26 July – Hatchers Pass: When the race was advertised as the hardest race it the world I just grinned. Today I felt the pain and reality set in as we climbed the 1200m up Hatchers pass. The stage was 50km but it was going to turn out as the hardest 50km of this race. We worked together for the first 30km just keeping a decent tempo and getting ready to dig deep. With around 15km to go Krige raised the tempo as he was now in 3rd and in contention to come in second if he could gain 10 minutes on Chris. I paced with him as we pulled away from the others. With around 8km to go we went around a 180 degree turn and then we saw the wall we had to climb. It was clear that this was going to be every man for himself as we started on the 13% climb. I slowly pulled away from Krige and just kept a tempo that was good for me. It was steep and my muscles were screaming for a break but I knew it was just the last couple minutes to go and it would all be over. Stopping was out of the question. I completed the stage in 2 hours and 11 minutes. Krige came in around 3 minutes behind me but he only made up around 7 minutes on Chris leaving him in third spot. My total time for the race was around 12 hours and 20 minutes. The conditions was tough and the racing was hard but I came here with one clear goal, to get into top racing form for the UCI world champs which will take place in six weeks from now. I feel that that goal has been achieved. Time will tell. 25 July – Lake Louise: What a day! We started our 90km ride this morning and as this race have progressed I’ve been feeling better and better all the way. Our group stayed together for the first 20km with a few early attacks easily covered by the group. We went down a hill and we were going around 60km/h when a sweeping wind grabbed us. I was able to control my bike but Mosandl was not so lucky and he lost control at took the worst tumble I’ve ever seen. As this was a race we kept on going but this event was over for him. He ended up going to hospital and getting 19 stitches to close up all the gashes on his arm. Incidentally a TV crew was right there on the bridge and they got it all. I’m sure the footage will surface on You-Tube pretty soon. With him out of it the team just stayed together trading the lead and keeping the tempo high. I was able to take the sprint with Chris coming in second and Krige 3rd. 24 July – Glenallen: Stage 6 presented us with the first mountain stage of the race. It was raining again and temperatures were dropping very quickly. The race directors decided to shorten the stage after 2 racers suffered hypothermia yesterday and a few came close. So instead of climbing Thompson pass and going down on the other side it was decided that the stage would end on the top of the mountain. The stage started off in the rain again and the group stayed together taking turns on the lead until we got to the base of the mountain. The final 10km would be all uphill at an average grade of 9% which even for ‘normal’ cyclists are pretty serious climbing. Team mate Krige Schabort felt that today would be his and he set a stiff pace. The pack shredded and the contenders dropped leaving only the two of us. We took turns going up against the wind climbing into the clouds. With about 150m to go I had some kick left and took the stage. With this effort I was able to move up around 4 minutes on Mosandl from Germany and I’m now almost 5 minutes in the lead. Tomorrow we do another 90km which will be mostly uphill but it looks like it might be dry! 23 July : Cordova: As predicted the rain was coming down very hard when we got up this morning, not to mention the bitter cold conditions. Initially we decided that today we would not play any tactics and that everybody would share their load of the work in the front. I ended up doing way more than my share but we kept a steady pace. Around half way through the race it was clear that Mosandl was not willing to pull his share of lead and he started refusing to come to the front leaving me in the wind way more than we planned. With around 10k to go we saw some opportunity to buy some time for one of our riders. Chris made a move from behind and I left it to Mosandl to chase him down. He could not and so Chris was able to move away from us and gain some very valuable time. He is still in 3rd spot but only 5 seconds behind Mosandl who finished with me in the same time. I was therefore able to maintain my overall lead of one minute but now we have Mosandl with his back to the wall as he will be riding to defend his 2nd place as we head into the mountains with some climbs of over 1000m waiting for us over the course of the last 3 days. 23 July : Girdwood: Today we faced a fairly challenging individual time trial over some tough terrain. The course was out and back with some really tough climbs and of course it had to rain with some serious winds blowing us around. I felt pretty good and despite somebody spotting a bear on the course and one guy running over a duck all went well. I was able to somewhat redeem myself after my shocking performance on the first time trial. I found good rhythm and was able to take back almost 1 minute on my closest competitor from Germany. That effort kept me in first place and I now have a 1 minute lead. We took a ferry to Cordova which was around 3 hours to get to where the next stage will take place. The course will be a smooth flat 60km race with guess what...rain again! 22 July : Girdwood : Stage 3 played out yesterday just like we planned. The course was a 60km out and back with a bit of a climb coming back. It was very slow and tactical in conditions that varied between heavy rain, winds of over 60km/h and very low temperatures! I pulled my share of the race but saved enough to do one big attack around 5km before the finish on one of the steeper climbs. I got a good gap and kept the pace high to the finish. With that effort I was able to pull back all the time I lost on day one and now I’m in the lead by a mere 12 seconds. Second and third place is divided by 1 second. As we head into a tough time trial today I’m sure the lead will change again. For safety reasons they have reversed the order and I’m going first in our group with a big target on my back! Today is the 3rd straight day that we will be racing in the rain and facing low temperatures as well as winds. This week is going to become a mental challenge as well as a physical one as the weather is make every muscle just a bit tighter, almost just like the winter in South Africa I was trying to get away from! 21 July : Seward, Alaska: After an extended trip of almost 50 hours I got to Alaska 1 day later than planned. The trip started pretty shaky from Cape Town as delays on the Delta flight kept us on the ground in the plane for around 6 hours before we got to take off. In the end I missed my connections in Atlanta and had to overnight, but I got here. ..with all my gear! We faced staged 1 and 2 yesterday only a few hours apart. Stage 1 was a time trial over 23km which was pretty fast but also challenging. I knew this was going to be a long week and I was still dehydrated after the long trip so I kept the pace where I was comfortable. I finished 3rd 44 seconds behind the eventual winner, Norbert Mosandl from Germany. He has come out this season in great shape dominating the time trials in Europe and doing very well in the sprints. For the second stage we did a 20 lap criterium style race in down town Seward. Some time bonuses were up for graps and I had my eyes set on taking back some time. The course over 1.2 km was tight with lots of turns and quite a hill to climb on every lap. It was clear pretty early in the race that nobody could really get away. We had 4 guys for the same team in the race and we used the tactic where we would attack Norbert and leave it up to him to close on the breakaway. With 3 laps to go he actually surprised us and broke away from us. I was the only one with something left having spent most of the race in the back. I took me about one lap to close the gap on Norbert and then we just cruised the last lap setting things up for an exciting sprint. Coming out of the final hairpin turn with 250m to go Norbert had the lead but I was able to come around him and take the lead sprinting up the final climb winning the race and taking the sprint bonus of 10 seconds. Heading into the 3rd stage today I’m trialing Mosandl by 34seconds but it’s going to be a long week with the hardest stages coming towards the end. Today will be a relative easy stage over 60km with a bit of a climb at the end which is bound to spark some attacks for those hunting some valuable seconds. 18 September 2008 : Beijing It’s hard to believe but it’s all done. Last night we had the closing ceremony and I wondered how earth London is going to be able to match what we experienced here during the last 3 weeks. The Marathon : Recap. I glance over and I see the Bronze medal lying next to my Gold medal and I can hardly believe it. 'How the heck did I pull that one off!' is a question I’ve asked myself a few times during the last 24 hours. Yes, it did come as a surprise, that part is certain. I did not feel good after the cycling road race. I felt ecstatic about the gold and it numbed the pain but I knew my body was hurting. A road race of 50k should not have done that much damage, no matter how hard the course and how hard I went but 2 days before I was not in top physical shape and irrespective of that I pushed my body hard, maybe too hard. I realized it during the road race but I pushed through and got the gold I came for. In the two days leading up to the marathon I could feel my recovery was not as fast as it should have been. The thought of pulling out of the marathon had crossed my mind a thousand times. I knew my training in the chair had not been enough for this level of competition. I just ran out of time in the final weeks of getting ready and I had to make a call on focus on that which I though I could win gold in, the Handcycling. And then I went for an easy training ride the night before the race. Although a bit tight I actually felt good and I decided to go out to the race and just to enjoy it. I went to bed completely relaxed and had a good 5 hours of sleep. I woke up at 5 and went for breakfast and caught a bus to the start. Got everything ready, warmed up and joked with the coaches and some cycling supporters that I should take it easy as I still had to finish the race! We took off and I realized that we are going to be a big pack for most of the way. Initially there were around 30 in the group. I jogged in the back of the pack and chatted to some of the other racers. Up in the front of the pack there was a serious battle going on as there were several accelerations by the contenders but none of them really sustained a high pace. As we toured through the city and a few parks some guys started dropping and slowly the group reduced to around 15 racers. For a brief moment I got excited and found myself in the front of the pack setting the pace but a quick twitch and a small spasm here and there reminded me that I should go back to the back and relax. So I stayed there and every time somebody got dropped I went around them and pushed back to the back of the group. I counted down the km and they actually went by fairly fast. With about 5km to go I realized that I’m actually not going to completely embarrass myself and that I will probably finish with the main pack. Much more than I had hopped for! With about 2km to go things got a bit crazy as suddenly we had much less street to work with and the pack was still around 15. I really did not feel like crashing so I moved around the outside to the front just after I avoided a bit of a tangle. We then went around a tight hairpin and I heard that terrible sound of metal on road as somebody went down. Then suddenly another sharp turn and this time the sound of metal was accompanied by a few yells of pain as guys went into barriers and down. As we entered the Birds nest through the tunnel I turned my head and saw there was only 6 of us left in contention for the medals. I had not counted on having to sprint and I knew it was going to hurt but I was second as we entered the track with 500m to go. I dug deep and I guess the effect of the fully packed stadium with the crowed going crazy made me forget about everything and I fought with everything I had. A Japanese racer passed me but I kept going. With about 50m to go I dared to look behind me expecting the wave of racers rushing for the line but I saw only one about 20m behind me. I realized that I had pulled off my first paralympic medal and I just enjoyed every moment of it. I saw Kurt cross the line first, his first gold medal of the games with the Sasahara from Japan right on his wheel and I coasted across the line in third right with them. The time was an amazing 1:23.17, my second fastest time of the year and paralympic record for Kurt. It capped what have been my greatest games. People have started to leave the village today. The selection of food has dramatically reduced, the freezers with ice cream are gone and so are the vending machines. The games have closed and we have packed. Tomorrow we return home to family and friends and I can’t wait to see mine and share my happiness with them! 14 September- Beijing - My Golden Day! After 5 paralympic games, 16 years and 3 sports, I can finally say that I’m a Paralympic Gold Medallist! There had been some very close moments in Athens but today things were finally perfect for me and I claimed my gold medal! After the disappointment of Friday I took it very easy yesterday and completely zoned in on recovering and relaxing for today. I slept a lot better last night and I was relatively calm through out the night. The morning started out cool and I was the first competitor at the venue this morning. I took a few extra moments to take it in a to really appreciated the beauty of it and how lucky I was to be here with the opportunity ahead of me. The race started out exactly as I thought it would. I allowed Alehandro to set the pace up the first hill and we went from 11 to 4 in 30 seconds! I was a bit edgy and threw in a few quick attacks and noticed the 3 other guys kinda looked at each other to see who would chase me down. We played a bit of cat and mouse but we maintained at a fast pace. On the backstretch I had some reminisce of a day in Alaska last year were Alehandro and Oz teamed up against me and they broke me with ease. They were up to their tactics again where one would block me and the other would get a way and I have to accelerate and close the gap. I thought that I would rather race a pro-active than a re-active race and waited for the right opportunity to make it mine. Up the hill on the second lap one of our team coaches shouted that the rider from Spain was in trouble so I picked up the pace and pretty soon I gapped the field. I settled into a comfortable rhythm and decided that rather than play stop and go games with the riders from the states I would ride at my own pace and make them work. I knew they would eventually catch me but I had to take as much out of them as I could while taking care of myself. As the course is very winding I used this to my advantage and each time they could not see me I would accelerate up the hills to increase the lead. This worked for me and at the top of the final climb with 10k to go I had around 20 seconds on them. I stuck to my strategy and when they finally caught up to me going up the last drag towards the finish I had enough energy left in my tank to do one more surge and to claim the lead going into the very technical last kilometer. I stayed calm and just kept the pace so that they could not come past as I knew that to lead into the last 180 degree turn would be very beneficial. We took the turn with serious speed and I went around on two wheels, Oz dropped his chain and Alehandro had to go very wide. All three of us almost stopped but I still came out ahead and I put the hammer down and sprinted with everything I had winning by about 2 bike lengths. We did the 50k course in 1 hour 21 min that translated to a faster average speed than I had for the one lap Time Trial on Friday! I did the medal ceremony and went through doping control and finally made it back to the village. I was completely exhausted and every muscle that worked went into spasm. After a nice long shower and massage I was finally on my own and I could appreciate that I had achieved a goal that took 16 years to complete! I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to compete in the marathon in two days but I will have to see how my body recovers in the next to days before I make the final decision. 12 September 2008 - Beijing Today was going to be my big day to make my mark in Paralympic Handcycling. Everything in the days leading to today showed that I’m in the best form ever and I was mentally and physically ready to go out there to do the best individual time trial the sport has ever seen but it was not to be. Yesterday I developed a slight case of gastro and at first I thought it was just a case of an upset stomach but by the evening I realized it was a bit more. Saw the doc and got something to stop it and got some re-hydration stuff. I did not sleep well during the night and woke up feeling a bit numb, but at this level you need to be able to bag it and focus in the task at hand so I just did that. We left the village at around 7 and headed out to the course. As we drove up I realized that there were spectators just everywhere. I felt hyped up but still calm and went through the whole warm up process and got into the zone. I did notice that the wind was a lot stronger than on any of our training day’s and it was also coming out of the opposite direction which meant we would have a head wind on the steepest climb. I was the last to start, which should have favored me as I could use the splits from the guys in front of me to pace myself. I took off and climbed up the first hill and about half way up realized that I was not feeling well at all. Just 3km into the race it felt like my head wanted to explode and just felt so overheated. After the race I checked the temperature and it was over 36 degrees! So under normal circumstances my pace should have been perfect but when I looked down at my heart rate I realized I was completely in the red zone and I was running at my maximum and there was still 10k to go! This is where the time trial becomes a true test. For some reason management screwed up and there was no other splits for me on the course so I was racing ‘in the dark’ with no idea of how hard I needed to go. My heart rate never came down below 187 for the entire race but I kept pushing as hard as I could. As I came into the last 1km stretch I could see the second ranked athlete about 1 min in front of me. I went as hard as I could but with so little distance left there was not much I could do. I crossed the line 2 seconds behind him but soon learned that there had been two other athletes that went even faster that us. Had I know it was so close between the two of us I probably could have squeezed a few more seconds out of what I had and came in for bronze but things will never be perfect and they were not today. My average heart rate for the 21min time trial today was 189, the highest I’ve ever gone but also the lowest ave speed I’ve ever had so obviously my body was nowhere near optimal today. I just hope that I will be able to recover by Sunday and be ready to give what I had trained for so hard and deliver my first gold medal. Tomorrow I will take it easy and try to leave the disappointment of today behind and get ready for a new day and a new race on Sunday. 5 September 2008 - Paralympic Village I can’t believe tomorrow we will attend the opening ceremony! Time has really gone by pretty fast since we got here. I had the same boring schedule every day with getting up at 6:45 grabbing some breakfast and taking the 45minute drive to the cycling venue. Doing 50 - 60km on it, heading back for lunch, getting a massage, having a nap, going for a jog in my wheelchair, getting some dinner and a few good laughs with some of the team member and going to bed. Live is good in the village but the stress levels are starting to kick in. People are getting more edgy and irritable and sometimes their sense of humor has gone missing, but this is the big league, you don’t get any bigger than this and you’d better be ready for it. I ran onto one of my biggest competitors on the course today and he seemed pretty upbeat! 7 Days before we race and the mental games have already begun. More like mental warfare! I’m guilty myself, spotting some of my competitors from behind and blasting past them like they are busy parking! My latest one is to jump in behind some of the regular cyclists like the Tandems or single leg amps and going really fast with them and you know somehow the news that you are ‘flying’ with reach your target in that team..all games! Last night we had the ambassador’s reception at a very posh hotel. Speeches were made and dinner was served. One remark I found very interesting is that South Africa will take a medal count for Beijing 2008 on the 17th of September 2008. And the success of team SA will be measure with the total count of the medal(s) for the Olympics and Paralympics combined. Somehow in the back of my mind I can’t help but wonder if we will receive the same financial reward as our sole Olympic silver medallist got?..I think not. Two day’s ago I ventured out to the notorious ‘Silk market’. What an experience but one I won’t repeat soon. Basically it’s ‘knock-off’ city with multiple levels like a department store and everything you buy is either a good fake or a very bad fake. You can bargain and bring the price down to around 10% of the price you start off with. The problem is that once they have you in their little cubicle they won’t let go off you until you buy something. I quickly learned the best way to approach this is not to make any eye contact until you see something you really want to buy! So we’ve all heard about the negative media back home that came from an interview with one individual and it came across like the individual was speaking on behalf of the entire team. I’ll give a few lines of my own feelings and impressions: Yes, things have not been perfect but do we really live in a perfect world? We did receive most of our kit in a timely fashion but some items of competition clothing were not appropriate for the conditions or events and those were ordered just as we left home. They have arrived and were distributed amongst the track and field athletes. One however has to realize and except that we are dealing with a multi-sport event and competition clothing for every event has become a very specialized affair. I hope the lesson learned through this has been that from a high performance point of we view SASCOC will have to in future assign and employ a team of highly experienced and motivated people to work on this to ensure that for the next round we have a much better scientific approach to competition kit. We have research institutions in South Africa with highly skilled and experienced people and I’m sure that if the budget is made available they can serve as consultants and work closely with the athletes to make sure the needs of every individual and sport is met. As for our dress for the opening ceremony: the athletes took a vote and we will wear our formal wear to the opening ceremony. We will look respectable but we are going to be so hot! A fair compromise, maybe. Lesson learned; we have some of the best designers in the world and perhaps in future we should tap into that resource so we as athletes can be comfortable to the conditions but still proud of we are wearing and the country we representing. Some other things were complained about but I think they might have just been an emotional response when the ‘last piece of straw’ broke the horses back’. Things are well in Team SA. We are living very comfortable and when possible most of our needs are met. Some have it easy, as their venues are fairly close, some of us have to commute for more than an hour every day to get to training. When there was not ‘official’ transport, it was made available to us my management. Things will not always be perfect but after talking to some of the other teams I’ve learned we are not alone. The athletes who will win medals and perform are those who have mastered the concept of ‘change’ the best. The only constant we have in this world is that we will have to be able to continuously adapt to our environment and circumstances. At the level were we are it should be second nature. 2 September 2008 - Beijing Paralympic Village Yesterday was a very funny but also frustrating day. I’ve never realized how spoilt I am to have the races I got to in the East provide me with an interpreter! We booked 2 cars to take us out to the road cycling circuit. Some how the drivers thought we wanted to go to the Velodrome because when they hear cycling they think track cycling. Once we got there and realized we were at the wrong spot we took out our athlete guidebook with the map (in English!) and pointed to where we wanted to go. At this point I realized that these guys do not real English as they don’t use our alphabet! If we could write the name of the venue in Chinese we would have no problem. So after wasting an hour and eventually getting somebody from the control center that could speak English to tell the driver in Chinese were we wanted to go we were on our way! We got to the road circuit and after all the commotion the coach left the map of the course in the car! So off we went. We pretty much got lost very soon after we left. We just missed one turn and we were stuffed! One lap was supposed to be 12k and after 30k we were in trouble. When we stopped to try and find the way but the public was more interested in my bike than showing us the way! Eventually after 90min we got back to the point we started from but in the blistering heat we decided to head home and come back today to fight another day. The village has been state of the art and the food is really good. I’m still standing strong and I’ve not given in for ice cream or Snickers. I did however ‘award’ myself with one slice of pizza last night after cutting carbs for two days. Mc Donalds will open tomorrow to worsen the temptation!! I picked up some travel damage coming over when I picked up a bag in an awkward position and somehow injured my rotator cuff. Nothing serious but just a bit of discomfort. I’ll have a sonar scan later tonight to pinpoint the area so the physio can target the right muscle without aggravating something else. Nothing to worry about but I am being extra careful. We headed back to the road circuit today and after discussing the course in depth with the other racers I knew exactly where to go. The course is a tough one. Quite a bit harder than the one we had in Bordeaux last year. I prepared for a worst-case scenario and this is the worst-case scenario! There is a considerable amount of climbing and the course is very technical as well. Some real scary fast down hills with some very tricky hairpin corners at the bottom. The road race is going to be a thinker’s race and should be good. Heading out now for some easy marathon training around the village. 31 August 2008 - Beijing Paralympic Village Yesterday was a very long day. It’s always a bit harder for me to travel with a team than when I’m on my own. It takes quite a bit of patience, as I’m so use to doing my own thing. We finally made it to Hong Kong where we were informed that myself and another staff member from SASCOC would be on an earlier flight. I got really concerned as our entire luggage was suppose to be in one container and now they were going to take things out and I could just see my equipment getting lost. We got on the plane and as I stared out of the window a truck droved up to the plane and I saw them load ALL my equipment onto the plane! The really amazing thing about this was that our luggage tags only said Hong Kong so how they were able to get all my stuff out of the team container and to our plane rally blows my mind. I can’t imagine the guys at Johannesburg ever being this efficient! So we got to Beijing with the rest of the team supposedly 2 hours behind us so we had to wait for them. 5 Hours later they showed up! Apparently they had some accreditation problems with some of the team members and needed some time to clear passport control. We got to the village at around 21:30 and what a village we have!! For the first time I can honestly say we got a village that is better than the one we had in 1992 for the Barcelona games. The Chinese truly went the extra mile on this one and this place is truly exceptional. Unlike Athens the village was truly ‘finished’ some time ago and the gardens are beautifully landscaped in Zen style. They have rock playing music!! After staying here for one day I can honestly say that the food is GOOD! I can see a few of our team member already giving in to the temptations, as there is chocolate and ice cream on every corner. I’m doing my best to stick to my diet and to keep the weight off that I had lost in the last couple of weeks. Went for a ride today around the ‘Birds nest’ and the ‘Cube’ just to loosen up a bit. The weather today has been really nice with mild temperatures and low humidity so I’m hoping that it’s going to stay like this. Tomorrow I’m heading out to the road circuit tomorrow to finally judge for the course for myself and I’m really looking forward to it! 28 August 2008 - Johannesburg In around 1 hour we will be departing for the airport. So far things have gone well and I'm going to be boarding fit and healthy. My training has really gone well the last few weeks and all thanks must go to my training partner Ashly Kulsen who was there every day pushing me to my limits. It might surprise some of my followers to learn that my focus in Beijing will be the Handcycling events and not the marathon. The thing is that I've never won a paralympics gold medal. Some time ago I sat down and I looked at the Handcycling course and the marathon course as well as the competition. The marathon will be mostly flat with very long straights finishing in the stadium on the track. This translates to a race that will have 10 - 20 racers sticking together in the group and coming in for a sprint. The reality is I’m 35 years old now and for me to honestly believe that I can sprint with the young racers will be very unlikely. If I put everything into it I might have a serious shot at a medal, but a gold medal...very unlikely. So that brings us to the Handcycling. The course in Beijing is pretty tough with lots of climbs. I'm a good time trial racer and a decent climber. I also won the only two gold meals available for Handcycling at worlds last year. So I think you can understand that it was not really brain surgery for me to figure this one out! I've trained really hard. My equipment is state of the art and I feel confident and ready. However before I can line up a lot of things have to go right for me and the next couple of days will be crucial. For now I'm looking forward to the trip and getting to Beijing! 9 April 2008: Home As I'm getting ready for this trip there is a few things going through my mind. Of course the first thing is that I hope and pray that I will make it to all three of these events with ALL my equipment!! I'm going to be competing in 3 marathons on 3 continents in a time span of 2 weeks...I know, pretty crazy. These 3 marathons are however some of the top 5 that we will have in a season to compete in. The money is good, the courses and competitors excellent and the events extremely well organized. Last year I attempted the same trip and came home with a 3rd in Boston, a 4th in London and a 6th in Seoul. Not my best results but I had my reasons. Some technical and some personal. The rest of 2007 was not good for me. The highlight was winning double gold at the Handcycling world champs...but that's cycling. Now we are talking about marathons. Towards the end of the season I did pull of 3 good wins and in Newcastle I beat Kurt in a tough fast half marathon with a very cruel sprint in the end. I was one of two guys to beat Kurt in 2007. In Oita I went back and won after finishing in 9th place the year before. It was also my best time for the season. Then there was the NY incident... This year things have been ok but I'm not happy at all with my current form. There are a few reasons for this. I got sick twice in the last 8 weeks that have really held back my preparation. I carried a wrist injury after a nasty car accident a few weeks ago. But I've worked through it and I'm in the best form I can be in with the current circumstances. As a dedicated student of my sport I've always believed that I will rather go into a series of events slightly under trained than over trained. When you are over trained you can only go backwards, however, when you are under trained (slightly!) there is always the possibility that you can race yourself into shape. I'm counting on this! Thinking about the races ahead. London is a nasty course. She does not gel with my style of racing at all. Lots and lots of turns. The field is deep and strong. It's looking like rain at this stage. I hope to be there for the sprint in the end. Anything can happen in a sprint. Fast guys will be Kurt, Dave, Saul and Krige. Kurt because he is tough and does well on a course like this, Dave because of his knowledge of the course, Saul because he is one tough customer and he knows how to survive and finally Krige because of his ability to race well on a course with lost of turns and he is as hard as nails. Looking towards Boston it will be a 3 way game. Soejima will be defending his new title, he is fast and he is fit. Krige because he is in form and he has the same strengths like I do on that course, and of course myself, Boston is my second home, I need a 7th victory and I know the course better than anyone! If I've got something left there will be Seoul. A tough but fast course. Last year a few did 1:22 there; I came in on 1:24. I think it will come down to Kurt and Soejima again. I hope that I will in the mix somewhere in the end 28 October 2007: Oita Japan I raced the Oita Marathon in Japan today. Last year I finished in 9th place and was really a bit shaken with the result. This year I came back determined to take back this race as I personally rate this race as a true test because of the fairness of the course and the quality of the racers. I was ranked nr 11 for the race and ‘Yes’ I’ve not had a great season but still thought I was not that bad. The Japanese media had written me off as a contender and I was not even invited to the pre-race press conference. So I absorbed all of these emotions and kept it for race day. The race took off with tremendous speed and the pace for the first 10k was a killer. I decided before the race that I would hang back and just wait for the race to unfold as nobody really expected me to do anything. So I just did that. I got in behind one of the top Japanese racers who have had a great season and he broke my streak in Boston. But I quickly realized the pace was too high for him and he was struggling. I went around him and closed the gap to the main back. That was the last I saw of the race favorite. The main pack was around 12 elite racers and it as clear who was on fire. I just tried to stay in the front of the pack and kept with the top 5. With about 7k to go there was still 10 of us left but then in a narrow stretch things got to tight and some racers made a few mistake and two of the top dogs went down hard. Last years winner from Japan and Heinz Frei from Switzerland were in the middle of it. The dynamics of the race changed and I moved up into 3rd place. With 3km to go I took the lead and set a quick pace going into the last 500m on the track. I accelerated and nobody and anything left to challenge. I won in 1:23.22 with a Japanese in second and a Spanish racer in third. I set my best ‘legal’ time of my career, as our times from Boston do not count. Tomorrow I will start the journey to New York where I will line up on the weekend for the toughest race of the year. Things are looking good. 21 July Stage 8 Distance 13.35km Time: 18.38 Ave Speed: 43km/h Ave Heart Rate: 179bpm Place: 1st The tour ended today with the final Time Trial. I wanted to beat my time from 2 years a go but we faced a slight headwind so I missed my old record by 3 seconds.I however did win the stage by two seconds which was a good confidence booster going into Worlds next month. In my opinion albour is the best TT racer in the world so to beat him after a race like this is a pretty good feeling! 20 July 2007 Stage 7 Distance: 80km Time: 2:22.30 Ave speed: 33.8km/h Ave heart rate: 157bpm Place: 1st Same as yesterday but the only differnece is that today we faced a stiff headwind all the way. So we stuck together and just raced the clock and the wind. We decided to leave the sprint to the last mile. I took off with about 800m to go and my speed peaked at 54km/h...but it was not yet at the line and I started to fade. Albour came back hard at me but I was able to hold him off for the photo finish. 19 July 2007 Stage 6 Distance: 82km Time: 2:13.22 Ave speed: 37km/h Ave Heart Rate: 162bpm Place 1st Today was more of a high speed training workout than a race. It's pretty clear now that the placings should remain the same for the rest of the race and no more funny tatics was needed. so we just went as hard as we could for as long as we could. In the end we had a really good ride and we opened up for the sprint which I took. 18 July 2007: 17:10, No idea where I am! Today we faced two stages: Stage 4 Distance: 9.7km Time: 21:21 Ave Speed: 26.1km/h Ave Heart rate: 175 Place: 2nd This stage was a hill climb individual time trial. I deceided to take it a bit easier than I would normally to save some power for the second stage. Stage 5 Distance: 46km Time: 1:16.50 Ave Speed: 36km/h Ave Heart Rate: 175 Place: 1st Finally I was able to pull off a stage win. I took off early in the race and this time I was able to time it right. Albour and Sanchez worked together again but this time I was able to hold on to my lead till the last 100m when Albour caught up to me and this round I had something left and was able to out sprint him. It was a solo effort and the head wind made it pretty tough on my own.I'm starting to recover a little bit so tomorrow should be intresting again. 17 July 2007: 14:33, Denali Distance: 82km Time: 2:34 Ave Speed: 32km/h Ave Heart Rate: 171 bpm Place: Second Today was pretty hard. 82km of all uphill with a steep climb for the last 15km. Albour and Sanchez teamed up against me and the attacks were relentless. It was hard to find a comfortable pace and one of the two was shooting off all the time while the other blocked me. It might seem unfair to some but this is what cycling is all about..tactics. Albour knew he had to wear me out before the hill as we faced a 1.6km climb to the finish. And they just did that. By the time we hit the last hills I was seriously in pain and when he made his move I tried to respond but could only do so for a short while and then he was gone. He put in an increbile effort and beat me by 6 minutes over the last 15km. Sanchez paid the price for playing along and he was almost ten mintues behind Albour on the end. I knew the race would be deceided over the first 3 days and at this stage it looks like it is all Albour on this one. There is still however a lot of racing left and a lot can still happen. Tomorrow we face two stages kicking off with a hill climb time trail followed by a 48km stage. I tried my best with what I have at the moment but I am surprized by how much Albour have improved since I raced him in 2005. We completed today's stage almost 20 minutes faster than in 2005. That is a lot of time! 16 July 2007: 22:50, Nenna Distance: 78km Time: 2:40.53 Ave Speed: 29.2km/h Ave Heart Rate:181bpm Place: Second What a day. We started the first climb and I took the lead. After about 5km I somehow pulled away from the group and I quickly built up a good lead with out putting more effort into it than needed. By the time I crested all the climbs (around 42km) I had built up a 2 min lead. I was however starting to feel the burn and cramps started to settle in. I was not aware that behind me Albour and Sanchez were working together pacing off each other and slowly gaining on me. The wind picked up over the last 30km and I was really batteling. It was never the plan to be in the lead for the whole race on the first day and it was hurting a lot going against the wind on my own. With about 500m to go Albour caught up to me and blew by me, I had nothing to react with so I just kept the pace to the end. He now has 21 seconds on my after two days. So I guess I won't try to pull this off again soon. My fitness is not what it should be for a race of this caliber so from now on I have to be really smart if I want to make back some time on him. Tomorrow is a long steady climb for 48 miles with a few hills at the end and then a 2km climb to the finish. If there is anywhere to make a serious move it will be up that last climb and I'll try to steal back some time. 15 July 2007: 21:30, Fairbanks Today saw the race kick off with a Prologue over 3.7km...not really a long way but if you just got off a 40 hour flight it can really hurt...and hurt it did! I finished second 3 seconds behind Albour, which is ok for now. The next guy in my division was 13 seconds behind me. Tomorrow is going to shape this race. As we were driving over the course today my jaw just dropped looking at the climbs. It's one thing to look at them on an elevation profile and something completely different to seeing them in real life! It's going to be very hard to take in and appreciated this incredible enviroment we will be racing in, it's truly beautifull up here! 14 July 2007: 21:30, Anchorage The night before the race kicks off. Got here late last night. Had a good sleep and went for a easy ride today. Equipment check went good and I'm all set to go. In the morning we have the time trial and then the 8 hour drive to Fairbanks, so it's going to be a long day with us getting the pre-race briefing at 06:45! Still trying to get use to the sun setting at midnight! I don't know when my next post will be as we are going into Fairbanks tomorrow and I'm not sure where I'll connect, but follow the results on the official race site on my home page. Not even my cell phone is working up here! 13 July 2007: 11:15, Washington Arrived in Washington this morning at 6:00. My nerves were killing me as I was waiting for my luggage and even though it's Friday the 13th it was all here!! So I'm currently hanging out in the lounge waiting for around 8 hours to catch my flight to Anchorage. By the time I get on this plane I would have been traveling for 28 hours, then just another 7 hours and by 10pm tonight, I shoulde be in my hotel. So to get to Anchorage from South Africa would have taken me around 40 hours of travel! Saturday I will have an easy day, put my bike togehter and go for and easy ride to get the stiffness out of my body. Stage 1 will be a 3.6km Time trial, an all out sprint effort after all this travel! Enough to hurt the rest of the way. Day two is going to be ugly. 82km of climbing right off the gun. The race will be made on this day and who ever get a considerable lead on this stage could win the whole tour. The first two days will be important. I did not have a lot of time to prepare for this one, so i'm going to have to be smart..very smart. 6 November. 06h45 I finished 4th in the NY marathon yesterday. Last year I won it, but I called it a fluke then and I still do. Before I won it I’ve always been 3rd or 4th here. This is the toughest race you will ever do. It favors the climbers and it hurts the big guys (and I’m one of the big ones!). But I love the race and I will always come back for more of everything this race gives us. Even if it is just about digging a little deeper and finding out a bit more about yourself. One image that will stay with me for a while; we had the press conference and all the best runners in the world were there. Suddenly we were told we had 10 min to clear the room because Lance Amstrong was coming in to do his own press conference! Only in NY. How did the race go down? Kurt has been pushing really well the last 6 months and in my mind he was the favorite. He is an excellent climber and he is fit and confident. The race starts with a 1km climb and he goes off like somebody doing a 100m sprint! I chase as hard as possible but there is only so much you can do and then gravity kicks in. Two of the other good climbers from Mexico pass me but even they can’t keep up with the kid form down under. After about 3k I catch up to the two Mexicans in front of me and Krige joins us as well. I’m still chasing as hard as possible to get closer to Kurt as we can see him not far in front. The rest is just sitting in behind me. I ask for somebody else to take the lead but nobody wants to help. After about 15k I ask the question since nobody is willing to help set the pace, ‘so are we racing for second?’ The lack of reaction convinces me that we are and the pace slows down a lot. By then I’m pretty tired and after about 5k we hit a series of hills and the climbers start their attacks. I counter about 3 or 4 of them but eventually after a lot of cat and mouse games I can’t keep up and they leave me behind. With about 5km to go I see one of them in the distance in front of me and I push my self to the limit to try and sneak into 3rd. But not today. We take the final turn to the finish and I run out of road to close the gap. And so we finished, Kurt with a new course record, the two Mexicans and them me. I’m satisfied with this for now. I know where I am and what I need to do in the next couple of months to get back to the top. First step will be a new chair in December. My current one was a replacement for the one I crashed with in April and I never went to the factory to have it made so there is some measurements on it that’s a little out and on the level where I race it makes a big difference. I need to get back in the gym and build my strength and I need lots and lots of miles. But motivation is high. Somebody important in my life recently pointed out that you are only as good as your last race. This was my last race for the season, which means for now I’m 4th. Lots of room for improvement! The season was really not a bad one. I won 5 major marathons. I set a course record in LA with and incredible time. I won the Boston marathon for the 6th consecutive time. I won the 1500m on the track at the US nationals. The last 4 months were not the greatest but at least I know why and how to make the difference. The 1st test will come in January when I head down to Sydney to start the season with the Summer Down Under Series so watch this space. 29 October: 17:00 So the race went down at 11:00 this morning. I was feeling good and confident about the preparation I had done. I was feeling way better than last year when I won. So things were looking good. Now the race is done. I’m a bit confused, angry and shell shocked. I did my second fastest time for this season and probably on of my top 10 performances ever...but I could only manage a 9th place. Last year I won this race in windy conditions with a time of 1h26. This year, in warm windy conditions again, I did a time of 1h25. The first 20 racers probably went under 1h26, which is really incredible that the sport has achieved such a high standard in just one years’ time. But I don’t race for time. I race to win and today I failed. I have no excuse. We raced a hard pace and the pack was pretty big with about 30 racers in it. I tried to stay close to the front as this course has quite a lot of turns and with a big group that is always a high-risk situation. With about 12k to go there was about 20 of us left in the group. There was one Japanese racer about 100m in front of us but since the top Japanese racers were in our group and they did not look very worried and did not pay much attention to him. It was pretty clear he was fading and we were gaining on him. With about 10k to go we took the last 180-degree turn and for a moment my concentration let me down and I took the turn like an amateur. I lost contact with the front guys but since nobody had been able to get away I did not worry too much about giving up the front of the pack. I settled in the middle of the pack but then after about a km I noticed the front markers were a bit too far away. The pack had split into two and because I was in the back halve I missed the break away. For the next 9km I tried with everything I had to get back to them. We were going into the wind and we were all pretty tired. At one stage I noticed we were only 30seconds behind so I tried even harder and a couple of km later we were so close I could almost get into the back of the group but by then we were getting close to the finish and they started going for the finish so their pace picked up a lot. By then I was very close to my limit and had nothing to react with so they moved away...again. We came into the stadium and one of the Japanese (who recently won bronze in the marathon at worlds) was just in front of me. We were also gaining on some of the back markers from the lead group but I had nothing left in the tank so I just sprinted with what I had to secure my place. So I’m back in the room. Pretty tired and disappointed. But that is sport. There is a winner and then there is the rest. Today Sasahara Hiroki from Japan was the winner. He was second behind me twice last year. He learned from it and today he came out tops with a new Japanese record and the biggest win of his career. Kurt Furnly from Oz came in second and Choke Yasohoko came in third. All in 1h24 and about a minute in front of us. Not bad for 42.2km on a windy day. Next stop for me will be New York next Sunday. Lots of traveling till then and loads of time to reflect. One thing is pretty sure, in the next 3 months there is going to be a lot of training. I’m fit and fast but no longer in command and I want that back. 28 October. 11:30 So I’m in Japan. Took a very long time to get here, first to JHB, then Hong Kong, couple of hours later I took a flight to Osaka. Got to there in the afternoon. Waited for a bus to take me to the domestic airport, which in typical Japanese peak traffic took about 2 hours on the ‘expressway’! Waited for a couple of hours and then caught my domestic flight to Oita. All of this in a country where English is not a priority.Was ready for another 2 hour bus ride to my hotel when I got here but the organizers decided to surprise me and I got a ticket to take a hovercraft to the hotel!! So it only took me 30min to get to my hotel...what a blessing! When you are down and out it’s the little things that makes the difference! Had a good nights sleep. My equipment would only arrive late in the afternoon so no training for the day. I decided to take the time to visit a koi farm(since it’s my favorite hobby!) and see the origin of those little fish I so much enjoy. There was a decent ‘farm’ pretty close to the hotel so I headed out there with my interpreter. I made some great friends and they decided to take me to one of their top clients to see some real koi. It turned out that this pond housed the current grand champion of the area. I was amazed as I stared into a 60 000l indoor pond with around 80 jumbo koi (+75cm). It was an incredible sight and the owner caught some of the top ones and showed them off. Was amazing!! Something to strive towards in my personal pond! In the afternoon my equipment finally arrived. I assembled everything and made sure the airlines did not inflict any permanent damage....all was well. Went to bed early and got up at 6 this morning to go for a light workout. Went for a 15k stroll with Kurt Furnley from Oz and since we are the two top dogs from the South we worked on a strategy on how to race the Japanese. This is their race and this year they have been coming on very strong and there is quite a few of them so we had to go into this with a plan. We came up with something we think will work and we will have to see tomorrow how in works out in a real race situation. Later today is number pickup, followed by a very intense press conference(talking to the press via interpreteds is not the most fun thing I've ever done!) and then later it’s the official opening function to welcome everybody and whish them a good race. Tomorrow is race day... October 2006 I’ve not update my site for some time. I’m sorry for this. Things have just been so hectic and my life has taken a new turn. I’ll just recap of where things have been going since the last time I wrote in this diary. After the Cedartown 5k we head off for the US nationals in Atlanta. I raced a couple of track events with my best results coming in the 1500m which I won plus a second in the 800. Then it was time for Peach Tree. Since I won this race in 2001 I have not had a good run there with 4th and 5th places being the order of the day. Again we took off playing a cat and mouse game and then the big down hill. This time it was just Krige, Kelly and I at the bottom. After the first hill Krige launched a big attack. I stayed behind Kelly since he is the better climber of the two of us. Big mistake as Kelly was not up to his usual form and Krige quickly got away. I got out behind Kelly and climbed pretty well. Saul soon joined me and later pulled away from me. Just before we hit the final downhill Kurt and Gordian got to me but with a down hill finish I knew I had 3rd place in the bag. My best finish in years at Peach Tree. I got home a few days later and the weather was just not great for training with a lot of rain all the time. I also started working for Fidentia. It was a tough decision for me to give up my ‘full-time athlete’ status but things have not been easy. Although I’ve been winning a lot and making good money it has just not been enough to be able to put away some for the day when I retire. So an opportunity came along and I took it. It meant a little more security for us and if we want to start a family we will need it! So during the weeks of July/August I starting working and it was a pretty interesting experience coming from a pure sporting background into the corporate world. So for a few weeks I was shell shocked and it was raining all the time so training was not going well. Leading up to worlds this was not the ideal scenario but as with all things in life there is a time to prioritize tings. I’ve been traveling and racing a lot the last 6 years but now it was time to think bigger than just myself. So I went to the Swiss nationals leading up to worlds knowing I should have stayed home. Needless to say I got my ass seriously kicked and the kicking kept on going at worlds. I did not qualify for the 1500m final…..and was only able to pull off a bronze in the 800m. The marathon course was an absolute nightmare. This course would have give any cyclist on a full suspension mountain bike a great race…but a quality field of 60+ wheelchair racers was not going to work! There were a lot of close calls in the race; lots of racers went down hard. The Japanese was flying and making us hurt. I was not sharp enough and every time there was an attack I lost ground and had to work hard to make it up and it happened a lot. In the end, going into the wind with 5k to go, they dropped us. In my little group that got dropped were Saul Mendoza and Krige Schabort, two of the best marathoners in the world, so although it was bad being dropped, reflecting on my level of fitness it was not to that bad! When we finally got in sight of the finish line I could feel some muscles in my back starting to go into some serious spasm so instead of sprinting for 4th and risking injuring myself I held back and watch the other guys fight it out. I came in 7th which was not great at all. So I’m back at home and finally the weather is great again. I’ve settled into my new routine of training and working and things are going really good. I’ve got 5 weeks before Oita and NY and 5 weeks is a lot. It will take some time to get back to the kind of form I had in April but I know how to get there and I’m working on it! June 2006 So here we at the end of June. Two races down in the US tour and a couple to go. So far I have two 3rd places. At this stage last year I had 2 1st places. I have not been in ‘this place’ for quite some time. Going into a race and knowing although I might be up there with the top contenders storming to the finish line I lack the sharpness to go for the line in first place. The last two months has been a bit of a roller coaster ride but I’m slowly getting back into form but I know it will take some time. Where did it go wrong this season? I lined up for the London marathon with 3 good wins in LA, Paris and Boston behind me. I felt very relaxed as it was raining and I know I’m good in the rain. Gun went and we got going. It was clear very early in the race that it was a course record day and David Weir (eventual winner in course record time) was pushing the pace. 5k into the race and we hit the only real fast downhill on the course. We make a right turn and I’m going 58km/h. For some reason I spin out of control and I hit the curb, fly onto the air and I go through some paramedics standing on the corner. My chair is a wreck and my body is a mess. It took about 3 weeks to heal properly to where I could start training again. I started very slow and got into it quickly. I had to spend some time to get the chair straight enough to be able to train with it again. Then we went off to Spain for the Laureus awards. We had a great time and to my surprise I got the biggest award of my life as I was named the Sport star of the year of 2005 in my category. From there I went on to Switzerland. It started off with a track meet. I had not been on a track since July 2005 so it was interesting. We started with the 1500m. David Weir was in great form and won every race on the day setting two new world records and breaking my 400m-world record. I decided some time ago to retire from the sprints so it was all in good timing. I got a 3rd in the 1500m, second in the 5000m and 1st in the 800m. Then we moved on to the marathon. We got a very windy day but Krige and myself was working together very well and eventually we were able to break away from the pack. I got 1st in the sprint and he came in second. Got back home and had a cold for two weeks which really messed up my training. And of course still no new chair. The new chair finally arrived two day before I left for the states. The thing about a new chair is that it is like new shoes. Although it’s exactly the same size as the old one it still takes around 2 weeks to settle into it. So I went to Toronto after just two training sessions in it. I could feel I was not sharp at all and it felt like I was pushing in slow motion. The race went ok and I was able to hang in the group. After 4k I noticed my right wheel had come undone. I was able to hang around till the finish but could not contend for the line. I settled for 3rd with Saul and Kurt getting a draw for the finish…whatever! Went to Cedartown for the week to train with Krige and I realized he is in great shape and he was kicking my butt everyday in training but it slowly got better. We went to Long Island and we got another wet day. Choke went off like a bat out of hell and it was the last thing I needed….a fast start! But I got into it and after about 2km I was able to close the gap. Choke dropped off soon after that and it left Kurt, Saul, Krige and me. The pace stayed high. With about 800m to go Kurt made a big move and it took me just that little bit too long to react. Taking the turn to the finish I was in 4rth place. In the last 200m I was able to pass Saul and finish in 3rd place. Kurt 1st and Krige second. The time was great considering the conditions. So we are back in Cedartown for the worlds fastest 5k. Last year Kurt and I had a photo finish with the victory going to Kurt. April 2006 Paris Two down, two to go...what a month, but at this rate it allready is a very good month! Paris was ok but pretty cold and after trying to get away form the pack a couple of times and them getting back to me I left it to the sprint. It went down as a 5 man sprint and I was lucky to take it. It set the right platform for this race and nothing beats confidence. Boston The week in Boston was a good one. Busy but good. Spaulding confirmed that they will continue to be my financial sponsor. I did a talk for the EMC Corporation and the CFO gave me another sponsorship of $10 000 for this year! What a day! So we got down to the race today. I was relaxed but also nervous but at the right level. The gun went off and they control our start like always and then they let us go. I took the lead but was cautious. I got one of the slower coasters between me and the top contenders. We went up the hill, I went up one gear and I had the gap I needed and from then on I just worked it. It was cold and we had a head wind. It was hard, bottom line. I worked my lead and by the mid point it was up to two minutes. I kept going and when I came down to thet finishing straight I felt a feeling of relief! I had 6 in the bag, one down to equal the record...one more to beat it! I think I have that left in me. March 2006 LA Marathon I just got back from LA. Sorry for the late report but my computer could not connect in LA for some or other reason that I yet have to figure out! I had a great time in LA. Got there on Tuesday and stayed in Redondo beach keeping off the radar and doing some good quality training with Kurt, Kenny and Saul. On Satuday we made the transfere into the city and I opted for a rest day when the others went out for a push. I was still feeling a little tired after the long trip just after I finished the Argus Cycle tour of 109km around the Cape Point. Come race morning and I felt great. The gun went off and I went off! After 1 mile I looked behind me and I had a small gap on the chase pack. Deceided I did not feel like a race on my own and this course does not really allouw for a breakaway to last. So I settled into a comfortable pace and just waited for the pack to roll up to me. It never happened. After a while I could not see them anymore and then I knew, this could be a good day for me. I just maintained the pace I started with and I went though the half waypoint in just over 39min. The first halve of LA certainly is a fast one but then you start to climb out of that hole you just rolled into. I focussed on my rythm and just tried to keep the pace going. Got to the finish in 1:24.48, smashing the course record by more than two minutes and the biggest surprize to me was when the rest came in almost 8 minutes behind me. I've just come off base training and I will only start my speedwork now for the comming races. So for me to post such a fast time so early in my season was a bit surprizing and I hope it is a forcast of great things to come this season. Next stop...Paris. November 2005 NY Marathon Well, I guess its safe to say I just pulled off the biggest surprise of this year in road racing! I’m back in my room just slowly going everything that has happened in the last week but I should start at the beginning. So I won in Japan exactly one week ago. Jumped on a plane, went back to South Africa, slept over, got my wife and jumped on a plane to NY. The travel alone was enough to kill any hopes for this race and for a while I was very tired. We got over here, settled in our hotel and on Thursday I went out in central park for a push and I was feeling a bit numb. Friday I went out with Krige, Kelly and Jeff and it was a quick fast 10k but just enough to wake my body up and I was feeling pretty good. We do all the media stuff and it becomes clear that this is the best field ever put together for a marathon. The field is deep with lots of good racers as well as plenty of newcomers. My hopes for a 5th consecutive marathon win for 2005 disappears.. Race day. I get up at five, get packed, have some breakfast and we get on the busses. On my bus is more than halve the top men’s field. We get going and after about 10 minutes things goes terribly wrong. The bus we are in goes down a road and suddenly we are stuck in some construction and we cant go forward or backwards as we wedged in between a fence and some concrete barricades. Worst is we can’t even get out the doors as it is blocked. Eventually after lost of screaming(not by us!) the driver just about tears his bus apart and they get us out of there. But have lost some major time. We get to the starting line just in time to jump in our chairs, do a quick warm up and we are off. I decided before the race that I would go hard up the first bridge just to make sure I don’t fall off the back of the pack like last year. It pays off and after the downhill I’m still in the race. I look behind me and there is a pretty big pack. After going back and forth in the pack for 5k I look back again and we are down to 6 racers. Big contenders like Saul Mendoza(defending champ) and newcomer David Weir is no longer with us. The attacks are coming and the climbers are putting the hammer down. After a while we loose Jeff Adams after a fast decent. The wind is in our faces and it will be hard for Jeff to get back to us. After a while we can’t see him anymore. Now we are down to 5 and that means I’m in the money! We are going downhill and I’m in the lead. The camera guy on his bike is way to close to us and he is messing us around. So we are going down pretty fast and suddenly there is a manhole cover that has sunk about 1" so it has a pretty big metal lip. I swerve and my left back wheel catches it but somehow (maybe it’s because it’s a conti!) it does not pop. I however do hear two tires pop behind me. One was the front of race favorite Kurt Furnly and the other was that of my countryman Krige Schabort. A flat front is not that bad and usually one can hang on to the back of the pack. Krige is however not going out with a fight and he is actually attacking, flat tire and all on the up hills. So we stick together and the attacks are still coming but they have become much shorter. We go down an alley and we take a sharp left turn. Krige hits it to fast and he slides on his flat front tires and he is off the course and out of it. More attacks. We are down to 4. Kurt has a front flat and Kelly has a right back tire that is rolling. We go up a steep bridge. More attacks. Kurt and Gordian get away. It’s a steep long climb. My body is aching my muscles shot. The lactate is killing me but if they get away they are gone. I fight the pain, I scream at myself and they keep on creeping away from me. We crest the hill and Kelly is back with me. We draft of each other and we get back to them. More attacks. We take a sharp left and Kelly’s back tire goes pop. Down to three. Now it a cat and mouse game, stop and go, stop and go. Last 5k. Kurt puts in a huge attack on a very long hill but the race has caught up with him and he slows down. I close the gap. We enter central park. This is my time. We hit a small downhill and I put in an attack. Payback time! I don’t drop them, I recover, another decent, payback time and this time I get away. I work the lead and it’s getting bigger. Last mile and I’m pretty sure I’ve got it. I cross the line, media etc..somewhere in the crowd I see my wife in tears. I get the news that I’ve broken the course record! So I’m back in my room. 5 marathons this year...5 victories, one course record....time for a break!!! October 2005 Oita Marathon Japan Each time I get ready to travel to Japan I seem to have forgotten what a journey it is to even get here and every time it catches me off guard! After 28 hours traveling I made it to Osaka…then I had to overnight, take a hour bus drive the next day to the domestic airport, catch another flight and take another hour bus ride to finally get to the hotel …just in time for lunch! The next couple of days I dealt with the media, as the returning champ you get to do all these interviews and so on. Did some training and felt horrible! The last day before the event I went out to the track to set up my steering just incase there was a sprint and I wanted t be ready for it. As I have some small medical problems in the last 4 weeks I did not see myself doing too well but I figured I had a good solid base and you never know what can happen in a race. As I was training a little the day before the race something just seemed to go “click” and suddenly I felt confidant and like I was at least going to put up a good fight. Race day come and we go through all the stuff we need to and we line up. We get the report that there is a 3m/s wind blowing and we know, the way the wind blows around here means we are going to get it in our faces for the last 20km. Gun goes off and we are off. As this is a flat course there is a pretty big pack for the first 5km. There are a couple of surges and I cover some but I just make sure that I stay somewhere close to the front of the pack. We are going along at a bout 38km/h and I figure the pack must have slimmed out by now. I look around and I can’t even see the end of the pack! There must have been like 30 guys in the pack at that speed! I turn to Heinz and comment on the size of the pack…he goes:” too big” and he goes off at 40km/h for a while. I cover but it soon becomes clear that Hiroki is the guy to watch. He was covering most of the moves and as the top Japanese there was some national pride behind him. We take the turn into the section with all the turns and I go to the front, as this is where it’s pretty dangerous with a big group. I take a couple of good turns at speed, look around and I have a gap! I hammer a couple of good strokes, look around and the gap is bigger but Hiroki is between the pack and me. So I wait for him and then we both set off together. The pack stays very close but we are working well together and slowly we start to increase our lead. We pass the halve waypoint in a time just over 40min! By the turning point Heinz has made up some ground on us with some others close behind him. We take the turn and the wind is so strong that it almost knocks us over and the speed drop to 22km/h! I pretty strong against the wind so I take the lead and pick the speed up to around 29km/h. I take some breaks behind Hiroki when I get tired but when I take the lead again I make it count and after a while I can’t see the chase pack behind us any more. So I take it easier and I let Hiroki do more of the work. After a while he explains to me that he is more interested in the Japanese record than the win so with limited communication we make a deal that I can win as long as I help him to get his record. So I help him as much as I can and he also puts the hammer down. By the time we reach the stadium to do the last 500m around the track he is pretty much spent and I take the lead with no much problems and opens a gap of about 5 seconds on him. But he gets his records and I get my win. The chase pack comes in about 3 minutes after us and Heinz beats a young kid from Spain on the line to take third spot! So I’ve pack and tomorrow I will fly back to South Africa, pick up Suzanne and then head out to NY where I’m sure guys like Jeff Adams, Kelly and Krige (not to mention Saul and Kurt!) are getting ready to give me a beating I won’t forget soon!! May 2005 Paris Marathon It was the 1st time I did the Paris Marathon. The reason being that in the past I focused completely on Boston. Usually I would go to the LA marathon in March, then go to Invacare for my new chair for the season and then come home and get ready for Boston. The only problem with that being that the new chair was never race tested and I was always nervous as hell going into Boston. This round I went for a new chair in November last year. I also decided that I would like to try something new this year. Instead of starting my season in January I wanted to start it in April and spend more time training (building a solid base and getting ready for our very long racing season. So I was looking for a race to do in April before Boston and Paris was perfect. It would cut my travel in half, which would give me recovery time and it would give me the ideal opportunity to test my new chair and build confidence in it. What I did not count on was my archrival Saul Mendoza (Mexico) showing up for Paris. So what should have been a walk in the park suddenly became a major battle! I arrived in Paris on the Saturday morning and went for an easy training in the afternoon. Everything was feeling good and ready. Early Sunday morning was race day. Now for anybody that has ever been to Europe, this is the key word: cobble stones! They had a lot of it on the Paris course! Right of the start we had about 800m of the stuff. I thought everybody would take it easy and just get through it...not to be! Jun Hiromichi takes it out hard, it's slightly downhill and we are going fast and everywhere on the road as we are bouncing left and right. As we get to the end of the cobbles there is about 10 of us in the pack. I hate big packs because there is always the risk of a crash. So I put in a surge for about 400m and suddenly there is just 3 of us. Saul, Heinz Frei and myself. Now I know Saul is in good shape and he is hungry after having suffered a defeat to Kurt Furnley in LA. Heinz was the dark horse as he was coming out of a harsh winter in Switzerland. So we play the way we do and I realize that Heinz is in good form. (He later told me that he had done a lot of cross-country skiing in the winter) I made a couple of moves on the slight ups and downs and most of the time Heinz fell of the pace. I figured if we are going to have a sprint he would not be a threat but if I'm alone with Saul I might end up pulling the whole race and then Saul could take the sprint. So I eased up and let Heinz back in. And so we go on. After about 20k into the race my worst dreaded fear starts to knock on the door...rain! First just a few drops and I figured it would pass, but then it got more serious and I was left with a tough decision. Pull over and superglue some sandpaper to my gloves (hope the others start to loose grip so I can reel them in) or struggle with grip and get out sprinted by Saul. So I pull over and it gets messy! My gloves are wet so the superglue won't stick. I get the stuff all over myself, hands, gloves...face! In the end my attempt cost me about 2 minutes but then the rain stops.....So I get back into the race racing on adrenaline for a while. I make up ground on Saul and Heinz and after about 10 minutes I can see them in the distance in front of me. So I go into sprint mode and about 5k before the finish I finally reel them in. Heinz figures he has no chance at a sprint so he starts to wind it up. I'm just hanging in the back trying to catch my breath! About 400m from the finish Heinz is done and I take the lead out to the finish. I give it everything I have left and I can see Saul challenging on my outside, I dig a little deeper and I get another couple of inches on him just as we cross the finish line. I win the race in 1:32.17 with Saul in the same time and Heinz in third place a couple of seconds behind us. The local papers in South Africa the next day reads: van Dyk wins Paris by taking revenge on Mendoza after controversial 1500m in Athens....to me it was just a good warm up for Boston and I felt confident that I could handle almost anything in Boston! I arrived in Boston on the 13th, as there is a press conference on the 14th. I attended a couple of functions, visited my main sponsor, Spaulding rehab, met with some pretty interesting patients and pitched the first pitch for the Boston Red Sox game. Then it was race day. Becoming a bit of a weather expert, as you do when you race as much as I do, I followed the weather closely for the days leading up to the race and everything was pointing to a warm day again with a slight tailwind...which was great as I was ready to lower my mark of 1:18. We arrive at the start and guess what..they got it wrong...there is a terrible headwind right of the start! We go through the whole process of lining up. Senator Carrey fires the gun and as usual they control us for the 1st 800m. Then they let us go! I take off like a bat out of hell and I hammer up the first hill. Schabort tucks in behind me but halve way up the hill he drops off the pace. I dig deeper and I go harder. My lungs are on fire and my body is shouting...hang on a minute...there is still 40km to go! Mind over body, I know as soon as I leave my competitors behind the race becomes a time trial for me. My heart is going at 180 b/m and I just keep working the pace. The wind is like an elastic band that is just holding me back and it won't let go, there is no recovery and my heart rate stays high. I panic a little bit, something must be wrong, my speed is not nearly what it should be at that intensity, are the others catching up or what? I look behind me and I can't see anything because there is people crossing the streets behind me and I can't identify anybody!. Then there is a big cloud of smoke in front of me. Something is on fire next to the road. Thoughts cross your mind...bomb, accident? Visibility is limited to 50m in front of me. I try to hold my breath but my lungs need air and so I inhale smoke and who knows what. What seems like hours must have only been seconds. I'm through the cloud of smoke. I relax, I focus, I find my rhythm. I realize what the wind is doing to me and I start feeding of the resistance like when I do weights in the gym....just one more rep...I make the right turn to go into the Newton hills and to my comfort I see the leaves on the road blow with me. Time to put some more distance between the others and me! I crest Heartbreak hill only to realize I’m about 5 minutes slower than last year. I look back and I cannot see anybody...it's almost over. I'm going into the city now and the roads are bad, I do my best to avoid cracks and potholes. As I make the turn for Boylston I find a sudden feeling of relief coming over me...I've done it. I finish the race in 1:24.11. Almost six minutes slower than last year. But then the rest also came in 6 minutes after me. It's the biggest margin I’ve ever won this race win, and it feels good. I look at my ave heart rate and it is 175 b/m...another long sprint! Seoul International marathon I was home for 6 days before I had to catch a plane to Seoul. This race was never really part of my planning but it came up, I had the time and the shape, there would be minimal cost for me and the prize money was great! So what the hell…there I went. Got there on the Thursday, went to bed and slept for what seemed like days which in fact was only 5 hours! Went training the next morning with a couple of guys, got a flat, lost the group and got lost for 2 hours and I ended up doing 30km!! Eventually I found two Korean cyclists who could speak a little English and they sort of guided me back to the hotel…through the city of Seoul and all it traffic! Ok, all that behind me…took it easy on the Saturday and Sunday morning was race day. And what a race it turned out to be. I figured easy race easy money…not to be! Right off the gun we were about 20 racers in the pack. I hate that so I warmed up the pace. Then there were 5 of us…4 Japanese and I. I took a couple of pulls when I saw the chase pack getting within a couple of yards from us and I winded up the pace again. Then there were 3 of us. Later there were two of us. Myself and Hiroki, a very tough Japanese whom I’ve held in high regard for the last tow years. We battled it out for the rest of the race. I pretty much did most of the work till we reached the halfway point…which was all pretty much going up! After the turning point Hiroki started putting in one attack after the other. Now I have to admit after all the racing, traveling and little training I was doing the 3 weeks before the race I did not expect all that much from myself but this guy was hammering away like I’ve not seen anybody do for the last couple of years. He was tough and persistent and he did not let up. I dug deep and just hung on for dear life! As we entered the stadium we started passing some of the half marathon racers. One was kind of in our way in lane two he it was not really clear what line he was going to keep. So I gambled, took the inside and Hiroki went wide. My gable paid off as I got 2 meters on him and it pretty much stayed like that till we crossed the finish line. I won the race in 1:27.22 with Hiroki 1 second behind me. Another close victory but a worthy one to me never the less. May 2004 Boston Marathon This is one week I will always remember. To start off with Spaulding Rehab renewed their sponsorship with me for another year! Then I got to pitch the first ball at a Red Sox/Yankees game, and no, I did not pitch a "dirt" ball...I made it all the way. Then on race day it turned out to be a great day for me. We had great weather(nice and warm). I had a good race and I got to make my dream come true. I was the first(and only) racer to break the 1 hour 20min barrier. So I won in a new Worlds Best Time and a course record all in one! Cleveland Marathon This was in contrast to Boston! It was only 6 days after Boston. It was cold, it was wet and the Weather channel had severe wind warnings out! I finished in 1:42. But it was another win so I took it! Bloomsday 12km This one followed the next weekend. I started off by winning the 1km time trial. The next day we had the 12km race. I'm sure this course was handcrafted for Saul Mendoza. This race is all about climbing and Saul is one guy who can climb! He won and I finished second after a good sprint with Kelly Smith from Canada. My time was however 40 seconds faster than the last time I did that race, the same year I set the record in Peach Tree. So it looks like my climbing is back and Peach Tree watch out, here we come! 53 Riverbank Run (Grand Rapids) Most of the top dogs was out in Warm Springs battling it out for Paralympic Qualifiers. Saul showed up in Grand Rapids and so did I! It came down to a man to man race between the two of us. I did a lot of the work in the front since there is a $5000 bonus for a course record over there! Saul did his stuff on the hills but I was able to counter each move. With 5k to go we were still on pace for a record but then it got tactical! The normal stop and go stuff and the speed slowed down. With about 2k to go we met up with the recreational 5k runners and it was a mess!! We both missed a left turn but I was the fastest to react and I made a quick 10 second gap on Saul which I increased to 20 seconds by the finish. I don't like to win like this but had it been the other way around I'm sure it would have been his. I finished in 52:50 and he came in at 53:09.