Author: Modern Athlete

It all began in December 2009. I met Roy Heine online and we began chatting. He told me he belonged to Charlo Athletic Club in Port Elizabeth and had run 76 marathons in total. He started nine Comrades, finished three, and had also run 12 Two Oceans Marathons.

In 2005 Roy had a heart attack; he was never going to go back to run Comrades, but then we met each other. I told Roy that one of the very few regrets I have in my life is that I never got to run Comrades, something I had never doubted I would do, until I broke my neck…

THE END OF LIFE AS I KNEW IT
I can already hear you ask: What happened to you? So let’s first take a step back. On 13 April 1998, on Easter Monday, I was in a car accident when we were driving home from a family holiday in the Eastern Cape. Just a couple of days before I remember feeling blissfully happy as I lay on the beach watching my son, Chad, play in the sea-sand and water for the first time in his life. I was content, believing foolishly that I was in control. Just days later our seemingly perfect lives were shattered.

It was a long drive and we purposefully stuck to the ‘back routes’, as the Easter weekend is notorious for a high incidence of car accidents. With a 10-month-old baby and our dog in the car, we wanted the trip to go as quickly and smoothly as possible. With just over two hours to go, we were approaching Standerton. Chad became distressed – he had a dirty nappy and wanted to be free of his baby-safe car chair. We decided to push through to Standerton, where Chad and Rocky (the dog) could both receive the attention they needed.

After a while I could no longer take Chad’s heart-wrenching sobs, so I climbed into the back, picked him up and he instantly stopped crying. I lay him down gently on the seat right next to Rocky to change his nappy. Seconds later, my husband yelled at me to grab hold of Chad. The car in front of us slammed on brakes and came to a sudden halt. I remember seeing a blue car in front of us with a cloud of dust or smoke surrounding it. Instinctively I turned back to grab hold of Chad. He had flipped over on his tummy and was crawling away. I made a desperate attempt to grab hold of his foot, but he was too fast. I lost my balance as my husband lost control of the car. Our Land Rover overturned and landed on its roof, and in the process I hit my head.

I never lost consciousness. I was aware of everything going on around me. I don’t remember feeling any pain, but I could not move. I watched as my arm fell limply from above my head into my lap. I realised immediately that I had broken my neck. I just knew. I heard Chad crying. I couldn’t turn my head to find him. Shouting, my husband asked if I was alright. I told him that I had broken my neck. Miraculously, nobody else was hurt. Even Rocky was still wagging his tail.

The doctor at the hospital tried to sound cheerful, but I could see the sadness in his eyes. Somehow I just knew that he too feared the worst. I was transferred to the Eugene Marais Hospital in Pretoria, where they did an emergency operation, fusing my fourth and fifth cervical vertebrae, using bone extracted from my hip. Shortly after, I looked up into the face of the man I loved – the father of my child – as he told me gently that I would always be paralysed. The tears rolled down both our cheeks. I lay there, unable to move, unable to speak and unable to breathe on my own. I had never felt so scared in all my life. That was the end of life as I knew it.

ADAPTING TO A NEW LIFE
I was always an active woman who loved sport and outdoor activities, and I was a proud member of the Nelspruit Marathon club. I absolutely loved running. I had run my last race when I was about five months pregnant with Chad. I had started running time trials again after he was born, and my goal was to run Comrades soon after that. But then tragedy struck.

After the accident my husband and I grew apart and sadly eventually got divorced. Over the years I have learned that you do not need to walk to be able to soar in life. I’m very proud that I live on my own in my own home. With the help, generosity and support of my family, friends and the Nelspruit community, I am privileged enough to employ care assistants to take care of all my physical needs. Although they are available 24/7, I remain firmly in control of my home and responsible for my own wellbeing.

THE START OF A LIFELONG BOND
OK, back to how I got to ‘run’ the Comrades Marathon. When I mentioned to my online friend Roy that I would have loved to run the Comrades, he immediately replied and said that he would run the next Comrades for me. I was deeply touched that a complete stranger would offer to do something like that for me. I was flattered, but also somewhat amused. I doubted his commitment and I was suspicious of his intentions.

Roy and I continued to e-mail one another and we spoke on the phone occasionally. It quickly became clear to me that he was a real gentleman with a heart of gold. I liked him, but I remained guarded. He indicated that he wanted to meet me in person. I was amazed, but put him off. I reasoned in my mind, what if he is some weirdo? What if I didn’t like him? What if I did like him? What is the point of meeting him? He lives in Port Elizabeth, I live in Nelspruit. Miles apart. What if…?

Our interactions continued, and we poured our hearts out to one another in long e-mails. We could relate to each other in many ways, as we have both had physical and emotional setbacks in our lives. He had had a heart attack and was recently divorced. He needed somebody to talk to and I was able to listen. Our friendship blossomed.

HIS TRAINING BECAME OUR TRAINING
He would give me almost daily reports on our training. It all seemed a bit surreal. A part of me really didn’t want to hear how well – or badly – his training was going. I was silently resentful. I would give anything to feel that ache in my limbs. But somehow, Roy already knew that. And that is exactly what kept him going.

I was angry. Did this man honestly think that it would make it easier for me to accept that I am paralysed from the neck down if he ran the Comrades Marathon for me? I should have been running my own bloody race! I was dubious. Who in their right bloody mind is going to run 90km for somebody else – a woman he had never even met face-to-face, and then simply hand over the medal? Another part of me was joyful and excited that I had the ability to inspire a man in his fifties to attempt the Comrades!

Somewhere along the line, Roy decided that he was going to do the Ironman as well. Typical, I thought! Now he’s on his own bloody mission. There is no way in hell he is going to do two such epic events, one after the other, unless he is a superhuman machine. So there goes my Comrades! I paid even less attention to his ramblings on about his running, cycling and swimming, but I never ever admitted this to Roy. I just encouraged him and kept my feelings to myself. He completed the Ironman. I was so very proud of him. But I remained fearful of disappointment.

OUR COMRADES
In the days leading up to Comrades 2010, I allowed myself to become excited for the first time. The night before the big day I had butterflies in my tummy. What if he did not make it? What if I had put too much pressure on him? What if he got injured? What if he had another heart attack? I realised then that I cared about this man. We had become close and special friends. No stupid bloody medal can ever replace that.

I was awake long before the race began – eyes, ears, heart, mind and spirit glued to the television set. The Chariots of Fire playing in the background and the sound of the cock crowing overwhelmed me with a flood of tears and a wave of intense but mixed emotions as thousands of runners set off. Oh God, why can’t I be there? Why can’t I run? Why…? I lay there sobbing for at least an hour. My ears were wet, my cheeks itchy and my pillow cold with tears.

I spent the day in my recliner in front of the TV with my laptop. Our race number was 32034. I was tracking our progress on the net. I had to stop myself from texting Roy too often. I didn’t want to distract him, but I wanted, desperately, to motivate him. I was sending out tweets on Twitter, enjoying the fun and interaction with my supporters. I watched as thousands of runners crossed my TV screen all day long – eagerly waiting to see Roy running for us.

As I watched some of the runners with their grimaces of physical pain and mental exhaustion and others with their tears of joy at their wonderful achievement, I was on my own rollercoaster of emotion. I marvelled at the optimism, courage, determination and ability of the human spirit to rise above physical and psychological challenges.

THE MARATHON OF LIFE
As the day progressed, and with each step the runners took, I became more introspective and realised that my life is a model of a marathon. A marathon requires all your mental and physical resources in order to complete. I’ve had to overcome several obstacles in my life and reach beyond my limits using a strong, positive mental attitude.

The Comrades Marathon is a compressed, intense and gruelling form of life you experience within the confines of 12 hours. But, these lessons can be carried through into your everyday life within the margins of (hopefully) 80 years, or more. Running – like life – gives you setbacks. It messes with you physically and psychologically – and then you go on.

WE DID IT!
The joy of seeing Roy running into the stadium with a huge poster of me saying, For My Friend… Tracy Todd will stay with me forever. I was so proud of him. I completed the Comrades through Roy and he became known as my ‘Comrades Legs.’ A month later Roy delivered my medal in person.

Roy Heine believed in himself, even though I didn’t. He taught me that the most powerful people in the world are the ones who believe in themselves. Roy’s dedication reminded me to continue believing in myself. I, too, can have the power to make a difference to this world.

Somehow, from somewhere, I have also managed to get the encouragement, motivation and inspiration to go on, which gives me the strength for the toughest marathon of all – the marathon of life. Thank you, Roy Heine, for being my friend. You are a great inspiration to me.

After running both the Two Oceans Ultra and the Comrades Marathon for the first time last year, Marcel Joubert, Cape Town-based CEO of The Platinum Group, was a bit disappointed when it was all over. That’s when he decided 2011 was the year to go big! He not only added one or two extra goals to his To Do List, he added 11 more! And if all goes well, come 29 May Marcel would have ticked off the following events:

23 January Ironman 70.3
17-19 February Dusi Canoe Marathon
20 February Peninsula Marathon (3:24)
4-6 March Grape Escape (3 Day Mountain Bike Event)
13 March Argus Cycle Tour (3:04)
19-21 March The Oyster Catcher Trail Run
27 March – 3 April Cape Epic
10 April Ironman
17 April London Marathon
18 April Boston Marathon
23 April Two Oceans Marathon (sub-5:00)
2 May 4 Hills for Lindsay 60km
6-8 May AfricanX (3 Day Trail Run)
19-21 May Sani2C (3 Day Mountain Bike Event)
29 May Comrades Marathon (sub-9:00)

 

HOW IT ALL STARTED

If Marcel isn’t striding along the base of Table Mountain to a glorious sunset he can be found scaling Llandudno Ravine with his loyal Staffie Rocco or bounding over Chapman’s Peak. That’s if he’s not toughing it out in punishing mountain bike events or paddling in the sweltering Dusi valley. This wasn’t always the case though. After a very active youth, spent sky-diving, hang-gliding, scuba-diving, canoeing, surfing, motor-cycling and playing squash at a provincial level, a back injury saw Marcel sidelined in his early thirties. “I’d always been super lean when I was younger, so I grew up thinking I was relatively immune against weight-gain, but I slipped into a sedentary lifestyle where I was working too hard, eating and drinking way too much and was soon a solid match for Os du Randt!” he laughs.

So on New Year’s Day 2006, Marcel decided enough was enough. “I spoke to my friends, family and my life partner, Moira O’Reilly, and embarked on a complete holistic lifestyle overhaul. Along with a host of other changes, I entered the Two Oceans Half Marathon and I really got into my running, which was surprising because I had never enjoyed it before.” He remembers how the bug really bit when he had an encounter with his ‘nirvana’, trail running at the first Trail Series at Silvermine in Cape Town in 2008. “We had so much fun we thought we had died and gone to heaven! It was a moment of complete, spontaneous euphoria.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. As an inexperienced runner, Marcel initially suffered every running injury you can imagine but he persevered and slowly became stronger and more injury resistant. Then in 2008 he suffered a major blow when he tore his knee cartilage. “The injury took me completely out of running for 15 months and I really climbed the walls during that period.” But he turned the negative into the positive and quickly re-channelled his energy into cycling despite his initial reluctance to the sport.

BRING ON THE CHALLENGES 

After knee surgery at the end of 2009 and months of rehabilitation, Marcel’s injured knee eventually recovered sufficiently to start running again at the end of January 2010, when he decided to take on his maiden Two Oceans and Comrades. Four months later he had completed the Peninsula Marathon, Two Oceans and Comrades in 9:27. When he crossed the Comrades’ finish line he wasn’t at all relieved that he was finished, but sad that such an exhilarating journey was over. Cue the next challenge.

“I’ve always been a hardy challenger type, motivated by challenges and if you tell me something can’t be done, I want to do it. I’ve stacked the calendar full this year; I’d like to see whether I can do it. It’s a deeply personal thing. I’m not looking for any external validation but I suppose it can be inspiring.”

Often a complete novice at some of the challenges he has taken on, Marcel is unperturbed by the unknown that lies ahead. When he did Sani2C for the first time last year, he had only been on a mountain bike a few times prior to the event but he loved every minute of it. It was the same story with last month’s Dusi as a handful of canoe sessions had to suffice, but again Marcel thrived. He completed the Dusi with friends Bruce Fordyce and Oscar Chalupsky and says if he had known how much fun the Dusi is he would have done it every year for the last twenty!

To make his undertaking even more daunting Marcel had to enlist a professional coach to improve his swimming as he had never learned to exhale under water because he suffered from a range of respiratory diseases as a child. He also had to overhaul his sleeping patterns as he is a night owl but could only find time to train in the mornings at 4am. But as always Marcel simply pushed through and he finished the swimming leg of Ironman 70.3 halfway up the field and is now confident to take on full Ironman.

A REWARDING EXPERIENCE

While most of us would probably think we deserve an award after taking on such a mammoth undertaking, Marcel doesn’t agree. “Bar the odd killer interval session, I love every training session so much that each one is a complete reward in itself. As tough as some of the events have been, I’ve loved every minute of them too. I don’t care about the elements. I’m out in nature and find it exhilarating! Obviously, I’ll have a bit of a rest after Comrades, which is my last big challenge in the first half of this year”

But Marcel won’t be sitting still for too long after that… In the second half of the year he’ll be tackling the Hout Bay Trail Challenge, The Puffer, The Otter Trail Run, SkyRun, Table Mountain Challenge, The Swazi Frontier, Xterra World Championships in Maui, New York Marathon, Wines2Whales, 94.7, Amashova and a few others.

“I feel incredibly blessed to be experiencing such a rich, vibrant, diverse tapestry of unbelievable experiences. It’s one big magic carpet ride!”

When you ask most runners their PBs, they can usually rattle them off without even blinking twice, and those who might have forgotten theirs can usually quickly refer back to logbooks they have kept over the years. But when it comes to training runs, not many runners can tell you exactly how far they ran or how they felt on each day of the week, month and year – for 25 years! Andre Berrange can. Ask him any date and he can tell you how far he ran, how long it took him, which route he chose, what the weather was like and how he felt on that day.

Paging through his three large scrapbooks is like paging through a special part of his life. Running is obviously one of his great passions and he has chosen to diligently record each run in a neat handwriting every day. In the early days of his running, he even pasted race numbers, pictures and other mementoes in the books, but as the years have gone by this has faded. His recording of his runs has certainly not faded!

VARSITY BLUES
Andre started running at university, where he studied architecture. “I started running as a means of countering stress in my final year exams. I was quite a diligent student and when I did not perform well at exams, I would actually go out on the road and punish myself with a hard run,” says Andre.

He kept running after varsity, but nothing serious – until June 1986. Andre was at the Bedfordview Country Club with a bunch of mates watching Comrades on TV. “That day everything changed and I decided I wanted to run Comrades. I started running three weeks later, training for my first Comrades in 1987.” That same day Andre started recording his training runs. His early recordings included remarks such as: ‘Tired, weak, frustrating, injury, tough course, slow…” But as time progressed the entries made way for remarks such as: ‘Good run, easy, incredible, excellent…’ He joined Germiston Callies Athletic Club in 1987 and today he is still a proud member, and the current chairman.

RUNNING JOURNEY
His first 15km was in Kempton Park, his first half marathon in Vanderbiljpark, and his first marathon in Benoni in 1987. “I finished in 3:43,” he says. Little did Andre know that was just the first many marathons – another 99 have followed that one into his logbooks!

In 1987 came his first Comrades, which he finished within five minutes of the 11-hour final gun. He also finished the next two very close to cut-off time. “Initially, I was hopeless at ultra distances, but I was so passionate about Comrades that I just did not want to give up. I must admit, after my first three Comrades Marathons, I thought maybe I should give up and not even bother.”

THEN SOMETHING CLICKED
Andre’s growing running and racing experience started leading to better Comrades times and he started finishing well within 10 hours. “My best time is 9:07. In those days the Bill Rowan medal was not around yet, so there wasn’t any real motivation to go under nine.”

He ran five Comrades Marathons in a row before taking a break, and ran the Big C intermittently the next few years. He attempted his green number run in 1999, but unfortunately it was not to be: A month before Comrades he picked up Hepatitis B, which only manifested as he was about to run the race. “I was so sick and had to bail.”

In 2002 Andre was back to claim his green number. “After that I stopped running Comrades, and I have to be honest, I don’t really have a desire to go back for more.” This has not kept him from being on the side of the road between Pietermaritzburg and Durban every year. “I am there every year to support and second my club mates.”

These days, Andre prefers to run the Two Oceans ultra, of which he has done 12, and he will be back in Cape Town in April to tackle his 13th voyage. “I love Two Oceans. Just when you start to suffer it stops and you can still party that night. I will try to do 20 and beyond if I am healthy enough.”

THE MAGICAL 100
One thing that will always stand out in his running career is his 100th marathon. He knew exactly that it was fast approaching and initially planned to run it at the New York City Marathon, or before his 50th birthday. Unfortunately things did not work out in such a way and he finished his 100th marathon at the recent Deloitte Pretoria Marathon.

“It was a great feeling! These days I still like to run a standard marathon in under four hours. I will always be running – it is part of my lifestyle. Running has kept me going through tough times at work and in my personal life. I love being part of it all.”

Andre is a proud member of Germiston Callies Athletic Club, the only club in the country that can boast having five Comrades Marathon winners in its club colours. Wally Hayward, Jackie Meckler, Mercer Davies, George Claassen and Alan Robb were all members of Callies when they won Comrades.

Therefore, the club hosts a race called the Callies Comrades Legends 32km & 15km each year. The first three races were run in honour of Wally, Jackie and Alan, while this year’s fourth race in the series, commemorating Mercer Davies, will be held on 10 April at the Germiston Stadium. Mercer won the Comrades in 1957 and won a total of five gold medals. For more info, contact 011 825 7701.

The Goretex Trans-Alpine Run is an eight-day stage race that covers 260km, starting in Germany, crossing through Austria and ending in Italy. It is considered one of the pinnacle events on the global mountain running calendar. Runners enter in pairs and must remain together throughout each stage, and the 2010 edition of the race featured a South African team for the first time. Ryan Sandes and Linda Doke did fantastically to claim third position in the mixed pairs category – although Linda reckons Ryan would have done better if she didn’t hold him back…

“We were well matched in terms of our hopes and goals for this race, and the same goes for temperament. But when it comes to running capability, no one matches Ryan. However, it was his patience, his tolerance and his constant unselfish approach to us as a team that impressed me most,” says Linda. “Never once in the eight days did Ryan show any sign of frustration when I wasn’t able to maintain his pace or push harder. Instead, he gave me constant encouragement to keep me going – and threw me the tow-rope when I really needed a bit of help. It was a privilege to run with him.”

HITTING THE ROAD
Linda is 41 and lives in Hout Bay, Cape Town, with her husband and fellow runner Craig Rowlands. She grew up in Zimbabwe, then came to South Africa for schooling and went on to complete a degree in journalism from Rhodes University. After working on various magazines, she has been working freelance since 2000. Having always done a lot of sport when growing up, Linda says she only got into running at the age of 24.

“I’d just got back from overseas, and let’s just say I’d eaten too many pork pies, so needed to do something radical. My boyfriend was a runner, and he got me into it. Hell, it was hard, but I went from 5km to 12km, and was told that if I can do 12, I can do 21.” A first marathon followed a few months later, then came Two Oceans the following year, and then Comrades a year after that. “I’ve done 15 consecutive Oceans, but last year I realised I’m just no longer enjoying it, so this year I will be a supporter – but I’ll probably be back after that.”

“I must confess, I was a roadie for 10 years, but I saw the light in 2004 when I moved to Cape Town and found trail running. I never thought I could love anything more than road running, but now I find it hard to understand why I loved it so much.” She does admit to still having a few road goals, though. “My marathon PB is 3:16, so I would love to do a sub-3:00.”

She also wants to run her 10th Comrades. “2009 was going to be my 10th, and my training was going well until I fell ill due to a bug which I think I picked up in India while running the Himalayan 100-miler the year before. I couldn’t run 3km without a stop in the bushes, and had to undergo a colonoscopy, then take antibiotics that nuked the parasite! I entered Comrades again in 2010, but then Ryan called about the Trans-Alps, and this year I’ve got the Namib Challenge and won’t be recovered in time. My best Comrades time so far was 8:07, and I wasn’t even properly trained, so I would like my 10th to be a silver.”

THE TUFFER PUFFER
Having taken up trail running in 2004, Linda lined up for the Puffer, an 80km trail run from Cape Point to the Cape Town Waterfront, running along the spine of the Peninsula mountains. “I was still quite new to trail running and my time was pretty shocking, something like 11 hours. Then I got involved in Ironman for a few years, and it was actually the knowledge that I could do Ironman, and the Comrades, that convinced me I could do longer distances, so I thought, let’s try the Tougher Puffer.” So in 2006 she lined up for the back-to-back double running of the Puffer route, starting the day before the main race, and she not only won the women’s race and equalled the women’s record, but she finished second overall.

“I absolutely loved it. I get energised running at night, but that’s also the hardest time, when energy reserves are low and your fuel tank is confused. Running constantly for 24 hours-plus really confuses your body. It’s hard to get your eating right. Inevitably, in the early hours of the morning, when trying to shove Gu’s in, your body just doesn’t want to know about it.”

Having equalled the record, to the minute – since the organisers apparently don’t worry about seconds – Linda decided to give it another go in 2007, and took 25 minutes off the record. “I swore to myself that I wouldn’t have to do it again if I beat the record, because it was so much harder that second time. My dad passed away very unexpectedly two weeks before the race, so I almost didn’t run.”

Linda’s Tuffer Puffer record has since been broken, so she says she is tempted to run it again, but it’s not high on her priority list. “Don’t tell my hubby, though,” she jokes. “Actually, I’m lucky not only to have a wonderful husband, but a running husband as well. He is so supportive of my training, dropping me off and picking me up for training runs, but still helps me keep my priorities focused, by showing me there’s more to life than running.”

MORE TRAIL SUCCESS
With the Tuffer Puffer behind her, Linda went on to run two Cape Odysseys in 2007 and 2008, both times being part of the winning women’s pairing, and finished sixth in the Mont Blanc Trail Marathon in France in 2008. She has also run six Hout Bay Trail Challenges, winning the women’s race in 2009, the same year that she won the Triple Trouble Trail Race (in a record time) and the Puffer, finished second woman in the Sky Run, and most remarkably, finished first overall in the Midnight Hell Run 50km, in an overall record time! Building on that success, she won the Midnight Hell Run 80km in 2010, again finishing first overall, and setting a new women’s record, then was part of the winning women’s pair in the AfricanX stage race, and took second place again in the Sky Run, to go with her Trans-Alpine success alongside Ryan.

“I just love South Africa’s trail races, and our calendar is becoming more and more packed, spanning the whole year – it’s no longer just built around the traditional road calendar. In fact, there are too many great races to choose from now, which is why I’ve never done the Bat Run, because it always clashes with the Midnight Hell Run, or the Three Peaks Challenge, which is too close to the Sky Run.”

DESERT SAND AND HEAT
At the time of writing, Linda was preparing for the Namib Desert Challenge, a five-day 220km self-sufficient race in the Namib Desert, starting on 27 March. Distances each day are between 40 and 50km, run in temperatures in the mid-40s, which is something Linda has never experienced before. “This will be my first race in real heat. Also, I’ve never done a self-sufficiency race before, so I’ve been training with a pack stuffed with towels, bottles of water and a 2kg beanbag weight, and I’ve been chafing like mad, but that’s good, because I’ve learnt what I need to protect.”

“This will undoubtedly be the hardest feat I’ve ever taken on, so I want to make the slog worthwhile. Therefore, I’ve chosen to run in support of a cause that’s close to my heart. Solomon’s Haven is an emergency shelter in Mitchell’s Plain, Cape Town, which is home to children who have been abused, neglected or abandoned by their families. So here’s the deal: I’ll do the sweaty work and slog across the desert, and people click on the DONATE NOW link at the top of my backabuddy.co.za page! Solomon’s Haven needs all the help you and I can give it.”

ON THE HORISON
After the Namib race, Linda will be looking for more trails to explore. For starters, just before our interview, she received word that her first ever entry for the Otter Trail Marathon had been accepted. She also said she wants to give the Sky Run another try. “I’ve finished second twice, so I really want to win it. Of course, I would never turn down an offer to run overseas, but there’s no reason to look elsewhere, because we have such fantastic races here.”

SUPPORT LINDA’S DESERT RUN
You can make a much-needed donation towards Solomon’s Haven at www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/backabuddynamiblinda .