From an early age, i have
always been a very energetic athlete and participated fully in sport, mainly
playing soccer on the dusty grounds of my township, to my high school years and
ultimately to playing in the then Western Transvaal soccer team. I was not the
best of the best but i earned respect, i grafted like a resilient buffalo
ensuring that eveyone in my vicinity felt my presence. I was surrounded by the
BEST of the BEST in my class, players who could move around with ease and do
magic with the ball, while i was marshaling with respect from the back four
line of defence, roaming up and down like a fearless "Induna".
Soccer is a team sport thus I could easily take off steam from my engine and
hide whenever my energy was depleted.
Fast forward to adult life
where I am now married, seetled with so much at stake. Due to no soccer teams
in my surrounding plus many other responsibiliteis I got busy with, I took
kindly to road running, with occassional participation in local marathons.
You see, I grew up believing the lies people said about me i.e. 'He is
lazy", "He does not have pace", "He wont go any far in
sport'. Though not directly said to my me or my face, I paid no attetion to
these lieas but they subconsiouly got stuck in my mind and became my
reality. I believed in them, I lived them and settled for the average life of
confort and easy ride. However with road running, there is no place to hide.
Its an individual sport. You cant hide anywhere, papa.
The battle is
between you and the open road. You and your pace. Your heart rate. Your
distance. Butultimately its now all up to YOU! and YOU alone.
I had no way to hide and
got no option but to carry on forging ahed. I started right away with 10km
races, with my first race at WonderPark in 2012. I remember i covered 10km in 52min,
which was deemed to be a good time for a first timer. WoW!! So it continued
from one race to the next, with my pace increasing and my time improving. I got
so excited seeing kilometers and kilograms falling, seeing people being left
behind and i getting better by the day. i was surely not a podium finisher but
i grafted well and put in the efforts. I worked hard. Ran faster and regained
my lost confidence. I started running on the roads with confidence, making sure
that I set my own standards and pace.
With each passing day, i got better, i
moved faster and i gained my confidence. Soon i graduated to running 21km (I
will share later on how did i start running this category. This also was my way
of pacing myself and taking over my life.
With each pasing day/week,
i got better, happier and so much excited but i quickly slipped onto a confort
zone. Same route. Same music. Same pace. Same people. Same distance. Same
EVERYTHING. soon this started to bore me and I became complacent. i started
slacking and just not motivated anymore. Fear crept in, doubt and excuses
started to inhabit my space. I found no joy in my road running and would find
excuses so i could not hit the road. though these was happeneing, i continued
to enjoy the open road and loved what i saw on the road with many people of
different ages, sizes, shape and motives racing up and down, on convinced
myself that it was not that bad anyway.
At the dawn of 2016, i
decided to take a new approach, a new strategy and rejuvinated my love for road
running. I decided to stop participating in marathons. I wanted to work on my
techniqies, my pace and my overall fitness at my own pace without any pressure.
I started running on the road before going to work. I would wake up at 04:30am,
Monday to Thursday and ensure i hit the road at 5am and returned by 6am. I kept
this discipline for the whole 3 months consistently working on myself and
getting better by the day with confidence returning and my conquering spirit
taking over again.
I bacame fearless and would easily cover 10km during the
week and 24km on saturdays. I would run at my pace because after all this is my
journey.
Another plus factor was on
weekends my wife, Kgaugelo would join me and run with me on the road. By my
mere commitent and discipline, she got swayed and motivated to join me and
track with me. Running alongs her gave me opportunity to really pace myself,
take the lead and not slack. She is no lazy-bones, she is by all means very
competitive and very tough having participated on aerobics classes and
marathons on regular bases. So i knew what was on my radar..
I set my own rules, my own
pace and worked at my strategy of getting better. The aim was simply to get
fit, to get better and enjoy life. As a result, i also became a happy husband
becaus emy wife was happy... Its amazing what exercise does to one's body and
moods.
As i journey up, I totally
took control and was fearless. As I pace up and down the road, minding my own
business I would enconter different kinds of people, some would be running
while others would be cycling. i paid particluar attention to these ones who
were cycling. I got interested on how fast they were moving, how happy they
seemed on their bikes and by their attractive & beautiful gears.
I really
took a liking to this sport and decided i would upgrade from road running to
road cycling. It was no difficult making the decision to switch because i had
aleady reached my peak on road running and was conversant on where i ranked
amongst my peers. I was in a different space, class and possessed a
different spirit & strength. I had already made up my mind that it was time
for a switch and no one or nothing was going to stop me from taking the next
step.
Casting my eyes to my
younger days, I had clearly broken the mould and shattered those lies I was
told. I disregarded anyonw who would come with excuses for not being for or
exercising. I took kindly to my newly found happiness, confidence and drive and
was determined not to slack back to my comfort zone.
Come, Lets goo...
