I have my number!!

I just broke a cold sweat because I have received my official number for the London marathon and followed the link to the final instructions. The scale of the race has just dawned on me and it is very exciting! (more butterflies than that elephant caused this morning!)

You sprint along on your speed work runs, thunder along on your longer ones and welcome your rest days but still it doesn't really hit home until you read those instructions. The massive undertaking it must be to organise 30 000 runners like me as well as the spectators, ambulance services and police.....wow!!

I guess there are people out on the streets of London painting and puting up signs as I write this.

NOTE to family and friends!!
For those of you coming to London to support me please follow this link so you know what, where, who, how and when!!! (Don't ask WHY!)
www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com

Just 25 days to go!!

Brent

Running through traffic

My last two runs have both been disturbed by traffic. Yesterday's 6km jog was interrupted by a fleet of heavies and I had to take a detour and today I was doing a 9km run and had to pull up and stop while giving way to a large grey bus.


Intersection warning!



As you have learnt to expect from me, here is the punchline:

This bus was about 4m high and weighed 6000kgs and had two large ivory "bull-bars" below the rather small headlights! The wind was in his favour (meaning he was going to catch my scent as I ran past) so I dropped a gear and sped through the intersection without checking my mirrors!!



Hwange bus

Umbrellas, flagships, keystones and cultures!

What do umbrellas, flagships, keystones and cultures have to do with lions...let alone a man running the London marathon?

Lions as Umbrella species.
They are big bodied animals that cover large tracts of land and occupy the pinnacle of the food pyramid and that means that if we manage our land with the conservation of lions in mind then we, by default, conserve their prey and their landscapes!

Lions as Flagship species.
Lions are bold, beautiful animals that ooze sex appeal and confidence. They are photogenic, regal, proud and courageous and all of these manmade labels only add to their allure. That allure brings benefits and focus to the areas where lions are found and the species that they live with that perhaps would otherwise slip away unnoticed in today’s world.

Lions as keystone species.
Lions have been instrumental in the evolution of the animals they prey on, their competitors (including us) and even the savannas they occupy to a degree that we are only really beginning to understand now. By managing the way that herds of livestock (in the place of buffalo and bison) graze and move across a landscape desertification can be reversed and even climate change perhaps! This is done by mimicking as closely as possible the way pack hunting predators (like wolves and LIONS) would have moved large herds of grazing animals around the savanna. It is fact that grasses in Africa have evolved in response to grazing animals and those evolved in response to predation pressures from lions! We are talking globally important here!! (Check out Allan Savory on www.ted.com)

Lions in human culture.
I touched on it in another post but lions, it can be argued, are probably the most culturally important animal in human history. We evolved in the same place, competed for the same resources (including caves in France). As separate species, we have both crossed continents and frozen seas and at one time occupied almost every corner of the earth. We have even both learnt that to cooperate amongst ourselves is to ensure our survival. Take up my challenge and count how many lion images you see in your average day and you will see what I am banging on about.

Lions are in steady decline across Africa with a high percentage of their mortality being assigned to "conflict with man". I think I am correct in saying that there were a half million lions in Africa in 1950 and only about thirty thousand today!

We celebrate our "superior intellect" all the time so why, I ask, can't we outsmart our oldest competitor using brains not bullets and poison?    

Feeling good!

I thought I might share with you the fact that all is going well and I am feeling great.
I did a 14.6km run this morning and maintained a pace of 4min 48 sec per kilometre and that ended with a pair of wildogs in the road ahead of me!!
Donations are coming in via the blog so that is great news.....we are very grateful to you all!
 and
SHUPI has not killed any livestock for over a fortnight due to some remarkable effort from the Long shield closest to him and the man who gave him the name, Emanuel Tembo!!

So you see, with just 39 days to go till I am running down those London streets, I am a very happy man.


Emanuel Tembo - Long Shield for Mabale area

Brent