The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart.

Being selected to represent South Africa at the World Championships in London 2017 was something I felt with all my heart, a childhood dream come true. A dream I once thought was bigger than me. Never ever think something is bigger than you. If your dreams don’t scare and excited you, they are not big enough.

Someone once told me that you need four things to chase your dreams; determination, dedication, consistency and the most important of them all is “attitude” and how right he was.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference and a positive attitude can really make dreams come true-it did for me.

Walking along the road in London chatting to my team mate Caster Semenya and I quote “Yoh, you are old,” hahaha, I had to laugh and no offence taken. Truth be told, I am old. I am 36 years old and a mother of 3 children, that isn’t the “norm”. She was being honest but I am young in running years and young at heart (so I like to think). Age is merely a number; drive, commitment and determination is what separates that “age”.

Everyone follows their own paths, mine is very different from all of my competitors. I had my children young, I never ran enough to see my full potential but I’m really happy with the path I chose and as Modern Athlete once quoted “Babies done, time to run”. That’s exactly what I’m doing and who better to share this journey with than my very own children. I absolutely love having my children part of my journey, I know I inspire them and it has made them very grateful for their health and mobility. Sport is so much part of their lives and always has been. They get to see the up’s and down’s, the hard work that goes into achieving as well as the energy, sacrifice, dedication and commitment it takes. The girls have also seen how sport takes you places and makes you friends which to me is absolutely incredible.

I will never push my children into something they do not want to do, I will guide and support them no matter what they choose. I just pray they find something like me that they are passionate about, that sets their heart on fire and they chase their dreams with no doubt in themselves ever.

When I was 16 years old I remember sitting on a very good friend of mine, Kate Woods (Nee Hector)’s bed looking at her cupboard door where she had written up her future goals. That was the day I wrote my goals down too, but I wrote them in my heart, I was never brave enough to let anyone else see them but writing them in my heart was good enough for me. I can proudly say I have achieved two out of my three goals and the third one is up next, in the near future.

I do not have words great enough to express the meaning of what World Champs is to me but all I can say is that it surpassed my greatest fantasy. It was better than I ever imagined, my heart is so full and so happy.

To be surrounded by some of my running heroes left me speechless. Being in the same hotel and having breakfast with Usain Bolt, chatting to Mo Farrah in the lift about his children to name but a few was so surreal. I was starstruck and it certainly has fuelled an already lit flame and a belief in myself that nothing is impossible, something I never believed one hundred percent until now.

DREAM. BELIEVE. ACHIEVE ~ DO WHAT SETS YOUR SOUL ON FIRE.

Watch the space for my next blog… ” The dream, the journey, the finish line”

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