I’ve been asked to give the keynote speech at my old high schools awards evening this coming Thursday. I am extremely flattered that they think I have been successful enough in my endeavours to impart some wisdom on these young and, might I add, brilliant minds. The funny thing is that in my entire high school career I never excelled enough to qualify to attend the awards evening!

I need your help in putting my speech together though if you don’t mind. Think of it as your chance to change the world. Sort of. I have been thinking on what I can speak about and this is where you come in. Even if you’ve been out of high school for a year or fifty years it does not matter to me. Please wouldn’t you mind and give two minutes of your time. Knowing what you know now about life and everything else, what advice would you love to have been given when you finished up high school? Or what advice were you given that has made a world of difference in what you are doing now? It might be serious life altering stuff or light and entertaining. Please would you comment below so that I may include it in me speech on Thursday.

My New Allstar Sneakers

I had an interesting couple of days this week. I’ve been on the hunt for new shoes. I’m not the shopping type at the best of times. Like most guys I’m a hunter not a gatherer. I know exactly what I am going to the shops for, I go in, get it and get out. My shoe shopping experience has been mildly frustrating to say the least. The biggest contributing factor to my frustration is that I can never find shoes that fit me. The reason for that is Read more…

What an amazing day! I am humbled by what has happened and extremely grateful for all the kind words and encouragement at the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge yesterday.

On the start line of the 2010 Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge

As far as the results go, it wasn’t the quickest race I’ve ridden this year but I didn’t set out to go fast. I wanted to experience the ride and this amazing city we live in. I took a whole bunch of Read more…

The Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge is happening tomorrow and I’m actually really looking forward to it. It’s been a long and stressful build up to this year’s race. We’ve managed to raise close on R250 000 for the PinkDrive, we have 200 cyclists riding in pink kit and I am extremely grateful to every who has contributed to make this initiative a success. Thank you. We didn’t raise the million rand I wanted to but if you don’t set lofty goals you will never get close to achieving anything big.

PinkDrive cycling kit for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge 2010

On the race itself, I have been in two minds about whether to race it and go for a decent time or have a social ride and see what happens on the day. I am super chuffed to have my dad and brother riding in pink with the rest of us tomorrow. My bro is a bit of a racing snake (Did Ironman this year and is hectically fit) and I’ve managed to do a few races with him this year already. To be dead honest I am super psyched to be able to ride with my dad tomorrow. He is in his 60’s and is in pretty good shape. He has 11 Comrades Marathons under his belt but hung up his running shoes after his last one in 1995. I’ve decided to ride with my dad tomorrow as I have never done anything like this with my dad before. I was able to do a bit of a ride with Dad on Tuesday morning out in the cradle. I was able to spend a couple of hours out on the road with him and had an absolute blast. If you’re riding tomorrow I hope you have a safe and enjoyable ride.

My Dad out in the Cradle on Tuesday

Well let me be totally honest with you here. I don’t have the balls to hang glide. I think it must have something to do with the fear of heights I have. When you’re as tall as I am you come built in with a fear of heights. You’re even scared of falling off yourself. But that is a whole different story.

You may or may not know about my fundraising efforts for charity but its time for me to spread the love that I’ve received pushing my cause over the last year and a bit. One of my biggest cheerleaders in the lead up to Comrades and Cycle Challenge has been Leanne Operman. We met on Twitter in the build up to Comrades 2010 and even though we haven’t met in ‘real’ life she has followed my journey from fat to fit. Anytime I needed some help getting word out on a fundraising drive I had put together for PinkDrive she was always the first one to retweet my message. She was along for the ride as I was twunning (tweeting while running) trying to qualify and was quick with words of encouragement when things weren’t looking good on race day at Comrades.

Its now my turn to see if I can help Leanne; You see, Lea has an extremely rare condition called Hereditory Inclusion Body Myopathy, a form of muscular dystrophy and even though its easy to give up when things don’t go your way, Leanne has decided as long as she is able to she is going to make a difference. Last year she decided she wanted to skydive (I suspect she may have been dropped on her head as a baby to). Not only did she jump out of a perfectly good aeroplane but she turned it into a huge fund raiser. She managed to put together an event called Krazee for Kripples with the theme of “going mile high for muscles”, got a few bands to perform and sold t-shirts and braai packs to raise funds for the Gauteng branch of the Muscular Dystrophy Association of South Africa. She managed to raise over Read more…

It is done. I can now officially say that I am a triathlete. I can also say that it was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.

My day started at 3am. Even though the start was only at 7am, I had a two hour drive to get to Sun City for the 11Global Triathlon. We arrived with enough time to spare that getting racked up and body marked was not rushed at all. My pre race preparation was as good as it could’ve been but in hindsight I probably should’ve eaten breakfast later than I did. Eating breakfast at 3:15am and only starting the race at 7:15am probably wasn’t the wisest decision I made on the day. I felt hungry on the start line which is not a great way to start your first triathlon.

Racking up in transition with my brother

Final Preperations

I got into the water a few minutes before the start. I had decided that I was going to try and stay out of the mad rush of the swim as much as could. I would hang back and Read more…

Six more sleeps to go. Its hard to believe that its less than a week to go to my first triathlon. By all accounts I haven’t picked the easiest one first up either. This Sunday, 7 November 2010 I will be at the start line of the 11Global Olympic Distance Triathlon at Sun City. A 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and a 10km run.

From just over a year ago, weighing in at 165kg’s and seriously unfit to being a handful of days away from competing in an event that most people shy away from because its too hectic! Who would’ve thought that would be possible?

I wish I could tell you how excited I am to race this Sunday. Not because I want to beat anyone or that I’m after a specific time. Just to go out and prove to myself that I can do it. After the disappointment of missing the cut off at Comrades 2010 I’ve worked really hard at getting better, stronger and faster. I haven’t raced much since June this year, I ran a half marathon in Pretoria really hard in July and took 20 minutes off my 21km personal best and broke 3 hours for a 103km cycle race in August. Other than that I haven’t raced at all. What I have done is put many hours in on the bike, on the road and in the pool. Its time to show myself how far I’ve come.

For the first time since I started training I’m injury free in taper week. For the first time I’m not worried about not finishing within the allotted cut off time. To be honest I don’t even know if there is a cut off time, that is because it doesn’t matter. It won’t get down to that. For the first time I’m not worried about being able to cover the distance. I’ve done the work in training. I’ve trained longer distances than I’ll be racing.

I can’t wait for 7am on Sunday morning to get into that water and prove the past wrong. Bring it on.