Being a passionate trail runner, my fellow trail blazers must have thought I had tripped over one too many rocks when I shared I wanted to run the comrades in 2016. I wasn’t taking it too seriously, I had not even run a marathon before, but thought surely it can’t be as challenging as gruelling multi-day trail events which I had done plenty of.

After some research I realised I needed to run a marathon to qualify, so I entered my first marathon…the challenging Bong in Queenstown, yip that was my qualifier so I won’t mention my finishing time, but it got me to the start line of Comrades. I quickly learnt that road running was about the destination vs enjoying the journey on trail runs, so I needed to start tacking things a little more serious if I wanted to achieve results which was natural for my competitive nature.

I decided to join a coaching programme to assist me in achieving my goals – they asked what my PB’s were – huh PB’s…. is there a road running language I was unaware of? Well 4 years down the road and its all about PB’s for me. I finished the 2016 Comrades and felt invincible so asked my coach to help me get a sub 4 hour on my next marathon. I only wanted to shave about 45 minutes off my last marathon! I finished with a 4hour1min, can you believe I couldn’t find that minute somewhere on the 42 km route? Oh ya…. you can’t forget about the last point two km’s!

Fast forward to 2019, I have run over 7000 km, to say I have made good running friends along the way is an understatement.

I once again recently asked my coach to help me achieve a qualifying time to get me a C-seeding for the 2019 comrades – It was a tall ask, but not one to easily declare defeat I committed to stick to the programme to the km. The last 2 km’s ended with a finish sprint for 2nd over 40 position, I crossed the finish line and looked at my watch… CRAZY I achieved the sub 3 hour 40 min goal!

Each time I achieve a PB I know it is because of the discipline and commitment I put into my training. There can’t be excuses of being tired, its raining, I have a hangover, I am on holiday – you must stick to the programme if you expect it to assist you in achieving the goals you have set.
So I have this theory, and it was recently once again proven by Xolani if you set yourself a goal and do everything required to achieve it there is no reason why you can’t!

Growing up my Dad always said “Take the T out of CAN’t”