Author: Modern Athlete

It takes a special type of runner to enter a six-day circuit race over New Year’s. It takes an even more special runner to enter as part of a two-man combo who pledge to run 800km between them to raise funds for refugees in war-torn Sudan, and then sprint the last few hours on a strained calf muscles to fulfil that pledge. Anthony Bold, take a bow. – BY SEAN FALCONER

The annual Festival of Running in Johannesburg attracts a motley crew of long distance junkies who camp out for between two and six days to run or walk repeatedly around a 500m circuit. It’s definitely not everybody’s cup of tea, but those who do it love both the physical and mental challenge. One of these distance junkies is Anthony Bold, a 16-time Comrades finisher, who was doing the six-day event for the third time this past New Year’s. In his first in 2012-2013, he completed 405km before his feet packed up, and a year later he managed 420km before swallowing a bee and being forced to retire. “This time I planned to do an easy 500km, with Stefan Roodt doing the other 300km of our combined 800km to raise funds for the S4J – Sudan for Jesus organisation, but people were teasing me that he was not going around the track that fast, so I would have to make up the difference.”

Foot Problems
Besides regular rest breaks, Ant’s strategy was to change his socks every four hours to keep his feet dry and intact, but blisters still formed on his heels and toes. By day three the blisters were so bad that podiatrist and running friend Dennis Rehbock visited to drain and treat them with spirits, but by then Ant says his feet were too sore to put shoes on, so he began running in just socks. “I was running in seven pairs at one stage, to still give my feet at least some cushioning, but after a few hours of that my heels were badly bruised. Then at midday we hit upon the solution to cut the toe boxes off my shoes, like the old Bruce Fordyce way. It doesn’t affect the shoes at all, and it’s actually very comfy. After that the blisters didn’t worry me nearly as much.”

So Ant continued running, and on the fifth afternoon, with some 20 hours still to go, he hit his target of 500km. That’s when another running friend, Stuart Wainwright, suggested he push on to 563km, which equals 350 miles, traditionally a notable mark for circuit runners. “I decided to keep going, but in the early evening shift I strained my calf muscle, so I pulled off and moped in bed. I came out twice during the night to try again, but no luck, and it was only at 4:30am that I could at last hobble around a bit, but ridiculously slowly. I still had about 40 kays to go and Stefan was struggling to finish his kays, so I thought I actually had to keep going for us to make 800.”

“Then organiser Eric Wright got Johnny van der Walt to chase me after we packed ice into my compression sock, and I started running. Problem was, nobody seemed to know how many laps I still needed, and at one point I actually stopped and cried, said I can’t go on, but I got going again after some words of encouragement from Norman Johnson of S4J. Just before the final cut-off at 12pm, I was told I had three minutes to do my last lap to make 563km, so I sprinted it, made it by 20 seconds, and then I just collapsed. That was when they finally told me that collectively Stefan and I had passed 800km half an hour earlier, but they didn’t want to tell me because I was so close to my 563km target!

Tough Enough
Unsurprisingly, Ant says his body was “broken” after six days of running, and that he had to walk around the office without shoes for a number of days. “My colleagues definitely think I am a bit weird, or possessed,” he jokes. “You just can’t compare six-day circuit racing to anything else. I went through hell, and it was one of the toughest things I have ever done. But you get to know yourself, and what your limits are. You learn to vasbyt.”

When radio personality Phindi Gule, a self-confessed non-runner, decided to run her first Comrades in 2012, she went on air and told 1.2 million listeners about her goal. No pressure, then! But she did it, and that led to a whole host of running adventures and initiatives, including the Comrades Women’s Seminars. – BY SEAN FALCONER

She will be the first to admit that she got into running by accident, through her husband, Englishman Kevin Burley, and that her first training run was a real shock to her system, but Phindi Gule has never looked back. “In 2011, I figured that since I was already getting up with Kevin to go to all these running events, why not do them, so we started running together. But the first time I went out training, I couldn’t even run one lamppost to the next! My first race was the Youth Run just before Comrades, and it was pure torture, but I finished, and that feeling was priceless, so I made it my business to stick to it. Later Kevin said, ‘I think you can do Comrades.’ I said, ‘Are you mad?’ But running sucks you in…”

“Now I always need to find a really good reason to do something, and stick to it, so what pushed me to continue running and go for the Comrades was that in KZN there wasn’t an on air radio personality who ran Comrades. I had never been a runner, but I had eight months to train for it, so I told 1.2 million listeners my goal, and next thing I knew I was back in Soweto, my hometown, for my qualifier.”

Phindi duly lined up alongside Kevin for her first Comrades in 2012, but he was not feeling well due to flu. “Eventually he told me to go on and leave him, but at first I didn’t want to go – I even said I don’t know the directions! Later I was passed by the 12-hour bus, but I thought of all those people supporting me and that motivated me not to give up. When I ran into the finish, it was already dark and cold, but I saw supporters with boards with my name, still waiting for me, and when I finished in 11:59:03, I celebrated like I was the winner!”

Helping Others
Phindi’s experience in the build-up to that first Comrades, which included looking for women-specific advice, sparked an idea, so she contacted Gary Boshoff at the Comrades Marathon Association to suggest a series of Comrades Women’s Seminars. “I was seeing a lot of women out running, but far less in the Comrades, and I thought it was because the recommended training was too hard – six days a week for somebody with a job, kids and husband, and more, was perhaps just too daunting. So I proposed the idea of seminars covering all the bases, where women could get all the info they needed to run Comrades. The CMA loved the idea, and we started with three in 2013, in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, added Pretoria in 2014, and we’ve added PE this year. I am still amazed that we even get women at the seminars with Comrades Green Numbers, who come for new info.”

Having MC’d the Women’s Seminars, Phindi lined up for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Comrades Marathons armed with plenty of great advice herself, but things did not go to plan. “I had run and finished my first Comrades with Kevin, but in the second one I ran alone. Physically I was fine, but mentally I was not ready, and just before Fields Hill I was tempted to walk, until a guy just behind me said, ‘No, you can’t walk, I’m using you as my pacer.’ So we started running together.”

“Around Hillcrest he was feeling sick, so we stopped for help, then got going again, but just before halfway he was really out of it – I could see the whites of his eyes, so I decided to stay with him until an ambulance came. Then I had to sprint for halfway to avoid the cut-off, and just missed it by 14 seconds – but I am OK with that, because I can live with my conscience.”

Things went much better in 2014, but once again Phindi just didn’t have enough in the legs. “I missed the final gun by seven seconds! That is the worst, when you reach the finish, but no medal – but it was still a wonderful experience.” Then came the 2015 race, which saw Phindi running as one of four athletes being followed by a documentary film crew, and this proved the undoing of her race. “I had to be up at 2am for the first recording, and then had the camera crew following me in the race. I thought it would be doable, and everything was fine until just before halfway, when I felt a sharp pain around my heart. I told Kevin, but said I was still OK to run.”

“However, around 50km in the pain was getting severe. He said I must stop, I said another 5km, but I could hear Comrades Coach Lindsey Parry’s voice in my head, ‘If you have pain that is uncomfortable or unfamiliar, you have to stop, and come back and try again another year.’” That saw Phindi and Kevin catch a bailer bus at 56km, and later the doctors told her it was anxiety. “Of the four of us being followed by cameras, only one finished, and I think it was too much mental pressure to deal with. Luckily I was fine physically after the race, but that emotion and pressure was visible in the video, and I still get people telling me that it gave them goosebumps. So I’ll be back to try again this year, but no camera crew this time!”

The Right Voice
Born and bred in Joburg, Phindi studied chemical engineering at Cape Tech, specialising in IT, and initially worked for SAA as a programmer. However, after listening to a news reader on Radio Metro, she decided she could do better. “I have a passion for public speaking, so I called the station asking for a weekend job to read the news.” Within a week she was on air. After initially working part-time in radio, Phindi went on to work full-time at various radio stations, relocated back to Johannesburg, studied journalism part-time, then relocated to Durban, eventually ending up as station manager at Vuma 103FM. “I came into the job with 15 years of experience in radio, but well aware that there are few female station managers in this country. It was a huge challenge, but they believed I could do it, and that made me feel confident. The other thing that made me feel like I could do anything, was having run the Comrades.”

Today Phindi is still involved in radio part-time, but her current day job is alongside Kevin in the Phindi Gule Group, doing marketing and communications work, plus leadership development and wellness presentations. “Running has actually become a job – who would have thought! – and we incorporate running in everything, because health is one of the key things holding companies back.” She has also developed her Master Class workshops for beginner female runners. “There are lots more women starting to exercise and changing their lifestyles, but they need to start at the right point, with the right info.”

Besides her seminars and workshops, Phindi is quite the running motivator. Recently, using radio and social media, she got people all around the world to join her in the 10×10 Challenge, running 10 kays each day for 10 days, then 25km on Christmas Day, followed by 31km on 31 December. Her next project is the 30-day, 900km KZN Challenge in April, where she and Kevin will run the length of the KZN coastline to raise funds for the Live Foundation, which cares for orphans in Verulam, near Durban.

Another project on the cards is the launch of Phindi Gule World, an innovative TV app that will allow people to watch health, fitness, wellbeing and motivational content on their phones. And then it will be the 2016 Comrades, if her legs have recovered in time from the KZN Challenge. “I would love to run, but I’ll have to see how I feel. Comrades is just so addictive!”

If you think you can’t run, then you need to speak to Jeannie Jordaan, the driving force behind the new Modern Athlete 9 to 5 Challenge for beginner runners, because today she may be faster and fitter than ever, but not so long ago she was having those same doubts. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Two and a half years ago, Johannesburg-based Life Coach, Wellness Consultant and Personal Trainer Jeannie Jordaan found herself contemplating a running life very much different to the one she had been leading since she was young. She had just undergone an emergency Caesarian for the premature birth of her twin boys Kergan and Barron, and she didn’t think she would ever be able to run at the same competitive level again.

“Fortunately my boys emerged strong and fearless, despite their two-month early entrance into the world, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to run again like before, because my body had changed and my pace had slowed,” explains Jeannie. “But running is capable of bringing about incredible change in all spheres of life, so when I was given the go-ahead to start running again, I hit the road with the twins safely snuggled in their infamous red running pram, and set out to prove to myself that it is possible to bounce back from pregnancy stronger and faster than before.”

Jeannie’s personal goal soon grew into an idea to create various group running challenges, to train, educate and motivate people who want to start running but just don’t know how. For the last 18 months she has been running these challenges with incredible success stories, health and wellness results and a whole lot of fun along the way, especially since the programme enables challengers to meet new running friends with similar goals. And now, starting in January 2016, Jeannie will be working with Modern Athlete on a bigger 9 – 5 Challenge, to get absolute beginners running five kilometres comfortably in nine weeks. “The nine-week programme is designed to help participants start slow and build a base,” says Jeannie. “We’ve all experienced or witnessed someone take on an overly aggressive training plan, only to quit, and the goal of this programme is to build sustainable, smart fitness.”

Running in the Family
Jeannie, who lives in Parkmore with husband Len and the twins, inherited her love of running from her father, Ron Henderson, a multiple silver medallist in the Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra-marathon. “Athletics also played a big part in my school career, but it was only in my mid-twenties that the bug really bit hard, when I decided to up the ante and complete the Two Oceans, the race that had become a family destination every Easter.”

As a professional trainer, most of her time is now spent in the gym, but you can often spot her running the streets of Sandton in between sessions. She currently boasts a marathon PB of 3:12, which she is confident will be bettered in 2016 under the expert guidance of her own coach, Neville Beeton, and she has set herself the target of running her fastest marathon and ultra in the year she turns 40. “With AfricanX and my first Comrades on the cards this year, I feel more passionate about running than ever before. Fitness and health are cornerstones of who I am, and I cannot imagine life without sport and exercise.”

You CAN do it!
Jeannie is now focused on helping others reach their running, fitness and health goals. “If provided with the right programme, plus support and knowledge of one’s body, I believe that anything is possible, and this challenge is the first step to building better balance with power, purpose and passion,” says Jeannie, “so I am really looking forward to working together with Modern Athlete to get more people running. If you think you can’t run, then I am going to show you that you can!”

Click here to find out more or sign up for the Modern Athlete 9 to 5 Challenge.

The weekend of Comrades 2014, my husband and I were in Durban, so we decided to go and watch. I got so inspired that I decided I would like to run the Ultimate Human Race, so in November 2014 I ran my first marathon in Soweto and qualified for Comrades 2015 by finishing in 4:29. Many other races and early mornings followed, and there was not only running, but sacrifices, tears and self-doubt. – BY COMFORT SELEBI

I am a mother of three. My eldest daughter is 21 years old and is studying at UP, my son is 16 and my last-born daughter is turning nine this December. For me to be able to meet my running buddies at the gym at 5am every morning, I had to find my kids transport to take them to and from school. Yes, I don’t see my kids in the morning. Thanks to my helper, she prepares the little one for school, and thank God I have a very supportive husband who understood that I had a goal that I wanted to accomplish. It wasn’t easy missing the family functions because I had to run, and some relatives didn’t understand why I had to go to training instead of being with my family… but I had a goal!

I remember crying in my car coming back from a Comrades Women’s Seminar in Pretoria which was on a Saturday, because when I looked at my watch it was 1:30pm, and my youngest daughter had a birthday party to attend which started at 12pm. I asked myself what kind of a mother I was. I didn’t have time for my kids during the week and I still didn’t have time for them on weekends… but I had a goal!

The Letter
My son wrote me an inspirational letter and gave it to me just before we left for Durban: “As your son, I stand here a proud son. The reason why I say this is because you have inspired me in such a way that no one has. This tremendous race that you are about to take on is filled with many obstacles, but the fact that you are taking this head on, says a lot about you. I therefore take my hat off to you because it is one of the longest races in the world! It’s not for the faint-hearted and certainly requires a high level of training, dedication and determination. The collection of medals you have in your room is evident that you work hard to achieve what you want to achieve.”

“All these years, you have pushed me to great lengths and have always been quick to encourage me in everything that I do. Now it’s my turn to give back. As you run the Comrades Marathon, keep in mind that you have your friends, your family and most importantly God behind you. Even though we won’t be there when you cross the line, just know that you will be in our hearts. I only hope this is the beginning and not the end, because you are really good at what you do. I hope that you pray a lot, travel safely and arrive safely. You are the best Mom in the world and my best friend. Even if you don’t get a medal, it’s okay! Just focus on running at your best ability, and last but not least, have fun! Lots of love, Boyzaaa!!!”

The Run
With that inspiration, the day arrived and I got to the start. After doing my prayer, I told myself that not finishing is out of the question… this was a journey to go and fetch my medal, and I would not come back without it. At 35km I was worried, because I was told to start slow to reserve my energy, but it felt like I had no energy left. I remembered what I once read, that your mind gives up a hundred times before your body does, so I had to keep on pushing. As I got to the top of Polly Shortts, the last big uphill, one lady shouted, “Welcome to Pietermaritzburg!” Those were the sweetest words I’ve ever heard, and triggered something in me that said, “You made it!” I started sprinting – don’t know where I got the energy from, but I sprinted all the way to the finish line for an 11:06 finish.

With November’s Vital Winelands Run in Stellenbosch becoming the first road running event to officially pledge support for the Modern Athlete #runclean campaign, athletes were challenged to not only reduce the litter they left on the road, but even to bring their litter to the finish, and two runners really lived up to their promise to #runclean. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Blake Dyason and Robert ‘Brundle’ Le Brun are irrepressibly free spirits, hence they often do crazy things such as running races in ‘onesie’ fancy-dress costumes to raise funds or awareness for a good cause. And so they headed to Stellenbosch in their onesies for the Winelands, only to get stuck in traffic and miss the start. Once they finally got going, they still took their time, because they had decided to support the call by the race organisers to #runclean.

So, Blake and Brundle started picking up empty sachets along the route, especially in areas between water tables where the race volunteers would be less likely to find all the discarded sachets. By the time they reached the finish, after the final cut-off gun, they each had a large bag of rubbish in hand. Unfortunately, only a few people noticed them cross the line, as the final prize-giving was taking place, but they should have received a standing ovation!

Modern Athlete would like to say a huge thank you to Blake and Brundle for leading by example, and we hope their actions will spur other runners on to help clear up the mess, or at least reduce the amount of litter in the roads. We would also like to thank the Vital Winelands Run for coming on board with #RunClean – not only did it lead to more awareness amongst the running community, but also led to more races pledging support for the campaign.

We would love to hear about your efforts to #runclean, so send your letters, photographs or ideas to [email protected].

THINK BEFORE YOU THROW – #runclean

He has conquered the world’s highest mountains and trekked to the most extreme locations in the Arctic and Antarctic, but now Sibusiso Vilane has been challenged to do something he’s never done before, his first triathlon later this year, with the help of the Modern Athlete Dare to Tri programme. – BY RAYMOND TRAVERS

Sibusiso Vilane is truly an adventurous spirit. Besides climbing the highest mountain on each continent, including the highest on the planet, Mount Everest, he has also taken part in a string of sports endurance events, including multiple Comrades marathons, the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon, the Old Mutual Wild Series and AfricanX. On the cycling side, he has competed in various mountain bike stage races, including the FNB Wines2Whales and the Old Mutual Joberg2C.

This former goat herder is the only black South African to complete the Grand Slam of adventuring, the Three Poles Challenge, to reach both Poles and climb Mount Everest, which he completed in 2012, and he has even met Queen Elizabeth II, but there is one thing he cannot do: Swim.

It was in a 2013 television advert for Windhoek Lager that he revealed this fact about himself. “Yes,” he commented in the advert, “this is not a joke. I cannot swim. But I am prepared to learn, as I never back down from a challenge.” And it was this fact about Sibusiso that prompted the challenge that will see this Nelspruit resident tackling his first IRONMAN event in 2017.

But unlike many other athletes that are ‘challenged’ in this way and just dive straight in, if you’ll excuse the pun, Sibusiso is planning his attempt with a little more care. “I believe in proper planning, preparation and execution for the attainment of anticipated results,” he says, “so in this case one has to be realistic. Ideally I’d prefer to plan for my first ever ultra-distance triathlon to take place in 2017, simply because I need enough time to learn how to swim – and swim very well.”

Nevertheless, Sibusiso has chosen the South African leg of the ITU World Triathlon Series, the Discovery World Triathlon Cape Town, over the 23rd and 24th of April 2016 as his baptism of fire for multisport events. He will take part in the Sprint distance event, which consists of a 500-metre swim, 20-kilometre cycle and five-kilometre run, to build his confidence and knowledge about tackling multisport races before trying out a long distance IRONMAN.

Sibusiso seems confident about the cycling and running legs of the triathlon. “I’ll need to get a good road bike,” says the adventurer, who has done plenty of mountain biking, so he is used to pedalling, “and I will need to train hard, but it will be up to me how much training I commit to. I know what the challenge will require of me and I am ready to take it up. I do not take it for granted, and I never bring the ‘I-have-done-this-and-that’ attitude. I respect every challenge that I undertake.”

Running is actually Sibusiso’s strong point. “I run for exercise and always take part in a number of marathons and even ultra-marathons each year. Running is not my concern,” he says confidently, “and that is one aspect of the Discovery World Triathlon Cape Town that I will not even worry about. My only concern for the whole thing will be the swimming part,” he confirmed.

Sibusiso has now been appointed a brand ambassador for the Modern Athlete Dare to Tri programme that will prepare him for the Discovery World Triathlon Cape Town. “I accept brand ambassador roles simply to inspire others to understand and become involved with that particular organisation or programme,” he says. “I will be honoured if I am one of the people who will be the figure to look up to, and it is a great opportunity to be asked to fulfil such a role.”

So, once he learns to swim, Sibusiso will no doubt rise to this challenge, just as he was able to rise to the challenge of climbing Mount Everest – a challenge that ironically was also issued to him by a friend. “And I took that challenge and pushed myself to the top,” he concludes.

Sibusiso will be part of Modern Athlete’s Dare to Tri Programme, and you can join him on his journey from non-swimming novice to triathlon finisher.

There is a finishline pic of me in my first Comrade Marathon in 2013, wearing my H seeding number and looking elated with my sub-11 finishing time, while the runner next to me, wearing an A seeding number, looks exhausted and ready to collapse. However, 20 minutes later I was not feeling so well. What I did that day is quite embarrassing, but at the time, I never thought there would be any negative consequences… – BY MARC BESTER

I had trained very hard that year and just prior to Comrades I had done the Two Oceans Ultra, IRONMAN 70.3 and the Full IRONMAN, plus three more marathons and various triathlons and long trail events. I was fit and ready. Now I had always followed the rules of not eating or drinking anything new, nor using any supplements on the day, that you had not used throughout your training. Like many runners, I had usually suffered with severe cramps, which I always thought was due to dehydration, but I had never taken more than cramp-blockers in a race. However, I was very worried with Comrades, especially when I heard it was going to be very hot and windy, so I had asked around all my running mates and on the Comrades Facebook page what medication to take if in serious pain.

Mostly I was told just be a man and run though it, that’s what Comrades is all about. I was also told by someone that if I feel the pain coming along, “just pop two myprodols.” It was not until two days before the race that I decided to take Myprodols along, just in case, having only ever used them when I had a serious back strain or various sports injuries, and I only recall ever using two at a time. Well, I conveniently packed a strip of them – for me and any runner who might also want, of course. I didn’t even research the pill, and was not worried that it could cause me damage or be harmful. I just didn’t think I was doing anything wrong…

Runner’s High?
Well, I had a great race. I suffered like everyone else with heat and dehydration, but from the start I thought I could pop two pills every two hours or so, just to keep the pain away. To be honest, I felt no negative effects. I ran the entire race to my exact goal, finishing under 11 hours, and I never had any cramps at all. Every two hours I just took two more and stayed hydrated. I’m not sure if I was supposed to have experienced anything negative, but I got to the end totally elated. I was probably high, as I had taken 12 pills along the route!

After finishing I sat for about 20 minutes with friends and then started to feel weak and dizzy. I tried to get up but fainted, and I was taken to the medical tent and placed on a drip. The tent was overflowing with runners and I was shocked to see the carnage of the day. As the doctor came to me, she said “Mr Bester, you are severely dehydrated and need a drip, so I need to ask you some medical questions. Firstly, have you had any Myprodols?” Immediately the alarm bells rung in my head. I stuttered and mumbled yes, that I had in fact had four. Big lie! She shrieked and scolded me, telling me I was crazy, and didn’t I know the side-effects and the possibility of renal failure, and how the meds block the body from pain even though I pushed my body to its capacity. I lay there for probably 45 minutes thinking I was very lucky to still be ok. I really did not want to expose how many I actually had and then be hauled off to hospital for a stomach pump!

Lesson Learnt
Fortunately, I never had any negative side-effects, but since then I never touched Myprodols again, including during two more Comrades runs. I do think runners should be wary of what anti-inflammatories are used for, and should not push their bodies to a point that they need meds to get to a goal or a finish line. I’ve heard horror stories of long-term damage caused by lesser meds used by runners, and I’m really glad my story turned out ok, and that I lived to run another day.

Ed’s Note: This article is not meant as criticism of any specific medication, but rather to warn athletes to use all medication carefully, and only with instruction from a properly qualified medical professional.