Author: Modern Athlete

For most athletes in a race, arriving at a refreshment station means grabbing some water and quenching their thirst, unless you’re Miné Swart… and you don’t drink water during races. Or fizzy drinks. Or sports drinks. Instead, she keeps an eye out for her trusted bottles of milk. Yes, you heard right. Milk! – BY SEAN FALCONER

It was day one of the inaugural Cape Odyssey five-day trail run in 2007 and Miné Swart was taking huge strain. She was an experienced ultra-marathon runner, but had never done any trail running before, and it was showing as she and teammate Yusuf Abrahams hit the final 11km beach section of the 29km first day. “I was surrounded by trail fundies, whereas Yusi and I didn’t have trail shoes, or fancy hydration packs, or any knowledge of trail running. And then when we got to the water points, where they had water and an energy supplement, I just kept thinking to myself, I’m so thirsty, I could do with some milk.”

Having grown up on a dairy farm in the Natal Midlands, Miné says she was brought up on fresh milk. “There was always milk in the house, and when you were thirsty, you drank milk instead of water. Our household drank 10 litres of milk each day! As a result, milk had always been my recovery drink after races, the only thing that quenches my thirst, and I decided to try it during the race as well. We had only just made it before the cut-off on day one, while day two was 60km long, and I didn’t think I would make it unless I could have milk on the route, so I went to ask for some help. Luckily, race volunteer Hano Maree agreed to take a few frozen bottles of milk out on the route for me, as he was driving the lead vehicle and could drop them off along the way, while Yusuf had two bottles rolling about in the backpack he was carrying.”

“The milk really worked for me and since then I have run all my races on milk, and converted quite a few people along the way. I cannot eat while running, and cannot handle anything sweet, because it just makes me nauseous. Also, I find that that too much water jiggles around in my stomach, but I can drink a litre of milk without any problems, and it just feels like it goes straight into my muscles. In my first few Comrades runs I ended up in the medical tent, dehydrated and throwing up, but since I started to run with milk, I have never finished ended up on a drip again, not even at the Washie 100 Miler.”

Time to Start Running
Miné hails from a sporty family – her mother played SA hockey, and she and her three brothers regularly joined her parents at the Midmar Mile swim – but running would only come later. At school she focused on hockey and swimming, continuing with hockey while studying music and drama at Stellenbosch University, followed by a teaching diploma. While at varsity she met her husband, Francois ‘Pikkie’ Swart, and they have been married for 22 years. After graduating she taught music at primary school level, but after 10 years she decided to change career path, becoming a medical rep. It was around the same time that Miné decided to take up running.

“I grew up with the Comrades Marathon and had joked for years that I would run it when I was 30… and then I realised in January 2000 that I was turning 30 later that year, so this was it. I had never even run 5km before, but I entered, chose the cheapest neutral shoes off the rack, and started doing three 8km runs a week for training. People said I must qualify, so on the fifth of March I ran my first ever race, the old Cape Town Marathon, which I finished in 4 hours and 27 minutes. My next race was the Two Oceans ultra, followed by the Comrades… and then I did nothing for the next six months!”

That became her regime for a long time: Start training in January, run till Comrades, then take six months off… “Until I started running the Washie, which meant I had to keep going for another few months. But looking back on 16 years of running, with 15 Two Oceans and 15 Comrades medals, I have had no injuries or issues, and I think it is because I’ve never been overtrained and had enough time to recover. And because the milk gives me the power to go further!”

The Milky Way
Of course, there are some logistical challenges to getting bottles of milk out on to the course at races, and here Miné says she needs to thank all the people who have helped her over the years. “In particular, I really want to salute the Western Province Athletics referees, because one day I took a chance to ask them before a marathon to take four bottles of frozen milk out on route for me. After explaining my story, they said yes, and since then it has become so standard for them to take my milk out for me that one year at the West Coast Marathon, they actually announced that the ‘Milk Lady’ must please come hand in her milk so that they can start the race!”

She says people at the big races are often helpful as well. “At Comrades, besides having my parents along the route to give me my milk at four different spots, I also look for people with picnics beside the road and ask for a sip of milk. But I always run with some money, so that I can pop into a shop to buy milk, and one year at the Durbanville Marathon, I had no milk on the route, so I actually went into a dairy that we ran past and they dished me up some lovely ice cold milk straight from the tank!”

Unsurprisingly, Miné sometimes gets interesting reactions from fellow runners regarding her milk strategy. “In one of my Two Oceans runs, Dr Hans Neethling, a physician that runs for AAC, saw me running with milk and said he was going to run all the way with me if he could share some milk. But other people often tell me that the milk will react with my stomach and give me problems, but my answer is always the same: Do you think I would drink it if it gave me problems? Since changing to just drinking milk, I have not had one single race with stomach problems. That said, I can’t do flavoured milk, because it’s too sweet. I just want ice cold cow’s milk!”

Looking ahead, Miné says she still has a few bucket list ultras she would like to do, including the Skyrun in the Drakensberg and the Augrabies in the Kalahari, as well as some of the big trail races overseas. “I also still want to tackle the Ultra Mont Blanc in France, the Western States in USA and the Marathon Des Sables in Morocco, or the Amazon race… but then I will not only need to find somebody to train with, since I’m too lazy to train by myself, but I will also need to find an alternative to milk, since I doubt I will be able to get it along the route in the Sahara or the Amazon! Still working on that problem…”

When the men’s Olympic 100m sprint final takes place every four years, millions of people all over the world literally stop whatever they’re doing for 10 seconds and sit spellbound by the spectacle of the world’s fastest men hurtling down the home straight of the athletics track. But for years, South Africans had just watched the race as passive spectators, because the last time a South African had made the final was 1932! Then along came Akani Simbine and everything changed in 9.94 seconds. – BY SEAN FALCONER

South Africa actually has an interesting history in the 100m Olympic final. Reggie Walker won the gold medal in 1908, Herbert Patching was fourth in 1912, Billy Legg finished fifth in 1928, and then Danie Joubert also finished fifth in 1932. But since then no South African had made it to the final. Until 22-year-old Pretoria University student Akani Simbine went to Rio this year. Not only did he make the final, but he ran a sub-10 second time in the semi-final to qualify, then ran another sub-10 time just 90 minutes later in the final to cross the line fifth in 9.94 seconds, finishing a mere three hundredths of a second off the podium. “I’m really happy to have made the final, and proud to be the first South African to run two sub-10s in one day, but I’m disappointed I tensed up at the end and lost that bronze medal. I watched the video and I was actually in third spot. I just tightened up in the last five metres and that’s where I lost it. But I am still very proud of my fifth place!”

Added to the excitement of the night, the 100m final took place directly after the 400m final, where South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk blitzed a new World Record of 43.03 to claim the gold medal, which really gave Akani a boost as he prepared for his final. “I didn’t actually see Wayde run, because we were still walking into the call room after warming up, but as I was walking through towards the track with Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, we were actually talking about Wayde. We had all trained together in Jamaica earlier in the year, and we were asking each other what we think he’s going to run… then we looked on the screen and saw Wayde lying on the ground and then saw the time, and we just thought wow, what just happened? Usain immediately said he knew Wayde was going to do it, and it was really crazy standing there thinking my friend just won Olympic gold, and that inspired me to go out there and to do the best I could too.”

What makes Akani’s 9.94 and fifth place in the final all the more remarkable is that Johan Rossouw’s SA record had stood at 10.06 since 1988 until Simon Magakwe finally equalled it in 2012. He then shattered it at the 2014 SA Champs as he became the first South African to go sub-10, clocking 9.98. In 2015 and into 2016, a sudden flurry of fast times saw Akani, Henricho Bruintjies and Wayde van Niekerk also go sub-10, and suddenly SA had four sub-10 sprinters! Akani and Henricho then traded the record a few times until Akani took it outright, then lowered it to a scintillating 9.89 in Hungary in July, just a few weeks before the Olympics… and now the country has an Olympic finalist as well. Heady times for SA sprinting indeed!

Built for Speed
Nicknamed ‘Mr Chill’ because he always seems so calm and relaxed, Akani’s speed was first spotted when he was in high school in Kempton Park, Johannesburg. “I used to play soccer and used to run as well, but only because the principal at our school forced us to run. Because I had the speed, I played wing in soccer, and they would just kick the ball and expect me to run. But then I started doing well in athletics and the principal said he had found me a coach in Germiston and asked me to go meet him. I decided it was a bit too far to travel from Kempton Park for training, but luckily my father found an article in the newspaper about my current coach, Werner Prinsloo, advertising his services. He was based very close to my home, so I started training with him.”

In that first year Akani finished second-fastest youth athlete in SA, and the next year he broke the SA Junior Record with a time of 10.19. From there he worked his way up the rankings, until he was the second-fastest ever SA sprinter with a 10.02, but a sub-10 eluded him. “When I ran 10.02, everybody said I’m so close to nine seconds that it got into my head, and every race I told myself today I’m going to push hard to try run nine seconds, but every time I failed, clocking 10.5, 10.04, 10.02, 10.01. Then in July last year in Slovenia, I ran a 9.99. It was also the first time Henricho and I raced, before we became training partners, and I just wanted to beat him. He was running 10.06 at that time, and everybody kept putting us head to head and comparing us. When I crossed the line, the clock stopped on 10.0 seconds dead, but when I turned around they had rounded it down to 9.99 and I just thought wow, I can’t believe it’s actually happened.”

Two weeks later Akani ran a 9.98, and he says from then onwards it just got easier, and to date he has run seven sub-10 times. “I told myself to stop chasing the time and just focus on my phases, and now when I get onto the track I feel the nine seconds will just come. Still, Getting into that elite sub-9.9 group is something special, and for me, jumping so much in a year is a bit crazy.” Unsurprisingly, the speedster is now also hot property in the media, being flooded with interview requests, appearing on television and magazine covers, and being recognised when he goes out. “A lot has changed… the other day I walked into a mall and I saw a couple of guys staring at me, and I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just smiled, said hi and walked on. It’s great to get recognition and to know that the people of SA are backing us. That’s why I always enjoy signing autographs or taking a pic with a fan, to say thank you for their support.”

Friends and Rivals
Akani is based at the High Performance Centre (HPC) at the University of Pretoria, and says it really helps being in a competitive but healthy sport environment, especially since he gets to train with many of the country’s top sprinters and gets to interact with other top sportsmen and women. “It really helps being in an environment with fellow athletes with the same goals and same drive. We’re all trying to be the best, and faster than the day before, so it’s always beneficial having guys around you that are pushing you.”

“But it’s not just about rivalry and competition… it is also beneficial to have someone that you can be friends with and talk to, and share a laugh with. That’s one of the things I picked up earlier this year when I trained with Usain Bolt in Jamaica. He told me he is enjoying racing more now because he doesn’t stress and doesn’t put pressure on himself. He just goes out there to have fun, and he’s winning with that mentality and game-plan. Usain and I talk often nowadays on social media. He’s one guy I really look up to, because he’s done so much for the sport and brought it up to another level – and he’s done all the stuff that I want to do. He’s the greatest in the game, and we all aspire to be the best.”

Naturally, Akani is very excited about the future of sprinting in this country, and he says the world needs to watch out for our sprinters. “I believe that we can become a dominant nation in the sprinting world, because we have the talent here in SA. I think it’s just a matter of time before we become a country like Jamaica or the United States, where you have to run a sub-10 just to get into the final at national champs. I think we’re going to see more guys breaking 10 seconds, and 20 seconds for 200m or 44 seconds for 400m… We have the potential to dominate, and not just in sprinting, but also in middle distance. We just need to keep working hard and make sure we reach our potential.”

Setting Targets
Now that the Rio Olympics and the 2016 athletics season are done, Akani is taking a well deserved rest, although he does still have his studies to complete. “I’m nearly done with my studies, but as I keep telling people, I’m going to get my degree and then just give it to my mother – here, this is yours – and then I’m going to go run full-time and focus on that. My goal is simple, to be the best that I can, and having run 9.89, now I want to go faster. It’s about wanting more and doing more, and knowing that I have potential still to reach. I have stepped up a level, but I know there is another level to aim for. I don’t know where it will end, but I know I am most definitely going to get faster. And I want to be there in 2020 for another shot at gold!”

Detox diets can give people a false sense of security, a feeling that they are being protective of their health, but then they tend to just go back to their usual way of eating. When people get to the stage of wanting to ‘detox,’ they are usually willing to participate in extreme measures, or find a quick fix, in order to feel more energetic or thinner. This extreme behaviour is generally unsustainable and bad habits come sneaking back in, and often in an exaggerated way because you are starving and you feel low. This ‘binging’ behaviour can then actually cause more damage in the long run.

People don’t always realise that the body already has multiple systems in place, including the liver, kidneys and gastrointestinal tract, that do a perfectly good job of eliminating toxins from the body within hours of consumption. By just adopting a healthy eating plan, one actually causes a natural detox, but in a much safer way. Now let’s explore some commonly asked detoxing questions.

Is it healthy to detox?
It all depends what you call a detox. A healthy eating plan, cutting out stimulants like caffeine, sugar and things like salt, artificial products and heavy fatty foods, but not eliminating entire food groups, would be a very positive change and promote health. Extreme changes in diet, like just eating one food group, can be very limited in essential nutrients, which could be damaging.

Does fasting clean the body of toxins?
Your liver and kidneys detox your body constantly. Fasting doesn't do that; on the contrary, ketones build up when carbohydrates aren't available for energy.

Do things like enemas, ‘flushing’ and detoxing help with losing weight?
There is no credible scientific evidence proving enemas, ‘flushing’ and detoxing the liver and lymphatic system result in weight-loss. There is also no scientific evidence that there is even a need to ‘flush’ the liver, much less any benefit from doing so. Like other fad diets, detox regimens promise quick weight-losses that are ultimately unsustainable.

How come people say they feel better when detoxing?
Detox dieters may report a variety of benefits, but none can be traced to the idea of detoxification. Fewer headaches can be traced to other lifestyle changes such as reduction in alcohol and caffeine intake. Clearer skin can result from improved hydration, and less bloating could be a result of eating less food. Some detox dieters report a boost in energy and even a sense of euphoria. This feeling, also commonly reported by people who are fasting, is actually a reaction to starvation. It likely evolved as a way to help a person evade threats and locate food.

LAST WORD
Finally, the burning question remains whether there is anything positive about detoxing? Well, there is something to be gained from avoiding large quantities of alcohol, junk food, smoke or anything to excess. Always remember, moderation is best, but these regimens are anything but moderate. You can achieve the same beneficial effect by following a healthy eating plan, exercising and drinking plenty of water!