopes of the bay, and I don't want know the average price of a home there. You have this gorgeous little bay, right, and its full of Europeans.

But then on the other side of the mountain, just behind all this lavishness you have Imizamo Yethu and Heinberg informal settlements. Heinberg is a predominantly coloured township whose community has suffered endlessly as a result of commercial fishing companies gaining exclusive rights to fish in Hout Bay, crippling the economic core of this once-thriving community. Imizamo Yethu (IY) is populated mainly by black Africans, many of which are immigrants. Last year I had the opportunity to visit IY. I walked through its narrow streets and pathways in the dead of winter, in the rain, with a woman who lives there. This was a turning point in my life. She led us up the road, past where the tar ended and the dirty, washed-away, irregular pathways began. The shacks were so close together that there was hardly any place to walk between them. Nothing grew. I saw a few toilets and had a look into one of them. It was broken and full of human waste. These communal toilets were all that the residents of this township had in terms of sanitation. Can you imagine living without a flush toilet in your home?

One of my tour-guide's neighbors had a municipal electricity box above his shack, and she had a live cable, running from his shack to hers for energy to cook and heat water. A common sight in informal settlements are the networks of electricity cables radiating from street poles. In IY, they were low enough for a child to reach, and the crude joints had no insulation. It follows that fire outbreaks are also a very common occurrence in townships, which isn't helped by the fact that shack building-material burns like tinder, spreading the fire so fast that there is little anyone can do to stop it.

IY is a particularly sad place, since the segregation of the community means that there is no sense of working together, sharing or helping one's neighbor. Rape, theft or worse atrocities are daily occurrences. Joe Slovo township, for example, is a very cohesive community, willing to uplift themselves in the spirit of Ubuntu. This, and the harsh, sloping terrain of IY are some of the reasons that initiatives are more likely to implemented elsewhere.

I could go on and on about the countless problems faced by people daily in IY and other townships, but the reality is that there is not much that I can do. South Africa currently has the highest Gini coefficient in the world (inequality rate between rich and poor). Currently, there are roughly 2 million households living in informal settlements and ‘the South African government is to overcome this housing backlog by 2014; but doubling the budget will only achieve this by 2030’ (Mistro and Hensher, 2009).

The problems faced daily in informal settlements is a serious and ongoing one, and only by widespread awareness of the situation, and an acceptance of responsibility by every citizen, will any major change be realized. I think it's time for South Africans to stop sitting back and waiting for government to provide. There is so much each one of us can do by sacrificing so little of our lives.

If we each did just a little more, gave just a little more, maybe then the colours of The Rainbow Nation would finally begin to blend, breaking free from their perfectly clean individual stripes and flowing as one united stream. Maybe then could we finally learn Ubuntu, understand it and truly embrace it.

Good food, great wine, amazing company!

The title of this blog mentions cocktails and dancing till dawn, and I know I have been perfectly boring this year because of my training, but I made up for it this weekend. I thought I'd share some of the awesome places I visited.

Firstly, on Thursday my family got a selection of breads and cheeses from this awesome place in Newlands, Bon Fromage. Everything in this quaint coffee shop had something to do with cheese. I've wanted to try it forever, but never got around to it. So we had this cheesy picnic at Rhodes memorial. Pretty awesome!

Thursday night was a good friend's graduation from pole-dancing level 1. I was a bit wary about this one, having burnt a few bras in my day, but I went along to support. It was actually pretty cool, I must admit. More pole-fitness than the usual objectification, so I warmed up to the idea. My friend was pretty amazing actually, it was great fun! I'll play the video at her wedding-will be interesting... ;)

After that we went to this tiny, incredibly unassuming place just off Long Street, Julep. Now this place is really something else! I walked right past, because there was no sign on the door. Inside was intimate but really funky, and was full of really interesting-looking people (including a huge fat man dressed as a nun.) Now if you're willing to wait, the barman will whip you up the most wicked Old Fashioned bourbon cocktail! Can you spell amayzing?

On Saturday, after the race, I got out to do a bit of dancing at Saint Yves at Camps Bay ( the new Ignite nightclub.) The crowd I went with were super cool and I had fun, even though I was ridiculously tired. I didn't wear heels due to the blisters, but it's a really classy place, and a must for party-lovers!

Sunday we explored the cape-town markets and had a long lunch at Beluga, Greenpoint (my favorite restaurant). I had more prawns than I should have, but this is my celebratory weekend, so I say "Bring it on"! I love Beluga, and if you havn't been there yet, please do yourself a favour and go. Half price sushi and cocktails everyday from 12-7 and all day Sundays. The home of the original "half-price sushi". Try the white Lindt chocolate Begnet balls with butterscotch sauce and home made ice cream. Literally heaven.

And I have to mention a certain delicious home-cooked North-Indian chicken makhnie. I really was spoiled this weekend!

Well today is work work work. After all that fun (and eating) I need to catch up.

I know I run like a girl, try to keep up!

So I guess you're wondering if I finished or not...

The race was simply beautiful. We started in the drizzling darkness. Somehow I got a C-seeding, which was a bit of a mistake since I should have been an E. So I started off with the really good runners who raced past me. leaving me in the dust. The first 5km were the hardest! I got my rhythm though in time for the 11km mark, where we met the infamous "Southern Cross drive": a two km uphill struggle!

Psychologically, it was tougher than it was physically. I realized this about half-way up and after that, it was a breeze! I was shocked at how okay it was. The scenery was absolutely stunning, a privilege reserved for the runners. It looks a bit like this, only way better. Imagine, the 56km runners get to see the mountain, and both oceans (as well as Chapman's Peak!!!).

Coming in from Rhodes drive onto the UCT sports field for the finish was just great, it was literally like coming home. People were shouting "GO UCT" and "well done IKEYS!". Running in my UCT colours made me feel so proud, and I sprinted down the finish line laughing. The supporters helped soooo much, I'm not kidding! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I finished in 2:31:07, just short of my goal of 2:30 but I don't mind. I have done the Two Oceans! I was on a serious buzz at the finish, and randomly met some people who turned out to be pretty awesome. Running races is such a great social experience and a chance for you to meet people with similar interests. After all, runners have to be driven!

My parents and most of their friends finished the 56km, and enjoyed their runs. Well done to everyone who finished. It was definitely not easy!

TWO OCEANS- Here we go

Tomorrow is the TWO OCEANS!

I'm doing the half-marathon and my folks are doing the 56km ultra-marathon.

We hit the road at 6:00 am. 21 kilometers. Two and a half hours. 11 000 runners.

I haven't been this stressed out in ages.

Anyway, I might have some good news, but lets just concentrate on the race for now. I don't know how I'm going to manage to sleep! At this stage, I just want it to be over...

Good luck to all the runners!