On Tuesday morning I woke from a dream in which I had found myself in the home of one of my running heroes, a woman I had been friends with at primary school.
Like I, she had become overweight and unfit, but had changed her diet, started exercising and was now a lean, mean marathon-running machine.
I’d never been in this woman’s home. Yet there I was - with her running coach whom I had never met - thanks to my sub-conscious.
“This is base camp! This is where we start and finish. This is where we pee before the race. And this is where you will have a suitable breakfast before we run,” the coach barked.
I kid you not. This happened. In my dream. My sub-conscious, calling to life people I don’t know. My imagination creating a scenario I have yet to find myself in.
Of course, now that I look back on it, it’s probably thanks to pre-race jitters that I found myself there, in my running hero’s home. In my dream. Five days before race day. Worrying about all the things I know I will have to consider on the “big day”.
By the time you read this column, I will be but hours away from my first road race as a runner.
While I have done this race before - the 6km Move for your Health fun run/walk - I’ve never attempted to run it.
While 6km isn’t a terribly long distance for most runners, it can be pretty daunting if you have suffered a near lifelong fear of running and have only recently learned to trust your legs.
I do, however, have an advantage. Tomorrow’s race will be the halfway mark of the 12-week OptiFit running programme I’m doing with the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA). Our “graduation race” will be the 10km Reconciliation Day run in Gugulethu on December 16.
And with me at tomorrow’s starting line will be not only my awesome OptiFit teammates, but also our own incredibly patient and knowledgeable running coach, Kirsten Duthie - and more than 1000 pupils who have signed up as part of the Move for your Health mass participation schools challenge. Because one of the major focuses of this event is to get as many kids as possible away from their screens, running, jumping, walking moving for better health.
For the past seven weeks, the Cape Community newspapers, which I edit, have been publishing a training programme to prepare participants for this race - and tomorrow will be their opportunity to put their efforts to the test.
Behind the scenes will be OptiFit director Kathy McQuaid, who is also SSISA’s media and sponsorship manager and one of the driving forces behind Move for your Health.
While she won’t be running the race with us tomorrow, she will be running the show, ensuring that the kids taking part are not only moving for their health, but also having fun while doing so.
It has been my experience that mass participation events like this can be life-changing for children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds (who make up about half of the children signed up for tomorrow’s event).
When I walked this race a few years ago, I met a girl who had never seen a squirrel before. And another who hadn’t been out of Hanover Park until raceday.
Whether I manage to finish tomorrow’s race without a hitch or a stitch, or whether I crawl over the finish line, there will be much to celebrate.
Children from different walks of life will be out enjoying nature and physical activity - together.
Some of us will be out smashing goals, no matter how small they may seem.
And others will simply be there to move. For their health.
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