Where It All Began

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...