Palesa Mabuza The social cyclist

Running is a sport that spans all over the globe through various communities. Culturally the diverse run community is very huge on the continent of Africa but as we see in the states the diverse cycling community is just as large not only locally but internationally as well. We’ve made it a point to start focusing on the cycling community along with the wonderful folks that are a part of it and are very excited to chat with Palesa Mabuza as she gives us some insight into her fitness journey in cycling along with some of the things, she's been doing to educate her community on cycling while looking to create change through health and wellness.

MSM: Welcome to Mid Strike, as we mentioned we’re always excited to speak with runners and now cyclists across the globe. When we launched Mid Strike almost two years ago, we featured Teboho Motloung, a runner based out of South Africa, in the Soweto area. Doing so, he opened our eyes to a much larger diverse fitness community in South Africa and it's only right that we spotlight those communities and people from those communities. Let's get a small introduction into Palesa.

Palesa: My name is Palesa Mabuza. I am 40 years old. I was born and bred in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. I love spending time with my family and friends, and really do enjoy rural settings and small towns. Together with my family we travel and explore our beautiful country.

MSM: All our run journeys tend to start based on very specific life changing experiences as we all have our reasons as to why we get ourselves into shape. What is your why and what was it that got you into cycling, when did you know that cycling was going to be something that you were going to make into a lifestyle?

Palesa: I am a social cyclist; the sport was the perfect fit for my lifestyle. We get to travel and see places for races, that is something I enjoy. The first time I went to Cradle, I saw how well dressed the roadies were and I was like wow! I can do this too. I also align the sport with my family life. Immediately when I realized there was travel in the Sport.

MSM: Give us some insight into the cycling community in your area. For me when I started running it was usually just me alone on the pavement for those first couple of weeks and months but eventually I started to discover a larger community of folks that run. When you started cycling did you have some of the same issues? When did you start to discover folks that essentially looked like you, could relate to you and most of all was willing to bike with you.