Who I am?

Who am I? Well, that is a rather difficult question as I’m not sure if I actually know the answer. But let me introduce myself to you.

Sandra Boer, a 44 year old single woman from Cape Town, working full-time, who ‘discovered’ sport rather late in life. To be honest, it was only after a failed relationship, a holiday in Nepal and Tibet and a hijack in Cape Town, that I turned to some serious introspection. There’s no point in waiting, waiting till the right person crosses my path, till I have enough money, till………, till………, till………….!

I’m training for something that is the big dream of every Ironman athlete, the most prestigious of all Ironman events, the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. Training for this event has had an enormous effect on the path my life is following. Not only is it giving me physical and emotional strength and testing my perseverance, it is also giving me confidence and the ability to believe in myself. The moral support that I’m receiving from others is unbelievable. People who admire me for my commitment and my dedication to achieving my goals, for my courage to face and overcome my fears and to challenge myself out of my comfort zone. And then there are those people who constantly help me out of my misery, people who inform me about equipment, about nutrition, about training, there is just so much that I don’t know.

Even though I’ve been saying that I want to go to Kona ‘one day’, it now almost feels as if ‘this day’ dawned upon me too quickly. I suddenly started thinking about it more and more after I qualified in PE in March 2007. I am just an average triathlete, with a full-time job, with a mortgage bond to be paid every month, with the normal every day obstacles that we all face in life, some days are easier than others and now I have to train for this big event, plan the trip, get the money together, do everything, all on my own. Can I do this all on my own? Some days I think ‘yes’ but I must admit that there are also many days that I’m not too sure about this. Work is busy, the days are short, Cape Town has been experiencing one of the wettest winters in years, it’s cold and I’ve never trained through winter, but in spite of all of this, I somehow manage to get myself out of bed by 04h45 every morning. ‘Why?’ you may ask, surely it is much nicer staying under the duvet, or at least indoors? Of course it is nice to hibernate like a lot of other people do. But I have this dream, a dream that has become reality, and the mere thought of competing in Kona gets me going. I do, however, go through many a roller coaster ride, emotional ups and downs. It’s not as if there are loads of people out there training at the moment, particularly not long rides or long runs. It does get lonely at times. Often I think I’d rather sleep in, read or drink red wine in front of the fire. But that won’t get me anywhere at this stage in my life. There is a price to pay. But at the end of the day, I’m sure it will all be worth it!

That brings me back to my question: Who am I? I still can not tell you, but what I do know is that I’m certainly discovering and learning lots about myself whilst on this journey that I have embarked on – strengths, weaknesses, how far I can push myself, etc etc. I also know that I embrace the Ironman mantra, “Anything is possible” 100%. This is an incredible journey! And the way I feel now is that this is only the beginning of it. I have so much more to learn, to do, to achieve.

This is how it all started:
I took up running in 2001 and within one year I ran my first marathon (42km), the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon (56km) as well as the Comrades Ultra Marathon (90km). The same running pattern continued over the next three years and I continuously improved my times in the marathons as well as the ultra marathons. In 2005, I achieved a sub five hour result for the 56km Two Oceans Ultra and a sub nine hour result for the Comrades Ultra. Furthermore, I started doing trail running and successfully completed events such as the Three Peaks (running up to Devil’s Peak, then Maclear’s Beacon and lastly up Lion’s Head from Greenmarket Square), the Cedarberg Traverse (a 10-hour event) as well as the Puffer (90km over the mountains from Cape Point to the Waterfront (an 11-hour event).

I took up cycling at the end of 2004. In 2005, I went to support a friend who participated in the Ironman event in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It was the first time that I was exposed to a triathlon. It looked like something I would like to do, but the problem was that I could not swim. Because of a near-drowning experience as a child, I never learnt to swim as I was too scared to put my face in the water. I entered the Ironman SA 2006 event and then started taking swimming lessons (yes, in that order). I literally had to ‘blow bubbles’ (swimming ‘vertically’, basically just putting my head in the water and coming up for air again) for an entire month before my coach showed me how to swim ‘horizontally’. Well, I barely managed to swim one length (25m) in September 2005.

October 2005 saw me doing my first triathlon in Clanwilliam. It consisted of a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. It was a complete disaster! And I mean, a complete and utter disaster! I discovered that open water swimming is completely different from swimming in a controlled environment where one can follow the black line. I had never swum in open water before. Besides doggy paddling, I invented some very weird and wonderful swimming styles. Anything but putting my face in the dark waters of the Clanwilliam dam. I got a serious anxiety attack. The lifesavers wanted to take me out the water. I was crying and hanging onto the first buoy (when I finally got to the buoy). But for some unknown reason, I told the lifesavers to leave me in the water as I had to get through the swim. I was training for Ironman, I told them. They must have thought I was completely crazy! I finished the swim as well as the rest of the race but was emotionally and mentally destroyed. My initial thought was to quit swimming and not do the Ironman. But, the next day I went back to the pool. I had to get this right. I’m not a quitter.

As you might have noticed by now, I think big, very big! I start running, not to do a 5km fun run but to do Comrades. When I was exposed to triathlon for the first time, I decided to do Ironman, never mind the shorter triathlons. And on top of it all, it was right there and then that I had promised myself that one day I would compete in Kona.

The thought of how I would actually get there never really crossed my mind. It’s just something that I believed.

In March 2006, I completed my first Ironman SA in Port Elizabeth in a time of 12h24. I finished 2nd in my age category. It was an unbelievable experience and I was all inspired to do another Ironman! I had no expectations of this event; all I wanted to do was to first of all get through the swim and secondly, finish with-in the 17 hour cut-off time. I must say, I surprised myself.

In March 2007, I completed my second Ironman SA in PE in a time of 11h54. My main goal for this year’s event was to do sub 12 hours. But, to be honest, it was much harder for me second time around. Mainly because I set myself a certain goal and I was watching the clock the whole time. Once again, I finished 2nd in my age category, but the lady who beat me decided not to take the slot so the coveted slot rolled down to me. Words can not describe this feeling! A dream come true!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Cape Town, Ironman, Ironman World Championship, Ironman World Championship 2007, Road to Kona, Western Province, triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.