Brad Brown

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.

I have been asked this question quite a few times over the last few weeks. On the surface it was to lose weight and raise some money for charity. At the same time it is to be able to say I’ve finished the Comrades Marathon and to be an Ironman. But deep down there is a lot more to it. I came across a brief blog post this morning that I thought I would modify a bit and add to it a bit. Here is what I managed to come up with:

Why do I do this? To prove my ghosts wrong. That past failures don’t have to be an predictor of future performances. To prove the young blood that they’re not young enough and to prove to the old folk that they’re not to old to be there. To prove my past wrong and my future better, everyday. To make my weakness stronger in every way. To escape, to tell myself I CAN when its beyond safe, to show there is no limit, there is no such thing as good enough. To prove mind over body and body over mind. To achieve what was once unknown, unthinkable and in my mind unachievable. To enjoy every breath, sight, gasp, ache, sweat, sunray, raindrop, dawn and sunset. To prove that I can give my all. And then some. And then some more. Because it’s the best therapy and best of all its free. Because there is nothing I’d rather do. To me its completely normal to get up everyday to swim, bike and run. For hours at a time. Because only a few people know what it takes to get to the start line, knowing that even if its crawling, you have promised to get yourself to the finish and that’s saying something about yourself. To hear someone say “you’re not good enough” and have that push me to slash my times. To hear someone say “you’re crazy to even try” and have that push you to keep going when the urge is there to quit. To prove 4 hours 57 WRONG. To love doing what I do best. To be in that moment right there and not yearn to be somewhere else. To embrace the challenge and live the journey.

To chase down the person in front of me and show them how its done only to get passed and be humbled and inspired by them. To show life that I will not back down. I will not quit. And I will keep moving forward.

But above all to prove that limits don’t exist, boundaries are merely figments of our imagination – an oasis of our mind. Change can be made and the past can be left behind and to prove to myself that even if I can’t do it all right now, at least I can do this and just get better everyday in every little way.

Comrades Marathon - The Ultimate Human Race

The Comrades Marathon 2011 is approaching and I am really excited to be involved with the charity initiative. What I have managed to do is convince the Comrades Marathon Association to provide us with a starting pen specifically for the runners who are running the 2011 race for charity. If you, like me, started in the H group in 2010 you’ll be pleased to know the charity pen is a lot closer to the front. If you look on your 2011 Comrades Marathon entry form you will see there is a seeding batch called ‘CC’, this is the batch that has been set aside for runners who have raised funds for the Amabeadibeadi charities.

What we are trying to achieve is to raise five million rand for the Amabeadibeadi charities in 2011. The Comrades Marathon has 5 official chartities, the Community Chest, the Wildlands Conservation Trust, the Sports Trust, the Starfish Foundation and the PinkDrive. There are only 1000 spots available in this starting pen and all you need to do is raise R5 000 for one of the Amabeadibeadi charities.

Not only will you get to start in the charity seeding group but we have also put together really exclusive goodie bags for all the runners running for charity as a thank you. We have also secure some really special spot prizes for the charity group as well and some really cool incentive prizes for those runners that raise the most money for the Amabeadibeadi Charities.

If you would like to find out more about this initiative you can visit the 2011 Comrades Marathon Charity Initiative website.

A lot of people have been asking for before and after photos form my weight loss efforts for the last year.  To be dead honest I’ve been quite hesitant to post these photo’s because I still want to lose another 3o kilograms. So, below are the before photo’s and a halfway to my goal photo. The first two were taken last June, around the time when I decided to run Comrades. I was 165kg’s and I’m sure you can understand why sports physician was not to keen on me giving Comrades a bash. The last photo was taken last on Thursday the 10^th of June in Soweto for the Fifa 2010 Kick Off Concert. It was taken exactly a year, to the day, after the picture at the Confederations Cup warm up game.
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It has been two and a bit weeks since Comrades 2010 and although my work schedule has been pretty crazy I’ve had some time to digest the events that unfolded on the road to Durban on 30 May 2010. You may or may not know what happened but in a nutshell I missed the cut off at 60km (29km to go) and was pulled off the road. No excuses, I just wasn’t good enough on the day but will be back in 2011 fitter, leaner and stronger to finish off what I started.

In the meantime though its time to set a few new goals for the rest of this year and the first bit of 2011. I have been saying in the build up to Comrades this year that once it was done I would be keen to give a triathlon a bash. I still feel that way but obviously the long term goal is Comrades 2011.

So here is what I’ve come up with as goals between now and 16 June 2011:

1. Complete a couple of the Energade triathlons which start in October.

2. Run the Soweto marathon in November.

3. Ride the 94.7 Cycle Challenge in November (and at the same time try and raise R1 000 000 for the PinkDrive)

4. Complete the half iron man in East London in January

5. Run the Johnson Crane Marathon.

6. Swim the Midmar Mile in February.

7. Run the Vaal Marathon in March

8. Run the Two Oceans and/or Loskop Ultra’s in April

9. Complete the Comrades Marathon in June 2011.

Some of this list may change between now and then but at least it’s out there. I’ve learnt that unless a goal is out there you’re never going to achieve it!

Please see the details below of my charity initiative for Comrades 2010.

My preparation for the 2010 Loskop Marathon was not ideal. A constantly niggly left foot after the Vaal Marathon 6 weeks earlier never allowed me to do the sort of mileage in the build up that I would have liked to have done. I also decided to change the shoes I was running literally one week before the race. This in hindsight probably wasn’t the wisest decision either. In the week prior to the race with the new shoes my tendonitis cleared up so I decided to risk running the 50kms in the new shoes.

We decided not to sleep over in either Middelburg or at the Loskop Dam the night before as I was on air until 7pm on the Friday evening. We woke up at 2am and were on the road to Middelburg by 2:30am. An early start to what was going to be a long day.

The Start of the 2010 Loskop Marathon

By the time we reached the start I was a bundle of nerves. As it started to get light the 4000 runners began the trek to the loskop dam. Earlier on in the week I had spoken to my good mate Dave Walters from MPower FM in Nelspruit and it turned out MPower FM was the media partner for the race. We were going to try and do a couple of live crossings from the road and the first one was as the gun went.

My goal was to go out until halfway at just under 7 minutes per kilometre until halfway and then take the rest of the race as it comes. It all went according to plan. About 5 km in I got swallowed up by Vlam’s sub 6 hour bus and decided to stick with them for as long as I could. I actually finished the Vaal Marathon in the bus and that’s how I qualified for Comrades 2010. That’s why it wasn’t vital that I finished under 6 hours in this one but the goal was to spend as much time as I could on the road to get a decent long one in the legs.
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2010 Comrades Marathon - The Ultimate Human Race

The 2010 Comrades Marathon is happening on Sun 30 May 2010. Just writing that makes me nervous. But the truth of it is that as a novice I don’t think you think you will ever be ready. You may or may not know the reasons why I am running this year’s race. My mom is losing the battle to breast cancer as I write this and I wanted to do something to make a difference to people fighting this horrible disease and also for the families of those who have lost a loved one to it. Breast cancer does not have to be terminal and if it is picked up early it is in most cases curable. I have decided to support the Pink Drive and to raise money for breast cancer awareness. I think they do a fabulous job. I’m not going to go into to much detail as to what they do but if you want to check them out go to http://www.pinkdrive.co.za

Running Comrades as part of the Comrades Marathon Associations celebrity challenge provides a great platform to raise money for the Pink Drive. We have set up an sms line that if you sms the word ‘run’ to 4 222 0 you will donate R30 to the Pink Drive. The other fundraising initiative we are running is the 89 Memories – One race initiative.  The Comrades Marathon is 89km and run between Pietermaritzburg and Durban and this year I will be running each kilometre for someone that is either fighting the battle against breast cancer or in memory of someone who has lost the battle to breast cancer.

That is where I need you come in. I need your help. Read more…

I’ve been pretty slack with updating my blog in the lead up to Comrades 2010, but we’re heading into the final stretch and its time for some serious, focused effort. My qualifier has been done; I did a 4:56 at the Vaal Marathon on 7 March and am a week away from the 50km Loskop Marathon.

I came across this video clip online, which is a promo video for the Comrades Marathon that I think sums up the spirit of this great race better than any other I have seen. If you don’t know much about the race, have a quick watch and let me know your thoughts.

I had the funniest experience last night that I just had to share. I attended the Rockies Road Runners Comrades 2010 panel talk at the Zoo Lake sports grounds. The speakers had a wealth of Comrades experience and knowledge and I thought it would be good to go learn from them. Included on the panel was 9 times Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce, Dan Oliver who is a running coach extraordinaire (He has also completed 19 Comrades marathons himself) and well known and highly respected sports physician Dr Jon Patricios. Don Oliver opened the meeting breaking down his training programme and Bruce Fordyce wrapped things up with a bit of a what to expect session and opened the floor for a bit of a Q&A session which was very entertaining and informative.

The amusing bit of the evening was the talk by Dr Jon Patricios Read more…