Below is an interview I did for the new Triathlon Plus mag which has just hit the streets.

How do you juggle work and training?

Funny, a lot of people asked me this – how could I possibly find the time to train and compete during a year when we have the FIFA World Cup to prepare for? adidas is one of the main sponsors for the FIFA World Cup which mean a good deal of extra work and responsibility this year. As I’m not a professional work has to come first of course. The way I look at it is that I need a release from all the extra work commitments and exercise has always provided me with this so hence tackling IRONMAN. If I didn’t set myself another challenge I would have ended up working 24/7. With my work commitments I find trying to stick to a training program very difficult. What works best for me is to try and reach a certain number of hours of training per week based on what I’ve achieved in previous years when I’ve trained for IRONMAN. To be honest I struggled to even achieve this as my travel schedule this year has been pretty hectic. When I’m at home I get up at 5:45 to train and then either run, swim or bike depending on how much time I have before I have to be in the office. During the week I’m usually able to put in an hour, maybe an hour and a half, in the morning and then I try and fit in one or two sessions in after work during the week. The after work sessions I count as a bonus as these very seldom happen as work commitments invariably mean I’m in the office till 6:30/7:00pm. However, as I work for a sports company we have a policy of practicing what we preach and all staff are able to spend Wednesday afternoons out exercising so I try and make good use of this opportunity whenever I don’t have appointments. When I’m traveling I rely on running and making use of Virgin Active before work. What has made a big difference to my training is that I invested in a Cycleops indoor trainer which has allowed me to get in more cycling hours during the week. With all the carnage on the roads I’ve stayed off the roads in the dark early morning hours and rather spent time on the trainer.

What made you do it for charity?

Actually I was reading an international triathlon magazine (before yours became available!) and there was an article about a soldier in Afghanistan who believed in the power of sport to change the lives of all the children in the combat area where he was stationed. He raised money for sporting equipment by competing in IRONMAN events. I found this to be really inspirational and thought that if this guy could train in a war zone and compete in IRONMAN events I certainly could find the time in my schedule. My initial idea was to raise funds to purchase soccer ball to give to SCORE who are the adidas charity of choice. They do an unbelievable job in providing coaching and sporting opportunities to thousands of underprivileged children in communities around Southern Africa. SCORE had far grander ideas to raise funds and came up with a project which they named IRONBRIAN and set up a website www.ironbrian.org and we were up and running. The goal, a lofty R324,000, which will be used to build a multi-purpose court in one of the SCORE communities. I’ve witnessed first hand the fantastic work which SCORE do in Khayelitsha and I’ve seen how the first multi-purpose court which adidas International funded has been used. With SCORE being an adidas charity and knowing the work they do, it was an automatic choice for me to support. We still have some way to go to achieve our objective and we’ll continue until we get there. Doing something for charity brings a whole new dimension to the event – when you are really struggling you know that what you are going through is made all the worthwhile by the lives you can improve through your efforts.

Why IRONMAN, what’s the lure?

I guess that as the most challenging one day sporting event around this lures one into doing IRONMAN. I also can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every IRONMAN event I’ve competed in as the organization is great and the support the people of PE give the event makes it a really special day. You also know that no matter how good or how bad a day you have, you are going to have to dig deep mentally and physically just to finish – this is what ultra events should be all about.

What does the future hold?

Outside of some huge FIFA World Cup work commitments over the next 2 months I’m not quite sure. I’m feeling pretty good after IRONMAN and would like to maintain the fitness levels but I cannot think of getting into any “formal” training until the FIFA World Cup is over. I invested in a MTB prior to IRONMAN which didn’t see too much action so I’d like to get into a bit on mountain biking over the winter months in Cape Town.

Best place to train / favorite race?

I really only have experience of training in Cape Town although I must say that there are some really tranquil trail runs in the forests around our head office in Herzogenaurach, Germany. You can run for hours without meeting a single person – it can sometimes be quite eerie in fact. My ultimate best runs in preparation for this past IRONMAN were the early morning runs I did along the beach at Natures Valley. As I was recovering from a quad injury they were slow but because I was down there during the week and out of season I had the beach to myself. The tide was low so the sand was firm, the mists was just rising off the sea as the sun came up and I was alone with my thoughts – what more could you want? Cape Town is also spoilt for rides and I guess the rides around the coast (P’nP Cape Argus route) are pretty special.

How does the family fit into place with all that goes on in your life?

Family is key to me and I’m really fortunate to be married to someone who understands my need for exercise. They are my greatest supporters and I certainly couldn’t do this without them. Louise knows how grumpy I am when I’m not able to exercise so she gives me the freedom to train. I try and be as considerate as possible especially around IRONMAN time as the training is pretty intense and weekends often are taken up with training. Wherever possible I try and get the weekend training over as early as possible so as to be able to have some time with Louise and Kobi (our 4 legged “doggy child”). I also look to include Louise in my training like biking early and then coming back and doing a run with her to complete a brick session. Or sometimes I’ll run and then meet her and Kobi in the mountain for a walk – which often turns into quite a session as we often miss one another and then it means an extra hour or so looking for the two of them – Newlands Forest is quite a big space!

Still only half way on the fund raising so I thought I’d keep those of you who are reading my blog interested with some new content.

It’s hard to believe that a month ago today I was busy slogging it out over the final leg of IRONMAN SA. As I write this I would have been around half way through the marathon and feeling pretty shattered. For those of you who have read my blogs you’ll all know how I struggled during the run leg. Well, for those who don’t know, I finished within my time goal of 12 hours, although I have to say there were times during the day when I seriously doubted I’d even get close. It was during those hours, when I was feeling the physical pain of pushing my body to its limit, that I just had to think of my visit to Khayelitsha and the pleasure so many children enjoyed from the multi-purpose court which adidas International built, to bring meaning to what I was doing.

Through the efforts of SCORE and the generous donations from so many of you, IRONBRIAN has raised just over R150,000. To all of you who have donated – a very big thank you. And to those who would still like to contribute we are only just approaching the half way mark for funding the new multi-purpose court which the winners of the “Cup of Heroes” will receive. Please support this very worthy cause – I don’t think I can push my body through another endurance event in the near future to raise the balance of the funds required!

I thought that I’d give a quick update of what’s been up since IRONMAN now that I’ve found my feet from a work point of view. I’m sitting in a hotel in downtown Luanda on a market visit and have a couple of minutes free as things only get going here after 10am due to the heavy traffic congestion.

I’m pleased to be able to report that I’ve never felt better after an IRONMAN than I am feeling post this one. I have no idea why but it’s great – no real aches or pains and in fact not even stiffness. I went down to the beach early on Monday morning for a swim and walk with Louise and Kobi which was fantastic (maybe a little fresh but just what tired muscles need). This has to be one of the highlights of my visits to PE – the early morning swims at Hobie Beach – especially post IRONMAN when you can swim out to the back break with the family and just chill there and think back on the previous days efforts. It’s just so different from the “washing machine” madness of the day before. After breakfast I spent the day in the trade in PE visiting customers. I didn’t go out to Koega for the awards dinner as it is just such a “schlep” to go all that way out for a very average buffet – instead I took the in-laws out for dinner to thank them for having us stay. After a really chilled public holiday Tuesday braaiing with the family (with some drama – Louise’s purse was stolen but fortunately recovered the next day sans money of course!) we then took an easy drive back to Cape Town on Wednesday.

On Wednesday evening I received an SMS from Bruce wondering if I was on for my regular Thursday gym session. At first I thought no ways but I agreed to an easy recovery session which was great. I bumped into Laurence and Gwen when running down to gym and managed a solid pace over the +/- 4km which surprised me. It was nice to have a catch up with Laurence to find out about his day – he struggled and just couldn’t put it together.

Since the event it’s been really hectic from a work point of view and there’s been very little activity on the exercise front outside of Thursday and an easy run with Louise on Sunday. Whilst this is great and recovery is important one always feels that you don’t want to loose this level of fitness so it’s important to still tick over and keep up some form of exercise. I now need to find some new exercise goal to work towards.

The donations are improving and when I last checked were around the R130,000 mark so still some distance to go.

As promised in my last blog I’d give some race day feedback when I’d recovered. Well, you’ll all be pleased to know that I’m feeling fine but have only been able to get to my computer now as I’ve been out in the trade working with our agent for the Eastern Cape.

Wow – what an event! It’s the one event I know where you can go to hell and back in the space of 12 hours. This was definitely my toughest day in all my ultra eventing. The day started out with a 4:15 wake up and Louise, Kobi and I were off at 5am to the race transition area. After a few last minute bike checks, toilet stop, brief swim warm up, and quick interview with the SCORE team, it was time for action. There were more than a few nervous faces on the start line when the race organiser said the conditions were very rough and choppy and that the weaker swimmers should call for assistance if they get into trouble as there was a competitor in the Corporate Challenge who drowned the day before! Well, Paul was true to his word. The conditions were really tough and with the record number of competitors (around 1800) the water was like a washing machine, especially around the bouys where the fighting for your line was hectic. I took a couple to good blows to the head and at one stage a good kick in the face which disloged my goggles. Anyhow, I came out the water in a respectable 1:13:51 and headed into transition to change into my cycling gear. I was a little slow in transition (8:35) as I needed a toilet stop before heading out.

I felt OK on the bike at first but then started experience stomach pains early on which was a sign I was not hydrating and replenishing the carbohydrates I was taking in which was concerning. I planned to race on GU energy gel and water, with the odd sip of the GU replenishment drink, and I stuck to this out of fear that changing my plan would lead to more problems. I eased off the pace to conserve energy and hope that when I was upright on my feet and running I would feel better.

I completed the 180km cycle in 5:48:18 which was OK given that I had taken my foot off the accelerator as I was worried about the run. After another toilet stop in transition I was off on the run and knew I was in trouble right from the start – my stomach was just not playing the game and I was forced to embark on a run/walk plan from the outset. I was pretty much reduced to a shuffle for the first 2 laps and even all the support from Louise, Kobi and the fantastic SCORE team could only just keep me moving ahead one step at a time. When I collected my last arm band, which signals you are on your last lap, I decided that it was all or nothing. I was going to push myself to where I’ve never been before and see if I could still come in under 12 hours as was my revised objective. There was never any doubt in my mind that I would finish, but the risk of throwing in an all out effort would mean a 12 hour finish or a complete blowout and being reduced to a crawl and finishing in 13 or 14 hours. Well, I found my legs and am pleased to say that I ended up under 12 hours (11:56:06). I’ve never dug so deep running those last 10km. This was not my best performance in an IRONMAN by some way (11:08 in 2008) but somehow the satisfaction of having pushed my body and mind to the levels I did in this race is even more rewarding.

To the SCORE team who travelled up from Cape Town a huge thank you – it felt fantastic to have your own dedicated support team screaming encouragement to you on every lap. And to Team Kerby (Louise and Kobi) – you guys are just the best – this whole journey wouldn’t have been possible without your support – I love you stax!

To all those who have donated you can be assured that you got my very best on the day – nothing was left out there on the course! Thanks a ton.

To all those who are reading this and who haven’t donated the drive is still ongoing and won’t stop until we hit the magical R324,000 mark. I haven’t gone to hell and back not to have some community benefitting from our objective of building that multi-purpose court. Please donate and save me from having to go through all of this again to make up the balance of what’s outstanding.

Lastly, the team from SCORE will update the website with pictures and commentary from the day when they get back to Cape Town.

This will be my last blog before the big day so thanks to all of you who have been reading them and an even bigger thank you to all of you who have donated to this very worthy cause. If you haven’t done so there is still time and I’ll still be collecting donations after the event.

Had my final ride yesterday – just over an hour in the pouring rain – certainly not what I’d planned. My bike needed a complete re-clean and re-grease afterwards. After my ride I went to see Russell who taped my quad and gave me a final tweak to get aligned. It was then off to registration (race no. 1502) and a very quick swim just to check out the bouys and the sea temperature (not too bad at around 17/18 degrees). The sea was pretty big going out but it’s predicted to ease off for tomorrow with the westerly wind coming in – warmer and flatter hopefully.

Today’s been pretty much admin – sorting out race bags, final checks for the bike, race briefing and plenty of carbo loading. I still need to go back and rack my bike and race bags and then it’s just more carbo loading and feet up.

The plan for tomorrow is to get up around 4:30 to be able to get down to transition at around 5:15 and do the last minute checks. It’s then all go! I’m feeling confident and will play things as I feel on the day – if I’m good I’ll go hard; if not I’ll just take it easy – either way I’m planning on enjoying the day. The hard work is done – now it’s time for the fun!