Showtime!
All the recipes were milling around in my head as I slowly walked to the breakfast room to meet up with Di and Claire. My mind racing and checking, what have I forgotten? Have I prepped everything? Then there was also the news that I had to break to Claire. Especially after yesterdays little trip, anyway I thought, walk in to breakfast and get it over with, just tell her.
Getting the show on the road
It was a cold morning at Cape Town international, our flight was called and we began to board. I heard a clang, looked around and here came my co chef, Claire dragging her bag, casserole pots and pans clanging down the gangway we boarded the ”Mango” bound for the big city of JHB to prep for the “Talk with Noleen” Woolworths winter cooking insert. I helped Claire with the bag, I could not believe the weight, I was just about to comment, when she informed me it was the casserole pot for my dish – so best I ….
Working out how to train
Training in a way is unique to each individual, there are the basics that you can follow, but you have to firstly understand yourself, your body and secondly design your program to slide into the event, especially when doing something a long as what I am attempting, you need to peak on the run and basically build as the event unfold.
Preparing for India
Now begins the hardest parts of the journey. Having done most of the grind, putting of the event together, getting sponsors on board setting up the team, the final planning, preparation and organisation over the past year is now behind me. Now it really starts, the mental and physical preparation, the training of mind and body, getting it to work in unison and slowly pull in the wide angle of focus that one has in normal day to day life, this process now has to bring focus to a pinpoint to culminate in one thing and one thing only and that the run. In order to do this I have to systematically sort out all outstanding things that I am working on. Each time I complete one of the tasks, I feel that the focus is brought in another notch and it's onto the next until the day that I leave for India with no distractions, but the focus of the run. Basically end up with blinkers on to the peripherals around me and just see the run ahead.
A youth day gift
It was my first trip to the magnificent Albert Lutuli hospital in KZN. I was invited to join up with Prof Anil Madre, Mehul and his wife Khushma, of Operation Smile to be part of a magical moment – to experience corrective surgery, giving a child his God given right to a smile. No matter how many times I have experienced this, it is still so heart wrenching to see these little children with their clefts.
