Blog

At a recent business update session, as a motivational talk, we discussed limiting beliefs, which made me think of something I wrote in ‘My First Marathon Training’: “There are two things I believe about myself and running: I don’t have it in me to run the second half of a long run faster than the first. I cannot run much faster than I currently do.” Originally, I considered the above two beliefs as just me being realistic (which is also important to be from time to time). But after our business update session, I can now see they were limiting beliefs, as I’ve since proven both wrong and for a long time, I was scared to, for example, start a long run cautiously to finish it stronger. That is the problem with limiting beliefs. They prevent us from trying. ...

“I am not where I want to be yet, but I feel empowered and supported to get there.” These were my words to my coach when I thanked her two weeks ago for coaching me this past year. It is not like I pondered for long on what to say to her. The words just sort of slipped out - since then, these words have been milling around in my mind. ...

Recently, I had the honour of pacing a fellow runner on her 5 km time trial. Pacing someone is a stressful task to undertake. I was mainly worried about disappointing her by not having her reach her target. Beforehand, I worked out a pacing strategy for us, taking into account the elevation gain of the route we were going to run. This pacing strategy should’ve comfortably gotten us to 40 minutes, maybe even a bit faster if we could finish strong. ...

A weekend ago, one of my MCM friends joined me for a RunZone club run - which is, of course, a much larger attended session than a session of our small regular training group. We run at a similar pace, and during our run, we talked about how refreshing it was to not be at the back of the pack but surrounded by so many other runners also running at our pace. ...

I don’t know what to write about today; I don’t feel like I have any words of wisdom to share. However, I also don’t want to break my writing streak. There is something about committing to myself and sticking to that commitment that cements the idea of the type of person I wish to be. These past two weeks have been all about getting back into a routine. I’ve been slowly but surely getting back into a proper training routine again, been back at work, and the children have started going back to school. As I wait for the dust to settle from the whirlwind of restarted activities so we can find our rhythm again, I try to take a step back and look at my life from the outside in, which looks like a completely different life than the one I had before. ...

We’ve all been there. We want to eat healthier. We want to exercise more. But when push comes to shove and we are back in our routine, and life becomes busy again, we forget about our good intentions to eat healthily or exercise more - until the next new year, that is. Good intentions often remain just that. Why? Perhaps pulling a metaphor for this problem closer would help explain it better. A friend and I have been saying for at least the past six months now that we should grab a coffee together at some stage. Every time I see her at school or next to the sports field, we would reiterate this good intention. I would say, “Send me a message with a time that would work for you,” and the next message from her is to ask what today’s homework was. Or she would say, “Let me know when you would like to go.” But then the next thing I need to know from her is whether she’s perhaps seen my son’s lost shoes. And so it goes on. Life is just too busy. ...

My immediate family and I enjoyed the coastal sun and waves for the past two weeks. Leaving a piece of my heart behind in the small town, the sadness of returning to city life sparked the discussion again between my husband and me about whether we should consider moving to a smaller coastal town. Years ago, we had our house on the market, serious about moving, but COVID happened, and those plans were cancelled. ...

Welcome to that week between Christmas and New Year when even the days of the week become a mystery. This time of year, akin to limbo, is truly special. My children’s stationary and school clothes are mostly sorted and ready for the upcoming year—well, they’ll survive with what hasn’t been sorted yet. Christmas has come and gone, and it feels as though the entire world has collectively decided to take a bit of a breather. ...

I have been participating in a reflection workshop since the beginning of December. I also took part in this workshop last December. It is a wonderful way to conclude a year. One of our recent prompts for introspection was: ‘Where did you own your value this year?’ To unpack this prompt, I used the following rationale: To understand where I owned my value this year, I first need to comprehend what it means to own my value. ...

When I stood at the start of the 2022 Cape Town Marathon, it felt to me as if everything that I had done since 7 February 2017 - rejoining Weigh-less, starting to run, losing 80kg, going for therapy, writing a book, joining a running club, working with a coach - had all accumulated to one single point in time. And when I crossed the finish line of the 2022 Cape Town Marathon, I realised that every now and then hard work is rewarded.