A New Experience

Race day is drawing closer which makes cycling  essential.  It has been three weeks since I had been training on my bike.  On Saturday I set out to do at least ninety kilometers for the day.  I started at 10:00 am and planned to finish at 15:00 pm.  Everything went well.  I was surprised on how well I did.
When I made my last turn to go home, a tandem came alongside me.  It was a  man Erens, and his wife, Anrie  At that point we were on an uphill, but I didn’t realise it, because we were talking to each other all the way to the top.  Cycling with company is fun.
At one point they stopped and waited for me to catch up.  There was a new route they wanted to try out and asked if I wanted to join them.  The road sign ahead indicated that it was eight kilometers to Sasolburg.  We had an idea of where we would end up, but we weren’t sure.  The road took us to the R59 highway!  There was no turning back.  The road was very busy, but the vehicles respected us and passed us at a safe distance.

The highway gave me an idea what it was like to cycle on a road I that I didn’t know.  There were many more steep hills than I would usually train on.  This was a great challenge to push myself further than usual.  My company was far ahead of me but they waited for me. They apologised for cycling on such a busy road but I replied that I was now sure that I was ready for the 94.7 cycle challenge!
I ended up cycling more than one hundred kilometers!  I still ended at 15:00, which was good because I did my normal distance plus some twenty kilometers extra.

The greatest feeling was when I stopped.  I had never felt so fit in my life.

By Deon Labuschagne