It’s been five weeks. I was putting away a freshly folded cycling jersey and it became clear how bad things were. I had been “staying positive”, constantly telling myself how lucky I was, how things could have been much worse, that I was fine and I would power through whatever I had to—and all of that was true—but suddenly I could see past those coping lines. Holy shit. I was just going 800m. I jumped on my city bike and I remember consciously deciding to take the back road b

It’s also far from your expectations. Somewhere in between the enchanting giraffe-roaming natural landscape pictured in travel magazines and the nation’s complicated history, is East London. It’s not a place you dream of going but add “Ironman 70.3” to it’s name and it becomes a destination for the swim, bike, run crowd. Once you’ve done a few triathlons you can go through registration, bike check-in, and the race briefing with your eyes closed. But this is Africa so we quick