05/06/2026
Story Time:
Looking back 13 years and The Serviette That Re-Engineered My Life.
At 40 years old, my system failed. Five operations in one year.
Low energy.
Constant setbacks.
And without even realising it… I had accepted the default setting: “This is just what getting older looks like.”
No redesign.
No challenge.
Just slow decline.
Then one moment changed everything. It wasn’t planned. I saw a friend on Twitter cycling in a cow suit in the 947 in Johannesburg and asked her what on earth she was doing. She mentioned that she was raising money for kids with cancer and belonged to an organization called “the Cows”.
Quite fortuitously they were launching in KZN in two weeks’ time, and she said she thought I should join them to hear what it was all about. Sadly said friend died of cancer a few years later. Rest in Peace Delene Mulley.
Two weeks later I made a decision that would transform my life forever. I was sitting with a group of likeminded individuals and listening to a guy called Cordy talk about how he changed his life by doing tough things and how “The Cows” was started by 6 friends who’s mates had just lost their daughter to cancer. Collectively and wanted to give back to CHOC, The Children’s Cancer Foundation of South Africa.
The very organization that helped Grant and Kerrin Bain through the nightmare of losing their kid to cancer. The 6 friends decided to get outfits and ride the 947 Cycle Challenge to raise money and awareness for the incredible work CHOC does for kids suffering from cancer and their families. The only 6 outfits they could find were literal Cow suits, udders and all. And so the Cows were born.
Then it happened. Cordy challenged all of us to think about a challenge that never in our wildest dreams we would not attempt. We grabbed a serviette and started thinking. and jokingly called it a “legally binding document.”
A guy called Peter Stone said he wanted to do a Half Ironman and I unwittingly asked what that was. Each of us wrote down a challenge than we thought we could not achieve.
Mine?
A Half Ironman. Which I learnt that night is a 1.8km Swim, followed by a 90km Cycle and a 21.1km half marathon. In six months’ time.
And if I didn’t do it the punishment was simple: A full Ironman.
I signed it.
Now, let’s be honest. From any logical perspective, this made absolutely no sense:
A broken body, little or no base fitness, a massive goal and a six-month timeline.
It was irrational.
But what I didn’t realise at the time… was that I had just signed up for something powerful. A concept I would only understand years later.
It’s called a Misogi.
A Misogi is a Japanese idea. Traditionally, it’s about purification—a reset. But in modern terms, it means this: One challenge each year… so hard… it has a real chance of failure.
Not comfortable.
Not convenient.
Something that forces you to confront your limits.
And whether you succeed or fail.
You come out different.
Six months later… I was standing at the start line with a good friend of mine Deon Van Niekerk who was gullible enough to join me.
That race wasn’t about performance; it was about survival.
The swim was chaos.
My heart rate was through the roof.
Everything in me was screaming STOP!!!!!
But I did something simple. I controlled my breathing. I stabilised the system. And I kept moving forward. And somewhere in that suffering… something shifted.
I realised the limits I had accepted… weren’t real.
That one moment… one decision… written on a serviette, changed everything.
Over the next 13 years, that decision turned into 10 000km:
- Amashova on a Road bike, Mountain Bike, Tandem with both my daughters, a 65kg Ice Cream bike with 1 gear, a hand cycle twice and a BMX twice
- 2 x Duzi Canoe Marathons
-Marathons, half marathons in fluffy cow suits
- 3 x Rhino Peak Challenge
- 3 x Run For Rangers (100km trail run)
- Ironman events and countless triathlons
- ComradesMarathon last year
- 1000km TransKaroo Ride 2026 this year from Clarens to Cape Town.
And over the 10,000 kilometers of endurance challenges, Not because I suddenly became extraordinary, but because I kept choosing a new Misogi.
I kept challenging the system.
I kept redesigning what I thought was possible.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
If you want a different output, you don’t wish for it. You redesign the system.
A Misogi is personal system redesign… under real conditions.
Most people live within the limits they’ve tested.
A Misogi forces you to test those limits… and realise they were never fixed.
But over the entire time, it stopped being about proving something to myself and started becoming about impact.
One of the most powerful moments of that journey was leading a team of Cows with Iris Varty at the Midmar Mile.
The first year: 35 swimmers - R40,000 raised
A few years later: 400 swimmers - Over R800,000 raised
Today, my focus has shifted even more as I stepped away from The Cows in 2020 to give back to other charitable organisations:
– Run For Rangers - giving funds to Project Rhino KZN and raising funds for the Rangers who put their lives on the line to protect our Wildlife:
https://donate.sportforlives.org/campaigns/run-for-lives-gordons-run-for-rangers-2026
-Rhino Peak Challenge– for Endangered Wildlife Trust – Protecting endangered species in Southern Africa
https://rhinopeakchallenge.co.za/participants.aspx
- Trans Karoo Spirit Ride from Clarens to Cape Town – For The Butterfly Home that gives Palliative Care to Orphaned and abandoned kids with life limiting diseases.
Across these journeys, we’ve helped raise millions for causes that matter.
And in every one of those events, the same truth shows up: You don’t find your limits… you expose them.
Looking back now, it wasn’t the races that changed me. It was the decision. To step into something uncomfortable. To challenge the design.
To refuse the default setting.
Because the truth is:
You don’t need a completely new life.
You need a better-designed system.
And sometimes… that redesign starts with something as simple as a decision.
Even one written on a serviette.
As always thanks to those who support me Salomon South Africa, Hammer Nutrition SA, CMH Ford Ballito, please give them a follow.
