It’s not the first time

By Gavin Moffat

It’s not the first time. I’ve been here before. The enthusiasm. The commitment. The rush of adrenalin. Feeling good about what I’m accomplishing. Not sure what makes this time different. I saw the 5150 video and felt a scream of me-ness. I want to do that. I want to achieve. I want to excel. For me. Not because I need to prove anything (OK, I do a little bit).

I was last in this position just over 18 months ago when I decided I was going to do the 70.3. Life, my wife’s cycling accident, a whole bunch of excuses and a serious case of lack-of-motivationitis brought that dream to a stuttering pause.

It all began when a friend began talking about what he was doing to get ready for the Ironman. I said “dude — are you insane”. To which he replied with something along the lines of “try it, the bug will bite”.

He was right. The bug has bitten. It’s more of a decided annoyance though. The bite is more like a flesh wound and is not deep enough to create an intense burning itch to scratch. More like an itch I need to knead.

We did a bit of cycling and started getting some regular coaching from an awesome guy. All went well. We rode a couple of races and did the Argus. Then winter of 2010 hit and it became the winter of my discontent. My motivation dwindled, along with the sun and temperature until, come August, I tried my hand at a duathlon for the first time. The sprint distance of the Domestique Family Duathlon Series at Kyalami. Hardly a challenge I would have thought — 4.2km run followed by a 16km cycle and dispatched with a piddly half-turn around the circuit, a mere 2.1km.

I hadn’t counted on the fact that I was fat, slow and not at all ready. I came stone last — 22nd out of 22 entries. I felt a great sense of achievement because it was my first ever multi-sport event but at the same time I had a sense of failure. An overwhelming notion that I just couldn’t cut it.

Conveniently, just prior to the duathlon, my wife had a cycling accident. I say conveniently for me. Not for Ingrid. She broke her pelvis, which is not a great deal of fun. We recently discovered that she probably also tore her rotator cuff. So very unpleasant for her but a fantastic new area of focus for me. My wife needed me. My family needed me. My business needed me. I was needed. So I threw myself into everything supportive and ignored my needs. And the niggling itch.

The accident was on Woman’s Day last year and I have effectively managed to avoid exercise or even goal-setting since then. Until now. So I begin. Swimming this morning followed by the treadmill. Sucked. Couldn’t finish either of the training outlines I had. But that’s OK. The pool isn’t going anywhere. Neither am I. And I’ll be back.

Gavin Moffat is an accidental specialist in the field of communication and public relations and has been “practising” for the past 20 years. He started in a small agency in the entertainment space and later founded eCommunications with his business partner Ingrid Lotze in 1998. This led to the establishment of puruma business communications. He focuses on strategic marketing and communication, business consulting, social media strategy and implementation, a little bit of conference speaking and trying to be a purposeful, nice guy. He is a PADI open water scuba instructor, microlight pilot, trimix technical diver, Emergency First Response instructor and tries his hand at cycling, swimming and running.

Follow me on twitter @gavinmoffat