Marathon World Champs – Singapore
As I am sure that everyone following this blog knows that I have had a bit of a roller coaster ride the last few weeks even though I havent posted for a while. So unfortunately world sprint champs went pretty crap. I am still not sure why we werent firing on the day that mattered most, but it turned out that it just wasnt meant to be. We missed our chance to qualify a K2 for the Olympics which was a real disappointment as I am sure you can all imagine. There is unfortunately no more chances for SA to qualify a K2. SA has however qualified a K1 spot through African qualification but we will have to wait and see whether SASCOC is willing to send a boat to games considering our results at the world champs was below par across the board, besides for Bridgitte.
Anyway this is now out of my hands so I am trying not to think about it too much. What I am thinking about is the marathon world champs at the end of October in Singapore. Mt request to compete at the marathon world champs was accepted by CSA and my quest to transform back from a 200m to a marathon paddler has begun. Its quite a daunting task considering that I have been training for a 32 second race for the last 3 years and now I am trying to prepare for a 30km race in just 6 weeks. My training however has been going well and I am definitely getting fitter and getting back into the rhythm of marathon paddling. Whether I will have enough in the tank come race day will be a mystery untill the day as there are no pre races that I can do in order to test myself properly. I am however really training hard. I have a brilliant training partner for the next few weeks in Olympic Champ, Tim Brabants. Yesterday we bust out a tough 20km wash lead session which was great and definitely the kind of training sessions that will get me onto the front bunch at worlds and hopefully keep me there. Anyway I am super excited to go into an event with no pressure and no expectations. I obviously have set myself pretty high goals for the race but I am under no pressure considering my limited preparation for the event. I will be relying on a lot of experience come race day!!! Exciting Times!!!
Off the water I am pretty busy working on an exciting business initiative and also trying to finish off my studies. Days seem to be flying by which is a good thing as it means that I am busy. Will do an update on my marathon progress again pretty soon.
What are the chances that I will be celebrating like this on the 22nd of October???? Only time will tell… Its a long shot but I will certainly be trying!!!
