Author: Modern Athlete

In 1997 she burst onto the Comrades scene, finishing
fifth woman (and second South African) in a time of 6:45:51 in her first
attempt at the race. Despite having finished in the top 20 at the Two Oceans
ultra five times from 1991 to 1995, and again in 1997, even she was surprised
by her performance. “I remember coming on to the field and seeing the time, and
then thinking the clock must be wrong!” says Charlotte.

That result saw her selected for the SA team for the
1997 World 100km Champs in Holland, where she finished an excellent fifth. The
1998 Comrades didn’t go quite as well, despite a creditable 21^st position,
but in 1999 Charlotte was 10^th and back amongst the gold medals, and
back in the SA World Champs team, finishing 14^th and first SA woman in
Japan. Then, after bailing the 2000 World Champs race due to illness, she
decided to withdraw from competitive running. “I had grown tired of competing
and training so hard, and decided to focus on climbing, surfing and body
boarding. I never stopped running, I just didn’t want to compete any more.
Also, I had gotten married in 1999 and we decided it was time to start a
family.”

Today Charlotte (47) lives in Scarborough on the Cape
Peninsula with husband Andy De Klerk and their four kids, Sebastian (11), Clea
(9) and the five-year-old twins, Anna and Francis. Having studied medicine, she
works for the City of Cape Town as a GP at the Ocean View Clinic, and to
relieve stress and maintain her health, she still runs seven days a week. “I do
most of my running on tar, and take my running shoes everywhere so I can build
running into my daily programme, but I’m also up on the mountain once or twice
a week with the dogs.”

LATE BLOOMER

Charlotte was born and raised in Pretoria. After
school she moved to Cape Town to study at the UCT Medical School, planning to
specialise in paediatrics, but she says running took her in another direction.
“I worked fantastically hard for Matric, and at the same time started running
to take time out from studying. My school didn’t offer athletics, though, so I
just ran for myself. Then when I came to UCT in 1984, I found they had a really
good running club, and I began to take it more seriously. I ran my first
marathon that year, clocking 3:40, and began competing in cross country, but I
didn’t think I was a good runner then.”

She was at UCT for six years, followed by a year-long
internship in East London, then took a year off to travel overseas. “I ran
everywhere I went, because it’s a great way to see and experience places. For a
while I worked in a vineyard in France, and I would run to work each day,” she
says. Upon returning to SA in 1992, she began practicing medicine, but it
wasn’t long before her wanderlust returned. “In 1994 I did a six-week trip to
Peru and was given a crash-course in Alpine mountain climbing. When I came
back, I saw an advertisement for the planned 1996 SA Everest expedition, and I
applied.”

Although short-listed alongside the country’s top
female climbers, Charlotte was not selected, but she was then asked to join the
expedition as team doctor, and went with the team to Base Camp. Unfortunately, a
much-publicised falling out with expedition leader Ian Woodall saw her and
three of the climbers leave the team, including her future husband. Instead,
she joined a climbing expedition to Antarctica later that year.

GOING PLACES

It was then that Charlotte saw her running begin to
flourish. “Early in 1996 I had run a fast time in the Constantia Village 15km
and was approached by Frans Pienaar, who offered to coach me. Later that year I
ran a 2:56 in the Peninsula Marathon and made the Western Province team. Then
in early 1997 I was doing a diploma in Bloemfontein, so I decided on the spur
of the moment to move to Pretoria to train for Comrades with Nick Bester’s
group. The training went well, but I didn’t realise just how good my form was. Perhaps
all that high altitude work and time in the mountains contributed to my running
success in the next few years. At least, my family believes that is the case.”

It all started as a ‘career
move’ in the investment field, but soon turned into a career move in a totally
different direction. “When I started at STANLIB in
2009, I was 24 and had never done a triathlon, but my boss was doing the
Ironman 70.3 and I thought it would be good to spend time with the big man,”
jokes Travis. Little did he know then he was about to launch a multisport
career that could see him get to the 2016 Rio Olympics!

“I did some more training and then came my big
breakthrough, making the Gauteng Duathlon team for the SA Champs, where I
finished third in the 20-24 age category and made the SA team for the World
Champs. There I came seventh in my category and 33^rd overall, out of
750 competitors, and when I got back, I decided this is what I want to do,
because since I was a kid I wanted
to represent my country, and if possible race at the Olympics. So I made the
decision to resign at the beginning of 2010, so that I could follow my dream.”

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

However, that was not the end of Travis’ stay at
STANLIB. Having accepted his resignation as a stock and investment broker, the
company then asked him to start up and manage the STANLIB Sports Club. The company’s thinking
was that sport has the ability to unite a company and break down inter-departmental
barriers, by building relationships and bonds amongst employees at all levels.
Also, healthy employees are more productive and driven.

“It was a great opportunity for me, as I wasn’t making that much money from
triathlon, and the new job allowed me to work flexi-time and train while still
earning a salary,” says Travis. “Now I go in to the office three times a
week for a few hours and work from home the rest of the time, which allows me
good balance between full-time training and still being able to work, stimulate
my mind and stay in the corporate world.”

Travis explains that the
Club has about 200 active members taking part in boot camps, Pilates, netball,
soccer, running, fitness competitions, corporate sporting events and cycling,
and he also interacts with many more of the 600-plus employees about their
personal fitness and nutrition goals. “I think being a ‘regular’ employee
initially, and knowing many people within the company, has allowed me to link
with all departments and employees, and have an understanding of life at
STANLIB and what is needed from a sport and wellness side to improve the health
of the employees and create a better environment to work,” says Travis.

PERSONAL GOALS

With time to focus on his training, Travis has posted some
terrific results since turning pro in 2010. That first year he won the All
Africa Triathlon Champs and was third at the All Africa Duathlon Champs, and
made the SA teams for both Triathlon and Duathlon World Champs. In 2011 he was
crowned SA Duathlon Champion, placed first in his category at Ironman 70.3 SA,
and won the 5150 Bela Bela Triathlon, thus becoming the first SA athlete to
qualify for the 5150 Hyvee Final in the USA in 2012. That year he also retained
his SA title, plus added second at African Duathlon Champs, third at SA Triathlon
Champs and fourth at African Triathlon Champs. Added to that, he qualified for
the top level World Triathlon Series event in Madrid.

Looking ahead, Travis has his sights firmly set on Rio
2016. “That Olympic dream is what it’s all about, and I resigned in the first
place to give myself that chance. The qualifying period starts in June 2014,
and I am feeling confident, although I need to improve my swim to compete with
the best in the world,” he says. “I do miss the vibe and excitement of the
financial world, but I don’t miss the pressure and stress, and I have no
regrets about making the change. Being able to do what I love most in sport,
while trying to build the company from a wellness perspective, is a much better
balance for me.”

Next time
you go on a long run or ride with your training partners, or participate in a
race, take note of the chatter around you and you’ll probably hear one or more
of the following things: “I just couldn’t keep up with the bunch… I just can’t
seem to hit my goal time… My mind wasn’t in the right place today.” This could
even be you talking – and if so, don’t feel bad, because many athletes struggle
to improve their speed and their times, or find it hard to maintain motivation
for training, or battle a fear of pain, or even a fear of something specific to
their sport, like open water swimming. Most of these issues are associated with
the mind – that little voice that says, “I can’t, I am tired, I need to walk,”
or worse, “I am going to bail.”

The good
news is that hypnotherapy has proven to have a therapeutic effect, creating a
breakthrough for many athletes to get past the barrier created in the mind,
says hypnotherapist Arthur Long, managing director of The International Academy
of Hypnosis. He has 47 years of hypnosis and hypnotherapy experience and runs
his own practice in Fourways, Johannesburg, called Hypnotherapy-SA. He first
saw the wonderful results of hypnosis in treating stroke victims and bypassing
damaged neural pathways in people who had suffered back damage. Later he met
the hypnotherapist working with the highly successful Australian Olympic team,
who introduced him to sports therapies, which Art has subsequently used when working
with numerous athletes, including numerous Olympians, and helped 11 athletes reach
world champion status.

WHY HYPNOTHERAPY?

Arthur claims
that an athlete’s motivation and drive can be destroyed by having the wrong
coach or getting the wrong training advice or feedback on performance, because
people relive words without realising it, and often they remember bad remarks
in particular. “This causes unrealistic restrictions in the brain and once an
athlete has branded themselves with the ‘I can’t’ label, they seldom overcome
that. Everything you think affects every atom of your brain, and the brain can
add to a problem and make things worse, but hypnotherapy helps athletes to
break the bad agreements they have formed in their minds, which are inevitably
holding them back, and to control competition nerves, deal with competition
conditions, and push themselves to a higher performance.”

Arthur also
says that an athlete could have an issue at home or at work that causes them to
under-perform, as their mind is not on the race. “Hypnotherapy can help the
athlete to divide situations and leave the work and home troubles aside while concentrating
on the race at hand.” He also says the mind power of a typical Comrades runner
is incredible, and it is because they deal with the moment at hand, many who
struggle are struggling due to previous programming in the mind.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT

Hypnotherapy
sessions for athletes usually last 90 minutes. The first 40 minutes are spent discussing
what you feel are your weak points or problems, followed by 40 minutes in which
the hypnotherapist will change your thought process to alter the way you have
been thinking, which can sometimes be deeply engrained in the mind, in order to
make a breakthrough. Arthur says he purely uses words in his practice, to
override the negativity in the subconscious, and it all depends on the athlete
as to how many sessions are needed.

Arthur
claims that many athletes who underachieve have experienced an unpleasant event
in their earlier years, but he doesn’t believe in rehashing the past. Instead, he
teaches the subconscious to let go and thus creates a strong confidence in the
athlete that cannot be created on the surface of the mind. “The effect this
process has on the athlete is incredible. A weight lifts from their shoulders
and they go into a state of utter relaxation, and that is when the performance
picks up dramatically. Words can either make or break an athlete,” he concludes.

If you
would like to have a session with Arthur, contact him on
[email protected] or 083 384 0907. If you are interested in joining the International
Academy of Hypnosis, contact Lindy-Lee Shepherd at [email protected] or
083 685 6263.

Ice has long been used with great success
to reduce inflammation, pain and bruising, but it can be messy, uncomfortable
and awkward to apply – and you can get ‘ice-burn’ if the ice is left on too
long. A much better idea is a Physicool bandage, which cools more effectively
than ice and has the added benefit of compression and support as well.

The natural cotton bandage contains a
coolant that draws out heat, rather than driving cold in, instantly treating
inflammation and bruising of muscles, tendons and ligaments. The bandage has a
long-lasting cooling effect, even after it has been removed, and it’s comfy and convenient to use –
no refrigeration required, no risk of ice-burn, and the adjustable strap makes
it easy to apply in seconds. Once used, or when dry, simply refresh with a
squirt of the coolant spray and store in its re-sealable pouch, ready for the
next use. This re-usable cooling bandage is therefore a must-have item for
everyone’s first aid kit.

Used with success
by athletes to treat sprains and other injuries, helping to speed recovery, it
is also being used by people with arthritis and has received high praise in the
medical field, such as from orthopaedic surgeon Simon Garrett, who has been
using Physicool on patients
following knee replacement surgery. “We found that post-op, after day one,
patient pain scores were much reduced and in the first 48 hours it made a dramatic difference.”

Physicool re-usable
bandages and coolant spray and are available from Dis-Chem stores:

?        
Physicool bandage size A (for wrists,
knees and ankles) – R112.95

?        
Physicool bandage size B (for elbows,
thighs and shoulders) – R139.95

?        
Physicool Combo pack (size A bandage
plus 150ml coolant) – R168.95

?        
Physicool 500ml coolant spray – R199.95

For
more info, go to www.ivohealth.co.za,
call 0860 456 123 or mail [email protected].