Day one - It is reality 355 days to go

After due consideration (6 days), I knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Getting the added bonus of seeing South Africa on a bike was icing on the cake. The main attraction was supporting the 'Ironman' on his next epic adventure as he regales with more stories of his sporting achievements during the 8 days. The commentator, as he crossed the line in New Zealand, said it all in his commentary 'John McLeod, you are the Ironman'.

In my attempt to get half as fit as John, the training started in earnest today. It was tough. 16 degrees, a beatiful spring late afternoon and the lung bursting 'Burntisland Beastie' living up to her reputation. It felt good.......... for the first day!

I have been fortunate to cycle in many countries, with many people who continue to be great friends. With South Africa very firmly on the horizon, training comes into sharp focus. The first milestone is the Caledonian Etape in May over 81 miles. That milestone will mark the end of the begining.

The challenge is massive however as a friend often told me - if think you can, you can. If you think you can't you are right as well!

We're in....

I asked Derek if he would be interested in joining me to take part in Cape Epic about a week or so ago and after a little thought, agreement on our objectives in taking part and maybe the removal of his common sense gene he agreed.

The next challenge was getting in to the race. It is limited to 600 places which up until this year have been allocated by lottery. They changed the rules for 2010 to allow 100 places to be sold last Sunday night at midnight. I was tasked with trying to get a place.

Now I'm not the best at computer stuff and a slow typist at the best of times so I enlisted the help of my wife Danielle to help - she is super fast which turned out to be a real benefit. We sat watching the computer clock until it finally clicked on to 11pm our time and the finger frenzy began. Initially nothing happened, the website seemed to be struggling with the traffic but we persevered and after what felt like hours, about 10 seconds, the link appeared. We clicked on it, filled out the form and pressed send....

We were in! Danielle and I were jumping round the room. I called Derek. I think the realisation of what we are taking home hit home at that moment. This is going to be the challenge of a lifetime.

Later on we discovered that the 100 places sold out in 100 seconds and 300 people were on the site at exactly midnight South Africa time. So we were absolutely delighted to grab a spot.

We thought that we would set up a blog that would keep friends and family informed as to our progress and give us both the chance to post about the training and experience that we are undertaking.

Welcome to our journey......