Arusha Church Bombing

If you haven’t already heard, we had a tragic event this Sunday in Arusha; a bomb was thrown into a Catholic Church during Sunday morning mass.  The word on the street is that 4 people were killed (including a child) and 60 injured.  One of the dead was the mother of one of the members of the Arusha cycling club (who Matt rides with).  The church is in Olasiti which is the village next to Matt’s office and next to where we have several friends living.  The church was celebrating it’s opening with it’s first official mass and there was a representative from the Vatican in attendance (apparently this was the reason for the attack). People living there said they heard the bomb and then the subsequent screaming.  We’ve seen pictures from the scene at the church and it was horrific.  So far, six people have been taken into custody including four Saudis (news now says 1 Saudi and 3 Emeratis…as you can imagine we get a lot of conflicting information).  I hope it was an isolated incident, but the news reports keep talking about the rising unrest between Muslims and Christians in Tanzania.  This is an unusual event for Tanzania and we feel totally safe, but our hearts go out to those impacted.  Between the Boston Marathon bombing (shortly after my brother finished running and while he was only a couple of blocks away in his hotel with his family), finding the suspect in Watertown, and now this, things are hitting way too close to home.  Literally.

News articles:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201305081013.html?viewall=1

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dead-44-injured-blast-tanzania-church-19112521#.UYpvYVrfqpp

http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/News/Chaos--despair-after-Arusha-church-attack/-/1840392/1843574/-/h20c6nz/-/index.html

A bike race… a long bike race

As many of you all know, I trained every weekend for 4 months for an 8 day mountain bike race in South Africa in March. Now that the dust has settled and I’ve licked my wounds sufficiently I am discovering the fun moments and triumph of this epic race.

    

The Cape Epic 2013 mountain bike race was in the western province, winding through national forests, private wine estates, open grasslands, single track and dirt roads and sand…. lots of sand. The scenery was amazing.  A few numbers:

• 700 kilometers (435 miles)
• 15,650 meters of climbing (51,345 feet)
• 1200 riders in teams of 2 (600 teams)
• 17% of the teams did not finish
• It was 40 degrees Celsius most of the week (104 Fahrenheit)

   

A typical ride profile (see below) had lots of climbing with 3 water points (aid stations) along the course.  The water points were brilliant – happy volunteers with fruit, energy bars, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salty crisps, energy drinks, neutral bike repair and chain lube as we rolled out the back side onto the course again.  This stage had a distance 120k and 2300m of climbing (75miles and 7,500ft).

One of the best services at each water point was the Oakley sponsored sunglass cleaners – these young dudes would grab your glasses as you entered the aid station, spray your glasses down and wipe the lenses clean – removing hours of accumulated sweat, dust and grime.

        

Each day had a time cutoff. The pros were finishing in 4-5 hours each day and we were pulling 9-11 hour days in the saddle. But we always made the time cutoff. When we crossed the finish line each day, somebody would grab our bikes for a high-pressure wash, and we’d be handed bags of food and energy drink and be herded into a huge taurig tent to get out of the oppressive heat.  Normally we’d just sit in the shade and stuff our faces for about an hour with chicken ceasar sandwiches, plates of spaghetti… anything they would offer we ate.

    

We moved camp every other day in order to cycle across large areas of the Western Cape Province.  The support team would bring your duffle back and set up a tent for each rider.  So after a solar hot shower, and unpacking and preparing for the next day we head to the “chill zones” for some WIFI and cold beverages. Then it was time to eat again – usually 2 massive plates of food. The calorie intake was ridiculous – but we needed the fuel.

 

I am really glad I did the race – it was a personal goal of mine and felt good to get back in shape. The riders were all fun / interesting people from all over the world.  Only about 6 Americans, lots of South Africans and a handful from Europe and other African countries. Dave and I were the only team from Tanzania. 

    

        

 

 

Our final time was just under 60 hours on the bike over 8 days. I do not need to do this race again, but I still love mountain biking. It is a great way to see new country and enjoy the outdoors.

 

Thank you Lisa, Tierney, Ashlyn and Anderson for putting up with my training and travel! You guys are the best.