Author: Modern Athlete

In 1982,
Ann Margolin and her husband Issy ran an 8km training run, and along the way they
met a man who went on and on about marathons. On that day, Ann ‘beat’ the
marathon enthusiast and thought that she could continue her newfound love by
running longer races. “I love the open air and I love the feeling of being so
free.” says Ann, still just as excited about her running as she was nearly 30
years ago.

She
embraced the Two Oceans and Comrades ultras, and and
singles the Comrades out as her greatest feat till now. She says she thrives on
the self-discipline this gruelling race requires. “I’ve never shown up
unprepared. You have to do your homework at Comrades,” says Ann, who describes
the atmosphere at the race as “infectious”. Last year, when she could not run due
to injury and attended Comrades as a VIP guest instead, she was amazed at the
continuous anticipation created. “I can sense the build-up even on the
sidelines. Some finish and it’s like they haven’t been affected at all,” she
laughs, “they just smile and wave. But I think it infects all walks of life.”

RESCUED BY COMRADES

Ann says
that Comrades has been her saviour after being diagnosed with cancer in
late 2008 and undergoing unsuccessful surgery in early 2009. She was determined
to run the Comrades again just a few months later, even though she couldn’t
train properly. She says her mental attitude was not right for surgery, but she
was still plotting her running times, and was determined to finish the race
after having to overcome her diagnosis. “I needed to finish it to put life into
perspective for me,” explains Ann. “I finished three minutes earlier than I
planned. A calm came over me. At that moment, I knew I needed to accept what
had happened and carry on.” Acoording to Ann, that Comrades was her turning
point, ab she calls it her “leveller’, because that day everything “just
clicked.”

Her tremendous courage was recognised when she was
presented with a Goldfields
Spirit of Comrades Award in 2009 and was made to feel like a celebrity. “It was
like I was floating on a cloud. I told my family that all I wanted to do was bottle this
feeling forever,” says Ann.

DEALING WITH INJURY

Over the
past year or so, Cape Town-based Ann has been dealing with an injury that’s
kept her out of running. “I’ve been banging my head against the wall over this.
After a run, my back is in agony and no one can really pinpoint the cause,” she
explains. In 2010, Ann hurt her back while doing strength training and tried to
ignore it, but after that year’s Comrades, she had done further damage. “If I
run now I get sore, but I am not going to give up on this,” says Ann, who
remains positive and still hopes to complete her 30^th Two Oceans in
April.

Most
frustratingly, Ann says her injury has kept her from training with Issy, who
like her also runs for Celtic Harriers these days after they both moved across
from Acsis VOB a few years back. She remembers one year running the whole
Comrades with Issy, from start to finish, and crossing the finish line hand in
hand – a rare feat for couples running the Big C together. “It’s a huge
motivation when you’re with the other, and you forget about your tiredness,” says
Ann.

Although
sad about not being able to run Comrades this year, Ann is still happy to lend
her wisdom to other runners, particularly when it comes to telling them to look
after their bodies, “Don’t do too much too soon,” she says, “think about what lies
ahead, and that you need to leave some of yourself in the kitty to run further
on in life. Don’t use all your power at once.”

Through the
years of running, Ann has overcome hardship, showing that nothing is impossible
if you keep on believing. And she says she is not going anywhere – running is
in her blood and she is prepared to rise above her injury. Hopefully we’ll see
her and Issy finish hand in hand at many a future finish line.

The parkrun
idea was born from misery. When South African expat Paul Sinton-Hewitt was
training for the London Marathon in 2004, he over-cooked the training and ended
up with a serious injury. But once a runner, always a runner, and Paul decided
to do something that would keep him involved in running – and something that
had not been done before in England.

“I
remembered the Rocky Road Runners Time Trial that takes place every Saturday
morning. The simplicity of turning up without pre-registering, taking part and
then recording your own name in the results when you finished was the starting
point for parkrun. I wanted a weekly event over a short distance that didn’t
need much in the way of volunteers, and where the results would be universally
available so that runners could compare their performances,” says Paul.

Paul
organised his first parkrun in October 2004 in Bushy
Park, London, with 13 runners and the first two
years were used to learn what worked. In January 2007 the second event was
introduced, and by then Paul knew there would be more. “Since then I have been
overjoyed by the uptake from the communities across the world.”

PARK WHAT?

?        
The
distance is 5km as this is a manageable distance for most, yet it is a distance
that even elites can use to work on their speed.

?        
No
traffic cops are required as the runs take place inside parks or nature
reserves, in open fields or on seaside promenades.

?        
People
of all ages and abilities can take part – even Olympians have joined in – but
the main goal is to get first-time runners involved. Therefore, most runs start
at 9am on Saturday mornings.

?        
All
you have to do is register online and receive a barcode which you will keep
forever and can use worldwide.

?        
The
runs only get cancelled due to bad weather or when major events are held in the
chosen park.

?        
No
water tables are provided, which means minimum staff. You take your own water
bottle and run or walk with it, or leave it at the finish area.

BRINGING IT HOME

Bruce ran
the London Marathon
last year and met up with his old friend Paul, who had been one of his seconds
during his Comrades heyday, and who now invited him to a parkrun. “It was the
day before the marathon. When I saw about 250 people lining up, I thought these
youngsters are not going to beat me! I finished 18^th that day.”

Bruce was
hooked and started chatting to Paul about bringing the concept to South Africa. The
first parkrun SA was held at Delta Park in Johannesburg
in November, with 11 runners. Since then, more than 200 runners have registered
and regularly run the Delta
Park course. Bruce’s
wife, Gill, is administering the parkrun SA website and is in the process of
training volunteers to help her.

“This is
such a great concept!” says Bruce. “Even guys who travel to SA on business have
joined our parkruns, as they don’t want to miss out on accumulating as many as
possible. The great thing about park running is that it offers something for
everybody.”

THE INS AND OUTS

One of
the best things about parkrun is the ‘no fuss’ system. You simply pitch up,
listen to a few safety announcements and off you go! And within 20 minutes of the last runner finishing, everything is packed
up and the area is cleared. The only bit of administration is the barcode,
which records what position you finish in. Then within an hour of running, you
can compare your time and ranking online against fellow runners, those in your
age group and even those that ran worldwide on the same day, says Gill.

Regular runners are rewarded with a
red 50 T-shirt while those who complete 100 parkruns receive a Black 100
T-shirt.

“The
simplicity of the parkrun formula and the fact that we are free to everyone to
take part is the winning recipe. Everything we do is without commercial bias.
Of course, it costs money to build an organisation and have so many events, and
for that we need sponsors. However, we have crafted a careful, respectful
relationship with our sponsors and backers, so that the commercial aspect is
underplayed,” says Paul.

WHAT
YOU WAITING FOR?

Parkrun is set to take SA by storm,
says Bruce. He has had many queries from runners wanting to start parkruns in
their local communities and neighbourhoods. “I believe park running is the
nursery for many a good runner.”

Paul agrees
and says with such a large active community in South Africa and with so many folks
finding it difficult to cover the costs of paid-for races, this formula will be
successful. “All I have ever wanted for parkrun was that we offer people a
chance to better themselves. Parkrun builds communities, and while it is doing
this, people become fitter, healthier and develop better friendships.”

For more information,
visit www.parkrun.co.za

The
Summer Olympiad is held every four years and is one of the world’s biggest
sporting spectacles – and the highlight of many athletes’ careers. The 2012
Games in London will kick off with the opening ceremony on 27 July and will
wrap up with the closing ceremony on 12 August, while the Paralympics will
follow from 29 August to 9 September. The programme will feature 302 events across
39 disciplines in 26 sporting codes, and some 10 500 athletes from 204
countries are expected to participate, including a contingent of from our
shores.

The
first time South Africa sent athletes to the Olympics was in 1904, for the St
Louis Games in the USA, and the country was part of every Summer Games until
1960, after which global condemnation of the country’s Apartheid policy saw
South Africa barred from the Games. Thankfully, once the country’s political
system had been changed, SA was welcomed back into the global sporting
community and returned to Olympic action in 1992, and following the 2008 Games
in Beijing, South Africa can boast 70 Olympic
medals won in total: 20 gold, 24 silver and 26 bronze. And of those, 23 have
come in athletics (six gold, 11 silver, six bronze), with boxing (19) and
swimming (12) the only other SA sporting codes to reach double figures.

EARLY PIONEERS

Our
first athletics medals came in London in 1908, when Reggie Walker won the 100
metres, setting an Olympic record, and Charles Hefferon finished second in the
marathon. Four years later in Stockholm, our marathoners did even better as Ken
McArthur won the marathon in an Olympic record and Christian Gitsham finished
second. However, spare a thought for Leonard Richardson, who set an Olympic
record in the 10 000m semi-final, but was then unable to finish the final, in
which his new record was also beaten.

The
1920 Games in Antwerp were the country’s most successful, with 10 medals in
total, including 4 golds. Three medals came on the track, where Bevil Rudd
starred for the country, winning gold in the 400m and bronze in the 800m, and
helping the 4x400m
relay team win silver, along with Henry Dafel, Clarence Odlfield and Jack
Oosterlaak. Then came the 1924 Paris Games, where Sydney Atkinson took silver
in the 110m hurdles and Cecil McMaster won bronze in the 10 000m walk. Atkinson
went one better in 1928 in Amsterdam, winning gold in the 110m hurdles for our
only athletics medal of the Games.

In Los
Angeles in 1932, Marjorie Clark won bronze in the 80m hurdles for the country’s
first female Olympic athletics medal, but then followed a long drought as no athletics
medals were brought home from Berlin (1936) or London (1948), with no Games in
1940 or 1944 due to the Second World War. Then in the 1952 Helsinki Games, the
women once again flew the SA flag proudly as Esther Brand claimed gold in the high
jump and Daphne Hasenjager took silver in the 100m. Malcolm Spence’s bronze in
the 400m in 1960 in Rome was to be the last SA track medal for quite some time
thanks to the country’s sporting isolation.

IN FROM THE COLD

No South African who witnessed the country’s return
to Olympic action in 1992 in Barcelona will ever forget watching Elana Meyer run
to silver in the women’s 10 000m, then do a victory lap with Ethiopian winner,
Derartu Tulu. And it was just the first of more medals to come, as Josiah
Thugwane claimed marathon gold in 1996 in Atalanta, while Hezekiel Sepeng
brought home silver in the men’s 800m. Four years later in Sydney, Hestrie
Cloete took silver in the women’s high jump while Llewellyn Herbert (men’s 400m
hurdles) and Frantz Kruger (men’s discus) brought home bronze medals. The class
of 2004 saw Cloete repeat her silver heroics in Athens, while Mbulaeni Mulaudzi
also took silver in the men’s 800m.

The 2008 Games in Beijing were not as successful,
with Khotso Mokoena’s silver in the men’s long jump not only being the
country’s only track medal, but the only medal that came back to SA overall.
The South African team will be aiming to much better this time round.

Next month we look at some of the
top medal contenders amongst South Africa’s athletes.

Being addicted to drugs is a
destructive addiction that leaves you desperate and helpless, and often without
any friends and family. But sometimes, something inspirational is born from
these times of hardship, and that is exactly what happened to Marco Broccardo, CEO
of Eurocom, a communications and digital strategy company in Rosebank, Johannesburg.

Whilst in rehab in 2001, Marco felt
he wanted to give something back, and it was in the rehabilitation centre that
the concept of Mountain
Heights was born. His
journey of addiction and recovery has now led him to the 7 Summit Challenge, of
climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents, in order to
achieve the goal of funding a self-sustaining drug rehabilitation centre that
will give addicts who truly want to recover the gift of hope and the chance of
leading a successful, fulfilled and normal life.

“I know
this all might sound very rosy and structured, but believe you me, the journey
to get where I am now, to acknowledge and make this dream a reality, has been
messy, violent, lawless and deceitful,” says Marco, adding that he believes
that through this challenge he can bring a message of hope to users and their
families. “There is hope and recovery for every addict if they are truly
committed to a drug-free life,” he says.

THE START OF IT ALL

“My story
began like any other addict’s story. Picture it: Joburg, the early 90s, an
athletic young boy from a loving home starts dabbling in a little weed here, a
cheeky line there, and quickly my using got out of control, the lights went out
and my dark path through the belly of Joburg’s underworld and full-blown
addiction began. I did my first line of coke when I was 15. Scary, huh? The
crack cocaine and heroine days were particularly fun… my life was a smorgasbord
of drug cocktails and using opportunities. But it’s this resolute tenacity and
commitment to my addiction that was the same strength I drew on in my recovery.
That and my faith in God,” says Marco.

Marco hit rock bottom in 1999 and
began rehab. He has always been fascinated by mountains and whilst in rehab he
decided to use the mountains as a metaphor for the same mental and physical
challenges it takes to overcome addiction. “We all have a mountain in our
lives, be it an addiction, a bad relationship or an eating problem,” says Marco,
who in 2010 won the title of Top Young Entrepreneur in South Africa at the
African Access National Business Awards.

VIRGIN CLIMB

The first step in his
three-and-a-half year campaign to climb the highest mountains on all seven
continents was in 2010 with Mount Kilimanjaro.
In preparation for this, Marco met up with extreme athlete Alex Harris, one
of the first South Africans to conquer the seven summits as well as walk
unassisted to the South Pole. “I learnt that one can only be so fit to climb a mountain.
What gets to you in the end is altitude sickness and your body shutting down in
wild temperatures that drop well below double negative numbers,” says Marco,

That first summit was quite a shock
for someone on their virgin climb, but after Kilimanjaro, Marco was hooked and
determined to do more. He and his team members, many of whom are former
addicts, now follow a vigorous training programme. “Training is pretty hectic,”
explains Marco. “We run 4km a day, five times a week, and for that extra bit of
stamina training, we climb the Westcliff Stairs in the North of Johannesburg twice
a week, doing ten sets up and down at a time. And then for a real taste of
pain, we’ll do an eight to 10-hour cycle in Magaliesburg or climb the ridges of
Joburg from Fishers Hill, Primrose, to the Walter Sisulu
Gardens in Krugersdop. That’s
66km in a day.”

And if that’s not enough, the team
does a stretch exercise once a month and will, for example go to Sabie in
Mpumulanga and do a 120km ride the one day and then the 50km Fanie Botha hiking
trail the next. “This stretches you mentally and physically, and leaves you
crying for your mom!” says Marco.

MOUNTAIN SKILLS

However, it’s not only fitness that
is core to summiting, it’s skill as well. To make sure the team is
mountain-ready, they go rock-climbing and hone their rope skills and harnessing
techniques. Before Marco and his team climbed Mount
Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia, in May last year, they practiced
these essential elements in the Blue Mountains
to ensure that nothing was left to chance.

Altitude sickness is a reality and
Marco got his first taste of this in South America
last year. Symptoms include nausea, dehydration and shortness of breath. “What
people don’t know is at that altitude, other than your body performing its
essential functions, everything else kind of shuts down. We attempted Acongagua
in Argentina
in December and that quite honestly was the most physically challenging and mentally
daunting experience I’ve ever been through. The temperature at the top of Kilimanjaro
when we climbed in 2010 was -22 degrees with a serious wind chill factor. The
base camp temperature at Acongagua was -12. It was intense and everything slows
down as your body uses all its energy to keep you warm!”

UNPREDICATABILITY

It was Acongagua that really woke
Marco up to the reality of climbing mountains, which are largely unpredictable.
After reaching 5500m, Marco developed what was thought to be a cerebral edema,
a swelling on the brain caused by high altitudes and he had to be airlifted off
the mountain. “Alex warned us what we were in for, but I don’t think anything
could have prepared me for that. You only realise what you have got yourself
into when you are sitting on the side of a mountain, frozen to the bone and
moving tents and food and gear to the next camp, not sure if you’re going to make
it, or how you’ll make it. What started off as a tummy bug eventually took me
out and my body just didn’t want to comply.”

The rest of the team had to turn
back 700 vertical metres before the summit, as conditions were simply too
dangerous. It was a huge disappointment after the distance and training and
expense it took to get them there, but in true Marco form, he just saw this as
a lesson in personal growth. “We never made it to the top, but it’s important
to look at it in terms of the bigger picture. When we didn’t summit, we were a
bit down and out, but the reality is, like the road to recovery from addiction,
there are hiccups you’ve not accounted for. Things don’t go your way up a
mountain… much like recovery, mountains are unpredictable.”

FUTURE CLIMBS

Marco and his team are planning to
climb Everest next year as their 7 Summit Challenge swansong. He realises there
is a very real likelihood that his whole team won’t make it up, possibly him
too. But Marco embraces the challenges ahead of him.

So what keeps him going in minus
temperatures, up a mountain, miles away from civilization, hospitals and a
decent meal? “My faith in God and my family, and the core reasons I decided to
climb mountains in the first place. Life’s not easy, nor is climbing, but how
will we ever achieve anything if we don’t give it 100% effort and dedication?
That’s what keeps me going.”