MY GEEKY BEGINNINGS (bear with me, please!)

I’ve never considered myself an athlete – I was the geeky kid who’d escape into her books while her siblings and peers were out tearing up the neighbourhood on their bikes. And while my Dad always insisted I was a natural sprinter, he also accused me of being lazy – and he had a very valid point, especially when I was a sulky teen trying not to finish the 800m last (again). I preferred the dark of my room and Pearl Jam to sports fields and war cries. It’s funny how childhood identity issues colour your adulthood too (I think the shrinks are definitely onto something there).

Then I met my husband, Pete, in my late 20s – he was the ultimate ‘jock’ who’d played professional tennis and was a machine on the bicycle too. He coaxed me into trying cycling – I thought it would be a great “couple thing” to do… Well, it wasn’t really. I could never keep up with him and had to process some serious ego-bruising.

Thankfully I eventually met up with some awesome cyclists – Gus Dreyer, Craig Clark, Dev Dreyer and Paul Smith – who didn’t mind keeping pace with me and always met my moans and groans with the Tellytubbies’ theme tune and annoying whistles up steep hills. But I really sucked at races – they became just another pressurised deadline in a life filled with weekly publishing deadlines.

ONCE BITTEN

My trail running playground - Table Mountain and Lion's Head

I’m not exactly sure why I decided to try running a year and a half ago – I think I’d read somewhere it would be great for my lungs and cycling. For the first many months though, it was just plain agonising. I could hardly manage 2km round our ‘burb in Sunninghill, Johannesburg, without busting a lung!

Then we moved to Cape Town into a little home nestled in the foothills of The MOUN-tain and I met up with crazy varsity friends who were hooked on trail running. Their addiction was tangible and before I knew it, a fellow writer-buddy, Karen Robertson, and I were pounding the pebbles on Pipetrack and Lion’s Head at least three times a week.

Then, somehow I got duped into entering the Old Mutual Two Oceans Half-Marathon after running a SOLE 10km trail race and a SOLE 10km road race (Alex, you will go to hell!). I mean, who does that?? Certainly not control-freak me.

But it seems ‘The Universe’ (a hippie language device endemic to Slaapstad, I’m afraid) is deadset on me finding my sports niche, and half-dying in the attempt… Serendipitously, in December last year, every single member of our SHAPE team was offered a programme by the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA). I considered the Optifit 10km but my sheer ambition (and delusion?) insisted I sign up for the Optifit 21.1km, which is focused on training runners up for the Two Oceans.

WEEK ONE: AND SO IT BEGINS…

Imagine my horror then, when at our first workshop for the programme, the Old Mutual Two Oceans’ marketing manager Stef gleefully displayed the decidedly hilly route profile for the 2012 half-marathon. We only have EIGHT weeks to prepare for completing not only 21.1 unimaginable kilometers but also heady Wynberg Hill AND lofty Southern Cross Drive during the race! The 17 other members of my new team went as deathly quiet as I did while we absorbed the reality of what we’d signed up for.

But there’s no going back. Our first assignment on Tuesday was tackling a health assessment with the SSI’s biokineticists (turns out I’m healthy as an ox and have a heart!) and then a 12-minute motion test/time trial round Westerford High School’s sports fields last night. I managed eight laps of a 300m track – not too shabby for a geek!

Then our slave drivers – the SSI’s Tori Hirst and Greg Hyson – shepherded us out to pound the southern suburbs’ leafy pavements for another 4km while we got to know each other.

Our group is wonderfully diverse ranging in ages from early 20s to early 50s – and with varying fitness levels. We even have a father-and-son team and a sister-and-brother team. One is public history Professor Leslie Witz from the University of the Western Cape – but unlike me, he despises trail running (impossible!)!

But last night was the easy part – we’re hitting Sea Point on Saturday morning for a bracing 12km shuffle. I’m hoping my eina Achilles tendon sorts itself out by then – gulp!

Woooohoooo! Every SHAPE member got sponsored a pair of New Balance running shoes as part and parcel of the SSISA Shapes up SHAPE programme. Spoilt!