Author: Modern Athlete

Para-triathlete Stan Andrews tells his inspiring story, from growing up with a deformity to aspiring to get to the 2016 Paralympics. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Born with a deformed right foot and under-developed leg, Stan says that he faced challenges from day one, but his family raised him to believe that he was no different to other kids. “Obviously, my childhood involved a fair amount of bullying and exclusion, because as kids, not everyone wants to be friends with the kid who has a 'stupid leg,’ but that allowed me to develop a great amount of resilience, which has always played a beneficial role in my life.”

At age seven, the doctors recommended that his foot be amputated, as they were worried that it may limit him later in life, and he says it was a life-changer. “The best decision ever, as far as I am concerned.” Fast-forward to 2011 and Stan says after another failed relationship, he decided one afternoon that he needed to do something for himself. “I needed direction, so I decided that I would set myself three goals, a small one (swim the Midmar Mile), medium one (complete the 94.7 cycle race) and an impossible one (summit Mount Kilimanjaro).”

“As fate would have it, I was lucky enough to win a competition which gave me the funding to climb that mountain, and 21 September 2012 saw me standing on top of the world's highest freestanding mountain. I had done it! Naturally, once back, the pressure was on to now achieve the next goal, so on a borrowed mountain bike, with little over a month of training, the 15th of November saw me finish the cycle race after 4 hours 45 minutes of pure torture. The following February I had no option but to throw myself into the Midmar Dam and complete that swim. This all made me believe that the world really was now my oyster and that I was unstoppable!”

New Challenge, Please
That got Stan looking for his next challenge, and after meeting American para-triathlete Levi Kane early in 2013, who suggested he take on a triathlon, he did some research and decided that he wanted to be an Ironman! In November that year, Stan participated in his first triathlon, the 5150 African Champs. “Wow, I managed to complete it in a time of 3:42, and I had achieved another milestone. Then, packing up after the race, Kevin Garwoood, who is well known in the triathlon scene, approached me and suggested that instead of chasing the Ironman dream, I should rather see if I could perhaps make my way to the Paralympics in Rio 2016, where triathlon will make its debut. Honestly, I thought he was crazy, but I decided to research it anyway.”

A month later Stan qualified for the Provincial Championships, then went on to win his PT4 para-category at the National Championships in East London. “Unfortunately, due to a lack of events, I was unable to qualify to go to the Grand Final that year, but 2014 and 2015 have seen me improve even more, and I have been able to represent South Africa on several occasions. The highlight of the year so far was winning the African Continental Championships in Egypt in May. I have also taken part in various other international events, the most recent being the Paralympic test event held in Rio de Janeiro.”

Look at Me Now!
Now, with selection for the Paralympics looking good, Stan says he is really pleased with how far he’s come in a short time. “Just to put things in perspective, when I was training for the Kilimanjaro expedition, my 5km run time was 37 minutes, with some walking. My current 5km PB, after a 750m swim and 20km cycle, is 21:15. I just love running! And I hope that my story will inspire people who may have the attitude that running is impossible for them. It does not matter how slow you run, at least you are moving forward – and you are still faster than any person on the couch!”

You can follow Stan’s journey to Rio 2016 at www.facebook.com/oneleggedlegend or @stumpy_stan on twitter.

He wishes to remain anonymous, so this is a slightly different article to the norm here in Modern Athlete, but the story behind Twitter’s @theAngryKenyan is just too good not to share. – EDITED BY SEAN FALCONER

The first time I heard about the Angry Kenyan a few years ago, I was not on Twitter yet and had no idea who or what the hype was all about. I actually thought there was some guy originally from Kenya who was angry about life – or perhaps just about his running prospects – and having a rant on Twitter. What I subsequently found out was that the Angry Kenyan is actually an incredibly inspirational and humorous guy, not angry at all, and when I finally got to meet him a few years later during the Comrades Marathon, I saw exactly how positive and upbeat he really is. However, I didn’t know what was behind his Twitter handle until he recently sent me an explanation, which I have decided to share with you here in the mag, so you too can share in his incredible passion. – Ed.

The Kenyan Movement
By @theAngryKenyan

I haven’t been a runner for very long. In fact I only did my first ‘big run,’ the Dis-Chem 21km, in January 2012. I always said I wasn’t a runner, but after giving up on cycling as it just wasn’t safe anymore, I found I actually quite enjoyed running, and it was way easier to run – you just needed some good running shoes and a piece of road and you were away.

Saw the Sign
It was on the route of that Dis-Chem run, somewhere around the 15km mark, that I saw a little guy at the side of the road holding up a sign that said, “Run like an angry Kenyan.” It made me smile the whole way to the finish! As everyone knows, Kenyans can really run, so can you imagine an angry one? Now, I had been thinking about joining the social media circles, but not being a big FaceBook fan, I decided it was going to have to be Twitter, and when it came to a name for my profile, this name, and the emotions it brought to mind, was an obvious choice.

I didn’t want to be one of those people who tweeted about “I’m having coffee with John today…” or “What do you think of my outfit…” No, I wanted to use this as a platform to encourage and motivate other runners, especially novices like me. I created a little hype, as no-one knew who this Angry Kenyan was, which is what I wanted. I wanted to stay anonymous, be that person who inspired from afar. I wanted the Kenyan Movement to be about the people in it, not me.

Baby Steps
It started off slowly as I tweeted daily motivational pictures and sayings, and even went through a stage where I posted the ‘Exercise of the Day’ – I’m currently a personal trainer, so sharing this knowledge, as well as my running stuff, came easily to me. I called it the Kenyan Movement, mainly because of my profile name, but also because I was hoping it would take off and become something people wanted to be a part of. I also created the hashtag #runwithpassion and added it to my Tweets wherever I could, because I wanted people to share experiences, knowledge and encouragement for other runners, and to simply create a group of people who were passionate about running. I never expected it to become what it has, with a little over 1000 followers worldwide in just over three years, from novice runners to pro athletes. Now I continue to send out motivations and touch base with as many runners as I can, creating a bond and sharing with all who have joined.

I took on the Old Mutual Two Oceans marathon and the Comrades Marathon in 2013, as a novice, having only been running for a year and a half, and tweeted my entire journey. I ran for charity on both runs and loved being part of giving back to someone or something else, and still managing to be anonymous… to a point. Last year I was set to go back down to Cape Town to do the Two Oceans again and there was no getting away from meeting runners who had been following me for over a year. I met with nine complete strangers, all runners from Cape Town, who had come together to meet me. I was so humbled and absolutely blown away that I had made such an impact on complete strangers. It meant that everything I had tried to do had worked. I was getting people to share running and their passion for it!

I also met Stephanie Schultzen from Two Oceans and Bronwyn Freeman from Comrades and it became clear that the Kenyan Movement was making a difference in peoples’ lives, and not just for running, but also helping people to be more positive about who they are, about their place in this world. I get emotional just thinking about it, because I am just me – a nobody, really – and yet I have made this impact on people from Dubai to Kent to Kimberely, and even some followers in Kenya!

At Comrades last year – I went back for the Back to Back medal – I was just struggling through and I heard, “Come on Angry Kenyan!” from a complete stranger who had seen my Tweets, knew I was running in pink and had spotted me. It meant so much to me! I’ve run with a few people in the Movement and they have been the best runs ever. I can only dream of running on each continent where there are Kenyan Movement runners, and the London and New York marathons are top of my bucket list, plus a marathon in Kenya. How amazing would that be!

Broadening the Message
In the last few months, as I have trained and been inspired by others, and in order to encourage and motivate other athletes, including swimmers and cyclists, because I recently completed my first IRONMAN 70.3 event down in Durban, I changed the hashtag and it’s meaning from #runwithpassion to #BEwithpassion. I want to share my passion for training and life with everyone, and get them to live life to the full, to BE, and to do it with passion!

Doing my small part in the running community has made me realise that one person can make a difference, and by doing so, that one person can also be changed and motivated for the better! That is the story of the Kenyan Movement, and the Angry Kenyan.

You can join the Kenyan Movement by following @theAngryKenyan on Twitter.

With the 2015 SA Half Marathon title to his name, Lucky Mohale is now gearing up for another shot at World Champs glory next year in Wales, and he says he is determined to do better than in past attempts. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Lucky Modike Mohale obviously enjoys running in Port Elizabeth: He won the SA Half Marathon Champs title there in 2010, and at the end of July he added a second 21km national title in the Windy City. The 30-year-old flyer from Thembisa in Gauteng came home in 1:02:06, pushed all the way to the line by Central Gauteng team mate Mbongeni Nxazozo, to claim his third national title, having also won the SA 10km Champs in 2011 in Germiston. “The weather at last year’s 21km Champs race was very bad, so I struggled and only finished fourth, but this year it was perfect, so I enjoyed the race much more,” says Lucky.

The win in PE capped a very successful year so far in half marathons for Lucky. He won the Dis-Chem Half in January in 1:07:40, having frustratingly finished in the top five in the previous three editions of the race, and then in April he set a new course record in the Birchwood Half, winning comfortably in 1:06:48. He also added another course record at the Adrienne Hersch Challenge in May, coming home in 1:07:05, one second faster than the previous record.

Wales Ticket Booked
The national title means that Lucky now automatically qualifies for the SA Team for the World Half Marathon Champs in Cardiff, Wales in March 2016, and he says that will be his next big goal. It will be the fifth time he represents his country, having previously run in the 2006 World Cross Country Champs in Fukuoka, Japan, where he finished 99th, followed by the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, where he was selected for the SA marathon team and came home a disappointing 49th in 2:38:22. Then came the World Half Marathon Champs in Kavarna, Bulgaria in 2012, where Lucky once again finished 49th, clocking 1:07:17, and that was followed by his selection for the 2013 Africa Southern Region Cross Country Champs, where he finished 20th in the 12km race. To his credit, he says he still has to prove his worth to the SA team at the highest level.

“I have always been proud to represent my country, but I was not happy about my performances in SA colours, so I have changed the intensity of my training programme in order to run better at the next World Champs. My plans now are to run the Cape Town Marathon at the end of September and hopefully qualify for the SA marathon team for the Rio Olympics in 2016, and then I will focus on the shorter distances as I prepare for the World Half Marathon Champs.”

Star Potential
Lucky started running at the end of 2003, when he moved to Gauteng from the Limpopo Province. By early 2004 he was running races, and by 2005 he was regularly winning the junior category at races. Ten years later he is 30 years old, married with two young kids, a full-time athlete running for the Boxer Club, and still a regular on the podium at most of his races. He made his marathon debut in Cassablanca, Morocco in 2010 with a fifth-placed 2:13:35, which remains his PB. He was also third in the 2013 Sydney Marathon in Australia in 2:15:58, and finished second in the SA Marathon Champs race in 2013 with a 2:19:38.

Looking further ahead, Lucky says he sees his long-term future in the sport. “I want to help with the development of athletes in the rural areas all over the country, and to help them reach the top level as well, so I see my future as a coach, but my focus now is on my own running. Whether I go to Rio or not, my plan is to focus on the 21km and the marathon in the next few years – I have no plans to run ultras. You can’t just run for money, so I’m planning to run faster times, and the money will come after that.”

Lucky’s PBs
10km 28:31
15km 44:56
21.1km 1:01:08
42.1km 2:13:35