The finish line...

I love being humbled. Life at the top gets pretty lonely and it's increasingly difficult to maintain your competitive edge the higher you get up the leader board. Standing on the podium of the rockstar leader board is no different so I set myself a challenge...

I have never liked running long distances. My ancestors were a burly shortburst bunch and didn't do much of the long distance nomadic things like those of you whose relatives lived in the desert. We ate freshly caught antelope and chickens not endurance chased camels and stamina overhauled roadrunners. Beep beep...


As a result my race are short, stocky and masaga quick, not wirey, rangey or over 10km. Goal: 21.1km of pain, hardship, fatigue and medals.

I set myself the goal of finishing 21.1km. I then did some training and bumped my goal up to doing it under 2hours, not just the 3 hour cut off. Then I did a lot more training and found I enjoyed a 5min/km pace. I then ran a 15km trial run of a race in constantia under 74minutes. I then got cock sure enough to drop my 2hour cut off goal down to 1h45min based on my performance, training and 5min/km happy pace...

Now here is the thing. I entered cause I wanted to challenge myself. I trained cause I knew I had to. I trained and got a head of myself. I wanted to be brought to my physical knees quite literally. I have hated endurance sports as a kid with incredible passion. The Balgowan school nurse exempted me from Interhouse Crosscountry more than she medicated herself with Glenmorangie. But after evading what I hated so often for so long I decided to bite the bullet and not let my blues eyes get me out of this one, I threw myself in head long...

I hate running. I hate every step. Why I did something I hate? Well, because I knew I hated it. And I wanted to be humbled by doing something I hated. Try it. Tyler asked, How much can you know about yourself, you've never been in a fight? I fought the road.


Now as mentioned, my fight with said road was going very well, so I got above myself and set myself cocky goals. The road kicked in my shins, blistered my feet, crippled my ligaments, cramped my muscles full of lactic acid and wiped up the mess around every water stations with the top of my head..! The thing is, I was the road. And I finished in the end.


I loved it. I enjoyed finishing something I hated so much I loved it...

You want to measure yourself mentally, break yourself down physically. Just remember that although everyone behind you is chasing you, no one in front of you is racing you...