Cornerstone Fitness

The yellow golf ball

Since I started my practise at 135 Cape road in July 2023, I have often gone for walks on the PE Golf Club to clear my head, get fresh air, fill up quiet times and find inspiration in the beautiful surroundings. On one of the very first of these walks, I was talking to God and I asked Him to bless my business. As we often do, I asked Him to give me a sign that everything was going to be alright. The sign I asked Him for was to let me find a bright neon yellow golf ball.

I must have been for at least 30 of these walks since then, and I kept looking for my yellow golf ball, but I never found one. Lots of white ones, but never a neon yellow one... But I kept hoping. I really needed a sign of good things to come. You know how it works - I was getting impatient, but many times I thought I heard that little voice in my spirit saying: "When the time is right...".

And so my 496 challenge happened, and as I was looking for new routes to explore, I found Humewood Golf course had a trail running all along the perimeter of the course. I started doing many of my runs there, and I loved the sollitude and the shelter from the sun beneath the trees covering the trail.

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a bright neon yellow golf ball... I picked it up and since that day I held that yellow golf ball in my hand on all my runs.

It has been a long time since I first asked for it, and I probably started thinking it wouldn't happen, that it was just a silly idea anyway. But, God kept his promise.
As usual His timing was perfect - different to mine, but perfect, and His place was somewhere else entirely than what I had in mind - but that is what makes it so much more meaningful.

Maybe that is a big part of the reason why I had to take on the 496 Challenge. It was something that didn' make any sense, but it took me to the right time, place and circumstance to receive this special gift. I have been encouraged to look forward to the beginning of something new. The time has come.

I don't know what exactly it means, but I thought I would share the story. Maybe it encourages someone - whatever your bright neon yellow golf ball is - to keep hoping, believing and knowing that God will deliver, always, when the time is right.

I didn't make it.
I could not complete the 496 challenge.
I only managed to run 406km for the month of January.
But, hey, I tried. I gave it my best shot. I really wanted to finish, and the further I got - each time that I completed another day's distance against the odds - the stronger my desire grew to push through to the end.
But at the same time, my body gave in, a little more each day. I was dead on my feet, everything was sore and I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker.
Late afternoon on Wednesday 28 January, I took off from the office, and by the time I reached home for a water break at 11.5km, I was struggling. I decided to rest for a while, before tackling the remaining 16.5km that night. Eventually at 9pm, with another 8km to go, and struggling to put weight on my feet with each step, I felt the Spirit saying: "that's enough, you can stop now". I argued for a while, but then I realised, He was right. I had gone far enough. I knew I would not have been able to run another 90km over the next three days.
Was I disappointed? Yes. Did I feel like a loser? Yes. Did I let everybody down? Yes. Did I feel like I achieved something? I don't know. Did I expect to get this far? Never. I still told Sebastian and Eugene when I started: "I am going to start and see how far I get". I probably had something like day 15 or maybe day 20 in mind, if I was pushing it. So I suppose reaching and finishing day 27 was a miracle, and I do believe that I couldn't get that far in my own strength - I had help from above.
I didn't realise what a toll it took on my body - it is now 5 days later and I am still recovering. That feeling of getting in bed every evening with the body aching from head to toe (literally) was over-shadowed by the feeling of accomplishment - knowing that I was able to get through another day. So, although it was getting harder and harder to get going each day, and I had to really motivate myself to start, I was looking forward to that feeling at the end. But, it just took too long, and the time on my feet compounded the damage.
So, even though I failed, I am glad I tried, and it did teach me something about willpower, discipline, motivation, "vasbyt", pushing through the pain, thinking on my feet, and faith - believing in the impossible.
Maybe I will get fit and try again next January.

Tania and I wanted to do something big to kick off the New Year! And as luck would have it, Sebastian sent this message on 30 December: “Why don’t we do this challenge in January: you start on 1 January with a 1km run, on 2 January run 2km, on 3 January run 3km, etc, until 31km on 31 January. That gives you 496km for the month. What do you say?” Of course there was a lot of back-and-forth banter about how silly that would be, until we came across Sean Conway’s 496 Challenge video and realised it was actually a thing.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18A8YG2vjB/

Now, Sebastian is a runner, I am not. I have very rarely in my life run on 2 consecutive days, and have never completed more than 200 or 250km in any single month - even when I was in peak Ironman training condition. Given the fact that I am currently the heaviest (read: fattest) that I have ever been, and that I have not trained at all since barely scraping through Ironman in March last year, the 496 challenge was a no-go.

But, on January 1st I found myself doing a walk/jog around the block with Tania and Leo (our labrador) for 1.25km. On January 2nd I did 2.1km. On January 3rd I did 3.14km and I have not missed a day since - this evening I completed a 22km run/walk. I have just passed the halfway mark at 253km, with 243km to go. Yes, I know, it sounds stupid…

I’m not sure why I am doing this, it doesn’t make sense. 9 out of 10 clients that I see in my practise, are injured because they do too much too soon, and I make a point of telling them that. But here I am trying to go from 0km to 496km in 31 days. To be honest, I didn’t think I would last very long (neither did Sebastian - he has told me a few times it is ok to stop after 10 or 20km). Even when I was fit and running regularly, running always hurt me. My feet, my toes, my ankles, my shins were always in pain. But somehow, I have kept going. I think without making a conscious decision to take on the 496 Challenge, I knew I had to go for it. Life has been very tough lately, and deep down I need to prove to myself that I am still capable of achieving something worthwhile. And for some reason, the further I get - and the harder each day becomes - the more committed I am and the deeper my resolve to continue and hopefully to finish.

This is what I have learnt so far during the approximately 33 hours I have spent alone on the road:
It is all about having faith. Although I didn’t specifically approach this as a spiritual journey, I have been talking to God about it, and offering it as a sort of sacrifice. I quietly hope that my leap of faith, my daily discipline, my suffering and my commitment will help me grow in my faith, and develop qualities in me that will make me a better person. And I must admit, it is as if I can see the miracle of it all taking shape as I manage to get through each run against all odds.
Just start, even if you don’t feel like it. Day one was easy and I was excited. But each new day became more and more of a mission. Day 22 was very, very hard. Going out to run 22km after I did 21km yesterday, while my feet still hurt, was hard. But once I get out there, it seems to sort itself out and I find ways to get through it.
Just keep moving, doesn’t matter how slow. Throughout every run, there are many times when it gets really painful and tough, and it feels like it is impossible to continue. But then I slow down to a walk and before I know it I feel like I can handle some jogging again. The secret is not to stop. Keep taking one step after another.
Start with a plan, and stick to it - do not get impatient. I know myself, and I need to build up my running very gradually in order to avoid developing injuries - it has always been like that. So, initially I set my watch to beep every 100m, and I planned to start by walking 100m, then running 100m, and repeat for the required distance. Even when it felt like I could run further, I stuck to 100m walk /100m jog. When I reached 5km, I started to walk 100m and jog 200m. By now I have been able to increase my schedule to walk 100m / jog 400m fairly consistently. BUT, I still make a point of walking 100m every 400m, and I believe that has contributed to helping my feet and my legs adjust to the rapidly increasing load. If I had decided to deviate from my plan, I would have injured myself and spoiled my chances of succeeding.
It is going to be sore, but manage the pain. I accepted that I will be in pain, but by sticking to my regular 100m walking recovery and by constantly adjusting my foot placement, my stride length, my stride width, running more on my forefoot or more on my heels, etc, I seem to be able to get through one discomfort and manage it until the next one comes along. The most important factor is to slow down to a walk for 100m when I need it. Even when I have been in the 100m/400m routine, I often have to revert back to walking 100m / jogging 100m for a while, or walking 100m / jogging 200m in order to manage my body. Bottom line - if I don’t manage whatever I am feeling, it will get worse, and then I am in trouble.
Find your rhythm. My rhythm has developed into a walk 100m / jog 400m schedule, and when I find it, it feels like magic. But finding it is hard, and it changes each day. Sometimes I find it within 15 minutes, but today I didn’t find it until about 13 or 14 km’s - and it felt like I would never find it. The secret is to keep looking for ways to get into your rhythm, and keep trusting that you will. Also note that the magic rhythm does not last indefinitely - there comes a time when that magic feeling also passes, and then you just have to “byt vas”.
Don’t stay in your comfort zone for too long. The 100m walk is extremely important, but I cannot become complacent and walk further than 100m before breaking into a jog again. The longer I walk, the harder it is to start jogging again. Take your break, but get back to work as soon as possible.
Trust the process. Going from 9km and imagining I have to do 10km the next day, and 11km the next day seemed impossible, but now I am already going from 22km today to 23km tomorrow. Each day conditions me for the next day and when I keep following the steps and getting better at managing all of these little habits, my capacity increases little by little.
Believe in the impossible. What seemed impossible has now become a possibility, just by believing that I can get through tomorrow, and the next day, end the next. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I must believe that it can happen, and then just maybe it will.
Be thankful for the support. Tania has pushed me to keep going, without pushing too hard - just enough so that it doesn’t feel like pushing. I must say, if she had told me that I didn’t have to go, that it would be OK to stop, I probably would have. So by now, it has also become a goal to reward her support with my effort and show her that I can do it. Even Sebastian has called me an inspiration, that says a lot…
Be patient. Look, I am slow, very slow. And as the cumulative fatigue takes its toll, I am getting slower, but I prepare myself in advance for a long session and calculate roughly how much time it will take. Yes, I do worry that it is taking up too much time - time that I should be using to work, or finding new business or doing admin - but I also see it as time to reflect, develop, learn and improve. This is a classic example of “anything worthwhile doing takes time”.
Ask for wisdom. Even if you have a plan, and you try your best to stick to it, chances are, things do not go according to plan. Then praying for wisdom to adjust is crucial. When things were getting out of hand and my usual tricks were not working to get me over a painful patch, I have had to experiment (mid-run) with changing shoes, inner soles, socks adding ointment, running on grass, etc. This takes some wisdom, and every single time it has helped me to overcome an obstacle and eventually finish my day’s run.

I don’t know if I will finish - and putting it out there for everyone to see adds some pressure - but I am going to try. Who knows, I might just do it…

Somewhere between the plans we kept postponing and the courage we kept waiting for, another year passed.
And honestly… we get tired of telling ourselves “one day.”

This year, we are choosing messy action over perfect dreams.
Showing up even when you feel unsure.
Starting even when you don’t feel ready.

If you’re reading this and you’ve been waiting for the “right time” too, maybe this is it.
Not tomorrow. Not next month. Not next year.
Now.

Here’s to fewer excuses, more effort, and becoming the person you keep imagining! 💪🏻

That's one way to measure a minute😂
A little laugh for today ;)

Some Monday humor!
No exercise is bad… some just hurt a little more than others (looking at you, burpees 👀😂)
Burpees may be public enemy #1, but they build champions🏋️‍♂️

What’s your love-hate move?

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💡 Did You Know?
A simple 10-minute walk each day adds up to over 60 hours of movement in a year 👣

It doesn’t have to be a perfect workout, a big gym session, or a long run.
Sometimes, it’s just stepping outside, clearing your head, and moving a little.
Movement is medicine!
Because every small effort counts, and your body notices the difference, even when you think it doesn’t!💛