How did I get here?

The challenge of the MdS has been nagging at me for the past five years. A heel injury, however, resulted in my personal fitness declining to its lowest level in my entire life, and my weight increasing to its highest level. In September 2011, with the injury healed, I took to the road for the first time in two years. I did this with great expectation as well as a certain amount of apprehension.

Now 14-weeks later, I am 16kg’s lighter and run between 47 and 65 km’s per week. My time per km has steadily come down from 15:00 per km to 8:26 per km on my long distance (18km) runs, 6:28 per km on my 10km runs and down to 5:43 per km on my 3km speed runs.

Most of this has been without much pain, but that is mostly due to 43 years’ worth of experience. My first rule when I embarked on this journey was “take it slow”. I began with a 1,2km walk the first week, increasing it to 2,4km’s in the second week. I gradually combined jogging and walking week after week to the point that I am now.

My entry into the MdS was confirmed on the 9^th of January 2012 when I was fortunate enough to grab the second last available place in the 2013 race.

Now that you know who I am, I hope that I will be a source of inspiration to you and that my daily entries will encourage both current and future MdS runners as well as all other runners out there. At times I will discuss my strategy and encourage you to participate in the discussions so that we can learn from each other.

On this journey my motto follows in the words of the adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes: “Always train hard and plan with great care”.    

Thank you for visiting my blog, see you soon.

Genis