About Bo

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

The day Rogeema ran for me

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Bo

Rogeema was one of the first people I engaged with on Twitter. It was a rocky start at first because, I mistakenly thought she was a guy and kept reading her name as Roger Kenny. I finally got to meet her in person when she organised a fabulous tweetup just before Two Oceans in April this year. She even managed to get Comrades winner, Stephen Muzhingi, to join us at the tweetup.

From that day, I knew this about Rog. If she puts her mind to something, you had better believe that it will happen.

So when she announced plans that she would be running a half marathon in 135 minutes in my honour, I knew nothing would stop her. Rog had read a previous blog post of mine where I openly blogged about an illness I was suffering with. She then decided that her next race would be dedicated to me. I urge you to read her story here… 135 minutes for Brony.

I’m going to be honest. From the start, I was not too keen on the idea. I felt that although I had blogged about my illness, I was not dying. In fact, further exposure made me incredibly uncomfortable. Exposed. Vulnerable.

Until 07h20 on Saturday morning that is….

I had just completed a 10km race out in Irene. Throughout the entire race, my mind was filled with thoughts about Rogeema. I thought about her blog, her training and the fact that she was out running for me. Every step I took, I thought about her.

As I finished my race, I raced back to the car to get my phone to get updates. Yes, raced. I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. As I saw the many tweets, I started to cry and realised just how much it meant to me, but also to her.

Rog ran her heart out! She did not manage the 135 minutes, but in my mind, it didn’t matter anymore. Her race had been won even before she started! Her time: 2:26 minutes.

Rogeema, words cannot express what you did for me. I am so touched.

Thanks also to these special people:

Morne Botha (@mohebo). I spoke to Morne at Rogeema’s tweetup. It was the most inspirational 5 minutes that pulled me through Two Oceans this year. Morne, do not under-estimate the motivational power you have.

Fadeelah Kenny (@fadeelahk) yesterday, she broke her long-standing PB by 1.5 mins! (2.19 minutes)

Hasanain Abdullah (@theworx) He heard about the 135 mins challenge and decided on the morning to join. His time: 2h16 minutes.

Vaughan McShane (@vaughanmcshane) Vaughan ran his first half marathon in an awesome time of 2h24 minutes. That totally rocks!

Keri Delport (@kez_delport) Ironwoman. Need I say more!

Adele MacCannel (@MissyMac77) who was running with a friend doing his 400^th race! *gulp*

Leigh (@Leighwatermouse) Official cheerleading squad which is sometimes more important that you can imagine. Thanks for your support and kind words!

About Rogeema: Rogeema is an electrical engineer by profession. She is also an ardent karate-ka and is currently at the level of 2^nd dan black belt. Her true passion is developing people and helping them reach their full potential through business, investing, sport, spirituality, personal development and education. She is also active in her community as a human rights activist and serves on the Western Cape committee of Mensa as the editor of The Tablet (quarterly e-zine). I know Rogeema as a runner. Her PB for a half marathon is 02:19:36.

But best of all, Rogeema is my friend!

Admit it. We’re all sick in the head. But that’s okay.

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Bo

An email arrived in my mailbox alerting me to the fact that 3rd December is “International Day of Persons with Disabilities”. I somehow scoffed at this because in my mind, society has not yet caught up with what I believe is the real disability crippling people, families and teams today.

Most people will tell you that when they think of disabilities, they think of those who have physical disabilities – the blind, the deaf, people who are in wheelchairs etc. Yet I am of the opinion that the biggest ‘disability’ facing most of us today is a mental one.

The world we live in has become a tough place. It’s a harsh cruel, ever-changing environment and unless you have your wits about you, it will eat you alive and spit you out. But then again, who does have their wits about them? Who is on top of things? Who’s coping? Not many in my opinion…

When I consider my family, my friends and my colleagues, majority of them do not know if they are coming or going. The levels of stress that are in each of our lives is massive and for most, just getting through the day is a challenge.

I work with colleagues who are too afraid to admit they are not coping. They would rather drown and have no work life balance than ask for help. I find it particularly difficult to watch single mothers battle the way they do. I find it tough to see executives in high positions struggling to lead. At this time of year, stats show that 1 in 5 matriculants think about suicide when writing their final exams.

Worse of all is that I find my own family members thinking they are all alone in this world with problems and issues as big as mountains on their shoulders and ready to quit. *cries*

The levels of stress that we are constantly under and the pressure on us to perform and cope are enormous. People (and their families) living with mental illnesses, such as depression, is an incredibly painful burden to bear and the strain is enormous. It can affect a person’s ability to work, form relationships, and destroy their quality of life.

Ironically, it’s much easier and acceptable to tell people you are blind, than admit that you are not coping. I don’t think that society has moved into a place where people will put up their hands and readily admit to needing help. And it’s especially difficult in the corporate sector where you will be labelled and considered weak and incompetent if you do. The stigma is career-limiting so people are reluctant to admit they have a problem.

Mental illness may take on many forms, and is far more prevalent in our society than we may care to admit. However, many people lack concrete knowledge about it. It gets swept under the carpet. Ignored.

That’s sad…

Sometimes all you need to do is stop…

Posted on November 7, 2011 by Bo

Sunday mornings I like to do my LSD runs. *pause* For those who aren’t familiar with running terms, LSD is an abbreviation for “Long, Slow Distance,” which refers to the practice of running longer distances at an “easy” pace.

KK and I headed out to do his 11km route. The weather was perfect. Cool enough but also sunny. <side-tracked: Johannesburg on a Sunday morning is absolutely beautiful!>

After the first kilometre, I was cruising. The time on my running watch reflected that I was running under 8 minutes per kilometre. My heart leapt! As I neared the next kilometre, I was managing 7:06 minutes per kilometre. I was speeding and it felt so good! By the 3^rd kilometre, I was amazed that I was able to maintain the speed. Oh boy! I was like a demon!

But it didn’t last long…

As I got to the 4km mark, my speed dropped as my legs felt as if they were filled with lead. I was thirsty, my heart felt as if it was ready to explode out of my chest. My energy reserve had been used up. I made the decision to stop.

It suddenly occurred to me that I was supposed to be doing a slow, easy pace, not speed work and that I had lost track of what the run was supposed to be about.

I stopped to catch my breath and rest under the shade of a tree. As I stood there, my mind wandered off as to what my week at work looked like and what I needed to prepare for. One project in particular came to mind…

I am part of a team that has been tasked to organise the department’s year end function. Last week, an urgent meeting had to be called due to some miscommunication. In all our enthusiasm and excitement, we somehow lost focus of what our brief was and had gone off on a tangent trying to incorporate a stunning charity event as part of the day. We needed to stop and re-group our efforts as unfortunately, we were headed for failure. We needed to re-focus our efforts on what really mattered – the function. It was critical to stop while we were still able to.

I guess in life, we are easily side-tracked and lose focus, lose direction and stray from the original plan and then when things don’t turn out the way we intended, we can’t understand why. Yet there’s absolutely nothing wrong with stopping to check that you’re on track and if it means turning around and starting again, that’s also okay.

That’s what happened with my run this morning. My LSD turned into speed work and unless I had stopped to re-focus and to catch my breath, I was headed for injury and not reaching my planned distance.

I’m glad I stopped. I’m glad I cooled down and started again with a gentle, easy jog and was able to do 11kms. I did get sunburnt. But that’s because it took me longer to run the distance because my body was tired.

I learnt my lesson…

I’m thinking about running…

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Bo

Running has been top of my mind for a few days now.

Here’s why:

I managed to get back to running time trial on Tuesdays
Thoughts of the 5 joggers who were tragically killed by a drunk driver saddens me
Spending time with our running gang and discussing upcoming races excites me
Reminding KK to enter the Irene race in Pretoria coming up next Saturday
Waking up early to watch the Soweto Marathon
Skipping my afternoon nap to watch the New York Marathon (Geepers, how gripping was that last 2km of the women’s race of the New York Marathon)

But I guess the most exciting thing that is giving me extreme *goosies* is that entries for Two Oceans half marathon open this week. Once entered, that’s it. No going back!

I’m quite pleased that I’ve started my training early. But as I’ve seen with some runners on Twitter, anything can happen. @brodiegal has injured her ankle (thank goodness this was after San Francisco, but still). @beanker is back in her moon boot (sorry Bianca). And poor @rogeema was (wo)man down with a terrible tummy bug!

But there some great inspirational stories too. @tanyakovarsky tweeting her Soweto marathon run in style. @terencetobin entering his first 10km race (see you at Irene pal!) And @_Loxy in windy PE already up to 4km! (Dory, I still walk/run!)

So you see, anything can happen but the goal has been set and I’m ready…

Happy running you guys!