295

That's the number of entries in my age group for Ironman South Africa. Entries closed Monday(2 March) night. The M35-39 age group is the biggest group again, followed by the M40-44 and then the M30-34 age groups. Last year there were 312 entries in our group so a small decline from last year but still a big group.

It will be a real challenge to follow on last years performance, were I finished 29th out of 312 in my age group and 111th out of 1404 finishers.



It won't be long until race numbers are issued. "Team Stemmet" as I call them (Kim, Dejone, my mother and sister) are waiting for my race number as they want to make shirts to wear on the day. The whole Ironman experience is not only about yourself and the race on race day but all the build up the week before from picking up your race pack to racking your bike and going down to the swim start for the beginning of a whole day of racing with the family supporting you all the way. There has been long discussions about the design and you can imagine what it takes to get four ladies to agree on it. The whole atmosphere about the event is starting to build up and it gives me that extra motivation to keep up with the training and to perform on race day when I see them all excited about it.



My knee is much better than yesterday and the pain is almost gone. The Physio worked on it again and see believes that I will be ready next week to get back to my normal schedule. Will see her again tomorrow for another session. I did not do any workouts today but will do my swim workout tomorrow morning.