Training back on track

It's been two weeks now of training and in feeling strong and fit again. Looking forward to letting everyone know what the next adventure will be. 

Guinness World Record Certificate on its way

Certificate on its way

Just an update on the Record: Guinness have been in contact and will be sending Keegan his certificate shortly. He seems quite excited and say its like his "degree" for the four years of cycling. Again we just want to express our gratitude for every single one of you who have liked the page and followed Keegan! He appreciates it all so much and is excited to share the next adventure's with all of you. 

As some of you know he had to pull out of "Dash to Durban" with an injuredhamstring and he was heart broken.
Thanks to all the sponsors who backed Keegan, not knowing whether this journey would be a success...having R70 from Egypt into Sudan, many of us were worried. The Love and support from all of you was incredible!

Officially a Guiness World Record Holder

Yesterday at about 2 in the afternoon the team got an email confirming that I had just become the Fastest Man across the African Continent by bicycle ever!

It was an incredible moment that left me in tears for nearly an hour afterwards. Its been a tremendous 4 years of more failures than successes but all of a sudden it all seems worth the blood sweat and tears.

I just want to thank everyone who was there for me over these past years and supported me through thick and thin. I have learnt so much from the time I have spent exploring and pushing the limits. Eternally grateful.
Keegs

Malaria, getting down and feeling sorry

I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to name my week this week, "a toughie". Although it didn't consist of thousands of kilometers on a bicycle over harsh terrain amongst aggressive Ethiopians or spells of diarrhea while baking in the African sun every day, it was still a tough week.

The Cricket World Cup loss was felt by every single South African with half a heart. To watch AB and the boys break down on the field showed just how much they had put into this campaign. The pressure must have been tremendous and the tears rolling of their cheeks at the end, left me a miserable wreck as well.

I had to rush to the hospital after the cricket to get some emergency Malaria tests done after I showed all the symptoms of Africa's biggest killer. I didn't feel worried, I just felt like death. I have never experienced headaches like i have in this past week. 

So you can say I felt pretty sorry for myself this week. It was another week of no training which really depressed me even more. As some of you read this I am sure you can relate to having a bad week, but then weekend arrived and suddenly I realized I needed to catch a wake up.

I had two speaking arrangements organized yet wasn't feeling to inspired. It was easy to be inspired on a bicycle, away from the daily distractions that have invaded our lives, but to be inspired back home was a different story all together. I pulled away from people, stopped answering my phone and emails and just went back to my simple way of living. I finished the books I was reading and started to draw inspiration from the bible characters epic stories of war and triumph. I slowly started to drag myself out of my miserable rotten thinking. 

We all have these moments, and the fact that life gets so busy just forces us to put off things that are really important, like our lives and our happiness. We can't make a difference in a broken world if we don't love ourselves and spend some time each week working things out, reading or praying. You see on the bicycle this became easy for me, but back home, the fast pace of the world pushed my priorities aside.

I made a decision to be excited and proud of the life I have been called to live. I stepped on stage three times this week, alive and excited about the stories I had been blessed with to tell. I felt really inspired just to heard the feed back and the sort of comments that landed in my inbox this morning, things like, "Im moved, I want to be a better husband," "I want to make a difference," "I want to be the best I can be," "I want to live my life."

I don't know who was moved more this week, the people who listened to my stories or me, the bicycle adventurer, coach and friend. 

"Positive or negative, we are the captain of our thoughts. When you start to realize that, your daily thinking starts to change. We chose our thoughts, nobody else."

What do you chose?

I guess its time

Home, safe, sound and letting it all sink in. Its been a crazy couple of weeks at home with family sickness, my own illness and just recently the death of a young man I had coached last year.

It was so difficult to blog while I was away, I hardly had a connection anywhere. In the epic race, get up, ride, eat sleep do it all again, sometimes I just didn't have the energy to pour out my heart to a phone screen. 

One thing that really got to me though was the fact that when I got home everybody wanted to hear the story about an aggressive arab holding a knife to my neck. This was the only really story that I shared on the road and to think...its definitely not the best one. So I'm so excited to sit down and finally get the story on paper. 

Its going to be a long process and a patient one, in which I will dive deep into my mind and heart and draw out the journey in the best way I know how. 

The journey has begun, again!

It’s his greatest journey yet, #cairo2CapeTown

Enjopy the read: It’s his greatest journey yet, #cairo2CapeTown

19 Days to go to Egypt

I can't believe it is coming so fast, its like a train speeding towards me while I stand in its headlights stunned. Apart from feeling like a helpless creature to all the unknowns around me, theres a feeling of peace that keeps coming back to me.

Egyptian Visa, Sudanese Visa, Ethiopian Visa, check! Kit...check. Fund and bike...um, well not really. My favorite book says, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of things we cannot see," so yet again, I find myself in this situation. The other day I was speaking to a man at an event and in his book I signed for him I wrote, "Don't wait for the conditions to be perfect, they never will be!"

No sooner had I spoken these words, did I realize that now, I had to be that man, going out prepared but under funded and under kitted out. Its scary, I literally land in Cairo with zero in the bank account! By faith, I go!

Been reading an incredible book about the dual of Amundsen and Scott and the lives they lived leading up to their epic expedition. I found it astonishing how, yet again, like my hero Ran Fiennes, Amundsen speaks a lot about the influence of god in his life and his adventures. Fascinating, the two greatest adventurers of our time!

I decided to re spoke and rebuild by wheels from scratch with new hubs. I have changed my cassette and my chain and packed in a spare to change both at my Halfway point most likely in Nairobi. People have warned me about the mountain ranges in Ethiopia being unforgiving and I need to target this area to push myself and ride well! If there is water along the path this will help, as I won't need to carry as much. I need to be disciplined that no matter how thirsty I am I will purify the water before drinking it. I have had my second last vaccine which was an oral Cholera Virus that tasted absolutely disgusting. All is coming right and all is well.

I wake up most morning s having dreamt about the trip, the arrival and the journey across Africa. It is so vivid it is almost as if I have already done it. When I look at pictures from various blogs I see these images that I have dreamt about, its very strange. I walk into this adventure in humility, willing to learn and grow and adapt. I pray and know that God goes with me, he will be my strength and guide as he always has been on my trips and in my life.

Heading through to Johannesburg now to collect maps, a sat phone, bubble wrap for the bike and some other bits and pieces. 19 to go!