Off Again On Again

Three months of dithering ... two months of deliberating the various aches and pains of my overweight, ageing body ... one month of extreme guilt at not wanting to do what I have said I will do ... and now the moment has come for a final decision: Yes, I AM doing the 2011 Pick n Pay Argus Cycle Tour on the Flying Custard next Sunday!

Last year I had 8 weeks of training rides (3 a week). This year has been chokablock with all kinds of things that I've fabricated to keep me from dropping my ample bottom into the low-slung seat of my hand cycle. I think that I have had 10 rides in total. "But," I tell myself, "you are fitter than last year." Yeah, right!

The major difference is that last year I was blissfully ignorant of what awaited me on the Argus Trail, and I talked myself through 9 hours and 10 minutes of extreme effort to make it to the top of Chapman's Peak, where the organisers (thankfully) put a stop to my folly as they needed to open the roads to traffic.

This year I don't have the protective cover of ignorance. I know what's coming my way. And more than anything else - Wynberg Hill TERRIFIES me! No other hill has that hold over me and I'm afraid it's hubris that is my worst enemy. For any other hill I have a plan. Lurking in my little black bag attached to the Flying Custard's frame is a rope that I use for all my designated walks (Boyes Drive being the 1st) but there is NO WAY that I will walk the Flying Custard up Wynberg Hill in full view of wall-to-wall supporters chanting encourgament to cyclists flying past on their worthy steeds.

It's going to be a grind and I have commissioned my nephews, Jadon & Matthew, to be on duty to push me up that hill. Yup, the sad reality is that I refuse to walk, but being pushed is not beneath my dignity. Any other volunteers who might wish to push before they see a fountain erupt from the top of my head would be welcomed with whoops and gasps of delight ...

Soooooo ... 9 days to go and the adrenaline has started pumping, the nightmares are invading my slumber and I'm doing positive visualisation of the glow of achievement that will wash over me as I cover the last 27 (downhill) kilometres of the course. The 27km I did not get to ride last year. Of course Chaeli reckons I should start at Chappies and only do the last 27km - complete the Cycle Tour over 2 years. She makes a compelling argument ...