Q. Tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do for a living?

A. My name is Tiyani, also known as Tey. I am attorney in Johannesburg. I work for an oil and gas company. I also have my own legal consultancy business and my speciality is mining law, commercial agreements and conducting due diligence exercises. I attend Rivers Church, I love it there! Im of Southern Africa descent; mom is Zimbabwean, dad is South African and granddad from Mozambique. I grew up in Botswana and Zimbabwe- now I am a native Johannesburg-er.

Q. How do you balance your exercise regime and your professional life?

A. I work out in the mornings. I am normally awake by 5:10am and Im on the road at 5:30am. I am fortunate that I usually work from home, but I still like to back home before the sun rises. I still start my work day at 8 am, or 8:30 am if I am busy faffing around. I run 3 days a week and do strength training at least twice a week. 

Q. When and why did you start running?

A. Sometime in August 2014. I was in America on holiday when my friend Muhammed Khan told me he was registering for the 10k leg of the Soweto Marathon. I was looking for the next work out challenge to carry me to the end of the year and I decided to join him. I started my weight loss journey a year ago with the help of a man called Shaun T and his home works Insanity and T25. I have done both of them twice and I have not looked back.

I am a stickler for rules and some type of guidelines- you cant break the rules without knowing them, so I researched running before I started. I found a couple of programmes and the one I am following is the Bupa Training Programme for beginners which teaches you to run 10 km in 8 weeks.

Q. What motivates you to go out there, when you do not feel like it?

A. I mentioned above that I have done Insanity twice. It’s a 66 day programme where you work out 6 days a week. I have never done anything so physically challenging in my life. The fact that I could wake up at 5 am and torture myself in my own house for 66 days, twice, shows that I can do anything I decide to. I make a decision to go out. I have the picture of Yoda on my running profile, it says “Do, or do not. There is no try.” I have applied this to my work outs for the past year and I guess I keep doing it. 

Q. What is the longest distance you have ran?

A. 8km

Q. What gives you the confidence to run in the streets?

A. I run in the face of oncoming traffic! I also run relatively early so I don’t have to worry about too much traffic at that time and I can run on the tarmac! I was initially afraid of what people would think as they say me running, but as l got my confidence from repeating my actions. The only person I care about now is the lady on my app counting down the time and my distance. People are dealing so much of their drama, they don’t care about my form or speed, etc.

Q. What do you think about the lack of exercise among the youth?

A. As one who is coming from the land of fat, youth and child hood obesity do need to be taken seriously. I wish the whole country could do Insanity. They may have no knees at the end of the 66 days, but they will have resilience! The saying is “monkey see, monkey do”, the youth need to see their parents, teachers, leaders and mentors working out in order for them to be inspired! 

Q. What was your best running experience?

A. Every time I beat a new record. It happens at least once a week. I get home and see I gained a new Nike shield! It also feels pretty good when I run up a sharp steep hill nonstop and then immediately sprint to set a new record!

Q. What was your worst running experience?

A. I usually do not like it when I meet people with dogs! I sometimes have to stop running if it looks like the owner may fail to restrain the dog and I don’t want to excite it any further. I do not like running on the gravel trails but there are no designated running paths on Witkoppen road so I have no choice. 

Q. How do you push through the pain?

A. When I started out my plantar fasciitis was flaring up really badly, I also had knee and back pain. I ditched my Nike Pegasus (sorry) and got a pair of New Balance running shoes. The pain has reduced significantly and I make sure that I warm up before I run which has also been helpful. 

My friend told me about a lesson she learnt from Myles Munroe about facts vs principles. The fact is after 25 minutes I start to get fatigued (sooner sometimes), at 4 km I can feel my knees and back starting to hurt and after 45 minutes I would a 30 second rest- but the principle is “I run continuously until I reach my target”. When you live by the facts, you will rarely succeed in what you set out to do, because you change to adjust to the facts. I have decided to run according to the principles and not the facts. I am grateful for the stops at the traffic lights though!

Q. Which Social media sites are you on and how can one follow you?

A. I am on Instagram @tey_carter . I am on twitter : @teyani . LinkedIn : Tiyani Majoko

Q. What advice can you give somebody who wants to start running?

A. You literally put one foot in front of the other, so just do it! Do some research too, so you make sure you are doing what is right for your fitness level.

...the New Balance 860 v2