insanity timeline:

3 sept – stumble upon rad raleigh rc 300 bike at my fave second hand shop. R850 for a bike worth 6 grand new. of course no-one mentioned the additional grand  (i’m sure it was more!) i’d be spending on set-up, cleats, cycling pants, etc. after some prevaricating, i pull out some plastic.

26 sept – go for my first ride at cradle of humankind. ok. this is doable.

21 nov –  the 94.7 cycle challenge; just shy of 100km.

i was most certainly not planning to ride 100km. not  when i’d  only ever been on the road 6 times, only had about 150km under my belt and never done more than 48 in one go. no way in hell.

20 nov – after not riding for most of the  week because of a glute strain, i drive to sandton and sign up at the expo. yeah, call me crazy.

21 nov – we’re in the front of the line at 9pm when the whistle blows for our group. after what felt like an eternity, almost 6 and 1/2 hrs (5h37 in the saddle), 2 falls, 1 puncture, and a few all too short recovery stops later,  i save my last spurt of energy  to pretend to sprint across the line. halle-fricken-lujah. my right knee has been in agony since km 54, i’m exhausted, and i got there  by sheer force of will, but i did it and i have the medal to prove it!

of course my friend  did  it in 3:37, someone else i know did it under 3, but for just doing it, i fricken rock! bring on kilimanjaro! 🙂

exhausted, but delirious... and oh yeah, in the interest of sun-protection, i was the only person in that race covered almost from head to toe!