About Bo

Dog lover. Runner. Although very slowly. Keeping up with the stresses of running and life...

I’d much rather forget about those first days back at school, thanks.

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Bo

I can still remember the smell of the pencil shavings. The smell of my school bag and freshly polished school shoes. I remember setting out all my school clothes the night before and the excitement of the first day of school. Yet, if I have to be totally honest, excitement is not exactly the word I’d use to describe my feelings of going back to school…

You see, the first day back at school was never pleasant for me. Not only was I a very shy, reserved child, but I have some pretty awful memories which make me shudder every time I think of them.

Three in particular that I recall…

The first was when all the Grade 2’s were waiting for their names to be called out by their new teachers. Someone insisted they heard my name, and so I excitedly followed my new teacher to my class only to find that my name was not on her list. I frantically raced back to the other children, but they had all left. I was stranded and had no clue where to go.

The second memory was Std 2 when the teachers were calling out the names of the kids for their new classes and instead of calling Bronwynne Loots (my maiden name), my teacher called Bronwynne Boots. Laughter ensued and I was mocked for many years to come by all the cruel boys (and girls).

My third memory is Std 3 when a good family friend who was in Std 5, dared me to run across the athletic field and if I did so, he would give me R5 (trust me, in 1985 this was a hell of a lot of money!) So I did. I ran and ran and ran! As I got halfway across the field, I heard the school bell ring for the start of class. But this didn’t stop me. Unfortunately, as I got to the other side and turned around, I saw that everyone was gone. GONE, including Roger and that when I finished my run and got to my class, I got detention. Roger still owes me R5!

Oh how I sometimes wish I could go back to school with what I know now! The first thing I would tell myself is that silly little events like these don’t matter. That in life, there are much bigger things to worry about. In fact, it’s the attitude and coping when things don’t go the right way that has made me the person I am today!

Good luck boys and girls!

I didn’t listen. I thought I knew better. But I don’t.

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Bo

One of the first instructions my running coach gave me was that I should not run any races until he tells me to. But as any runner will know, this is torture, especially when everyone around you is entering all of their favourite races.

So instead of listening to him, I entered and ran the Dischem 5km race in Bedfordview on Sunday morning. I thought, hey, it’s just a quick fun run. Surely it’s okay?

I expected to do brilliantly. I expected to shave minutes off my previous time. But I didn’t. In fact, as we drove home, I was hit by immense disappointment and irritation with myself. I had managed to run without stopping once. This was great. But I was slow and still running at 8 mins/km.So I phoned my coach, sheepishly apologising that I had “skelmpies” run a race behind his back, but also begging him for answers as to why I was not yet running faster. After he gave me a firm lecture, I finally understood exactly why he had given that instruction.

You see, running by myself on a quiet Sunday morning around my neighbourhood is a very different experience to running a race. Even if I try fool myself in to believing that it’s a “fun” run, it isn’t. And it wasn’t on Sunday.

In fact, I was pumped. I was nervous. My adrenaline was flowing. I was tense, anxious and excited. As the race started, I was already thinking I was going to do brilliantly. Thanks to a great new friend (Craig aka @biggestbossfan) who ensured I did not walk once, I landed up completing the race in 40 mins. Yip, 8 minutes per km!

I was gutted! All I could think of was what about all my speed work? What about all the extra effort of 3 weeks of training? I felt miserable and disappointed. I took my eye off the end goal and landed up feeling highly demotivated.

My coach was right. It’s a massive psychological knock which I took and doesn’t help my training much. All I could focus on after the race is that my training wasn’t helping and that I was always going to be a slow ~~runner~~ jogger and yet, this is so not true.

I guess the biggest lesson I’m learning from my coach is patience. I’m realising that the end goal is not Two Oceans (a race with so much hype it stresses me out tremendously).

The end goal is in fact listening to my body. Believing in my abilities and having the patience to believe that it will happen. Eventually. Because it will.

So I have my 2012 ASA number ready to be sewn on to my running kit and while I wait patiently for my first official run of the year, I will carry on training. I suspect that compared to last year, running in 2012 is going to be filled with many challenges and unexpected surprises of its own.

Pushing through the storms

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Bo

Living in Jo’burg, one of the things I absolutely love are the awesome Highveld storms! I love the build-up…the dark clouds, that booming thunder and the lightening across the dark purple skies. There’s nothing more spectacular!

However, with a detailed running training schedule to follow since I started with my running coach, I’ve become really niggly with all the rain that has hit Jo’burg in the last few weeks.

You see, I have totally changed my training regime since January. Whereas before I trained mostly indoors, with a personal trainer at the gym at 6am on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, I am now only focussed on running every afternoon, as per my new running schedule, out on the open roads.

Let me stop for a minute and be completely honest with you: The last 3 weeks have been difficult. I have run every day (except Saturdays). It’s not as if I am clocking up major kms. Somedays I’ll only run 3kms, but the discipline to run and to push myself, especially with the required speed work is out of my comfort zone. It’s hard work. It’s not something I’ve done before. My entire body screams ‘stop’!

The humidity that comes with the afternoon rains hasn’t helped. It feels as if I am suffocating. I cannot breathe. I am often gasping for air and the sweat just runs down my face. Wednesday’s run was particularly difficult and it took all my energy and strength not to walk. I failed. Most of the route I landed up walking instead of running. I felt pap! But I’ve stuck to the schedule and have pushed as hard as I can.

I then came across a @runnersworldza tweet that not only made me smile but made me realise a few things…

I realised that it’s been 3 weeks. Already! Yes, 3 difficult weeks but I have not quit. My legs have not given up on me. My body is getting stronger and stronger. I’ve realised that I am in fact doing more training than I did last year. This is awesome! This is what counts!

I need to stop complaining and enjoy my training! Let it rain!

Lessons from my mentor: sell yourself

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Bo

I’m one of those people who is priviledged enough to have found a handful of mentors who I’m able to bug for advise and assistance when I encounter different problems, not only at work but in my personal life.

Catching up with one of my mentors and a good friend (my Mr Miyagi) yesterday gave me lots of food for thought for my run this afternoon…

He was sharing his views on people’s personalities and how, (in his humble opinion) you don’t really get far in the corporate world unless you are willing to have a voice to speak up and be heard.

The point he was trying to make is that for some people, speaking up is an uncomfortable space to be in. There are people who would much rather sit quietly in a meeting, taking notes and internalising the issues than being the loud-mouths who need to be heard. The down side to this is that these ‘quiet’ people are then viewed as not contributing to the discussion or not having an opinion.

Unfortunately, to be noticed and to grow and to be recognised as someone who has something of value to the team, you sometimes need to push yourself out of that comfort zone and become that loud voice. Especially to make sure people start noticing you and the knowledge you possess.

So many of us have special skills and konowledge which a lot of people are unaware of. The best person to sell those skills is yourself because there’s no one that knows you better than you know yourself.