Category: Columns

Spar Women’s
Challenge 10km & 5km, Pretoria, 25 August

As Pretoria’s temperature hiked up to 32 degrees and I
began melting, still being used to the Highveld freeze, it dawned on me: I
should’ve trained more! I was hoping to get in under 1:30, but along with my
mother Debi and aunt Janeen, I would be happy just to finish. Meanwhile, my
brother Brent and cousin Devon decided to man up and don bikini tops, but other
men went the whole nine yards and dazzled in tutus.

 

THE HEAT IS ON

The busy start meant it took us five minutes to get
going. I started well, allowing my legs to warm up on a flat 2km stretch before
the first sharp incline. I had lost my mother and aunt in the orange traffic,
but around the 3km point, as the route climbed, I found them again, now looking
decidedly pink in the cheeks – the heat was incredible and we used water
sachets to cool down.

 

With a sharp downhill for the next 2km, I gave myself
a breather, and when we passed the halfway point in Centurion’s quiet suburbs,
we all enjoyed ourselves as the locals cooled the pack down with their garden
hoses. Then, with about 3km to go and the stadium light pylons visible in the
distance, I powered up to a steady run, and with my mother and aunt by my side,
we finished hand in hand in 1:32. After a scorcher of a day, it was better than
I expected! The boys finished in 52 minutes in their first ever 10km event and
we rewarded ourselves with a cold beer.

 

CHASING RECORDS

In the elite race up front, Ren? Kalmer took top honours
in a time of 34:50, followed by Rutendo Nyahora (35:28) and Nolene Conrad
(36:43). I remember my mother saying “That’s three times faster than us!” With
her fourth win in the 2012 Spar series, Ren? has already secured the Grand Prix
Series title, but will be chasing a fifth win in Johannesburg on October 14^th.
No one has won all five legs before in a single year, so here’s hoping Ren? can
make history!

Back in 1902, the Stella Sport Club was established as
a soccer club, but over the years its members began looking for different ways
to keep fit. That saw the founding of the club’s athletic section in 1970, and
from a small initial membership it has grown into the 350-strong running club
of today. And Stella is for every type of runner, says Grant Matkovich, the
club committee member responsible for fundraising and entertainment. “Stella AC
has a hectic weekly diary, so no matter what your ability of running, you will always
find a run to suit you.”

 

Based in the heart of Glenwood, Durban, Stella runners
take off on early morning training runs from the club every Monday, Wednesday
and Friday. Afternoon runs start from 5:15pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with
four groups taking part: walkers, beginners, intermediate and fast. “The route
is called and water points along the way allow everyone to regroup to make sure
no one is left behind!” explains Grant. “A Wednesday ‘quality’ session has also
been introduced, to help those members who want to up their speed, so no matter
what age, body shape or running ability, all are welcome at Stella!”

 

Saturdays at Stella is ‘Gillies Day,’ a regular 6am run
which always draws an enthusiastic crowd. This social run started back in 1970
with six soccer players who’d all finished their competitive soccer careers and
didn’t know what to do next, but knew they wanted to keep fit. The run was led by
Gilbert ‘Gillie’ Patterson and followed a dedicated route from the clubhouse to
the beachfront and back, covering 13km. No matter what the weather, there will
always be someone running ‘Gillies’, says Grant. Also, the last Thursday of
every month is time trial night, with a 5km or 8km option. Once the time trial
is completed, the charcoal is lit and the music is turned up for club night,
giving members a chance to socialise.

 

COMRADES FEVER

As with any KwaZulu-Natal club, Comrades is a huge
event on the club calendar, and Stella had the largest contingent of Comrades entries this year for a KZN club (and
the seventh-largest amongst all SA clubs). “Our afternoon running groups
help to develop a novice runner under the guidance of fellow members, who are
always more than willing to offer advice when it comes to Comrades.” says
Grant. “Possibly the best advantage of running Comrades for Stella AC is the
fact that you are running for one of the biggest and most recognisable local
running clubs.”

 

Six weeks before Comrades, Stella organises a 60km
club long run along the Comrades route, either up or down, depending on which
direction the race is due to be run that year. The run allows club members to
familiarise themselves with the route, eliminate any nasty surprises and
hopefully gain some confidence before the big day. On the day, the route is
manned with six Stella tables where runners are able to drop off any goodies
they want on the route. The club’s own Thulani Zwane successfully also led a sub-12
hour bus home in this year’s race, and he dubbed it the ‘People’s Bus’.

 

While Comrades is a huge focal event, the club also
hosts other events each year, the Stella Royal 25km run and 10 km that is held
in March, and the Stella Tribute – NO to Violence 15km, which is held in
November. Both races are long-standing events on the KZN
race calendar, taking runners through the Glenwood, Glenmore and Umbilo areas, and
are well supported by other KZN clubs. Stella’s annual Pub Run happens in
December and is a training run with a difference: Refreshment stations are all inside
local pubs as runners make their way around the neighbourhood.

 

HELPING OUT

Stella is also focussed on giving back, by helping
with development athletes in sponsoring licence numbers, running kit, race
entries and lifts to races. Money for this is covered by a lot of the club’s
fundraising activities. There is also plenty of support within the club for all
members, says Grant. “Running is often described as an individual and lonely
sport, but Stella AC helps remove the loneliness from the sport. If a member is
seeking advice on an injury, what training to do, or which race to enter,
someone will be able to help them out, whether it’s at the club, on a run, or
on Facebook!”

 

Visit www.stellasports.co.za or call 031 2014842 for more info.

We all know that we need to train our muscles in order
to be able to do sport, so we work on our leg muscles, throw in core work for
stability, and add upper body work if we’re into multi-sports. But how often do
we specifically target some of the most important muscles in all sporting
activity, the breathing muscles? In most cases, never, because we just rely on
hard running or cycling to automatically also train these muscles.

 

However, published research findings show that
specific breathing muscle training
can improve your sport performance in as little as four weeks, and one of the best ways to increase the strength, power and endurance of
these breathing muscles is to give them some resistance training, which is
exactly what the POWERBreathe range of products offer: Resistance. You could
describe them as dumbbells for the lungs, and the good news is that your
breathing muscles will respond to this training easily and quickly – just 30
deep breaths at moderate resistance twice a day can help you improve your
performance markedly.

 

The basic underlying mechanism here is that
impaired oxygen uptake activates a reflex in your body that restricts blood
flow to the limbs and muscles, reserving the blood for the lungs that now need
more support to function properly. Therefore, by training the breathing muscles
to become stronger, you can slow this reflex down to the extent that your legs
and arms will receive more blood, which contains energising oxygen and clears
out muscle metabolite build-up. In other words, you can run harder thanks to
your breathing muscles being fitter and better able to cope with the stress
being placed on them.

 

POWERbreathe has two inspiratory muscle
training products available in South Africa, the POWERbreathe K-series with
digital display (from R4100 to R7200), and the simpler but no less effective
POWERbreathe Plus (approximately R800). Both ranges offer models with different
features and levels of adjustable resistance, so check them out online and
order them there as well.

 

The bottom line is that just a few minutes of ‘work’
on your breathing muscles each day can improve your strength and endurance,
delay limb fatigue, improve recovery time, and help you maintain a higher
exercise intensity for longer. It’s as simple as breathing, really.

 

More
info at www.powerbreathe-sa.co.za, or contact [email protected] or 011 440
2119.

Essential Core

I’ve heard that runners need a strong core, but am not
entirely sure how one goes about doing core strengthening, because I’ve also
heard that it’s not just about the six-pack muscles. – Sue, Bellville

 

ANSWER

Your core muscles provide stability, even in static
positions such as standing or sitting, and as a runner they are even more
important, providing posture, stability and balance. Therefore, lack of core
development often leads to a predisposition to slouch when sitting, and leaves
you susceptible to lower back pain and muscle injuries. Examples of good core
exercises include bridging, planks and exercises involving balance and
coordination. You can increase the intensity level by using gym balls or
resistance bands.

 

“As a beginner runner, I am bit overwhelmed by all the fancy products on
the market when it comes to good old water. Is it OK to just drink tap water
before, during and after a run?”  – John,
Durban

 

ANSWER

Health
professionals recommend that you drink at least eight glasses of water a day,
because water that contains natural minerals and trace elements plays a vital
role in our health, helping to:

?        
flush our system of toxins,

?        
reduce heart attack risk,

?        
reduce risk of disease and infection,

?        
keep us regular,

?        
promote healthy skin,

?        
regulate body temperature,

?        
cushion and lubricate joints and muscles,

?        
improve recovery time,

?        
and keep the body energised and alert.

 

Unfortunately,
the reality is that tap water quality often leaves a lot to be desired, as much
of the essential goodness has been removed due to chemical treatment or reverse
osmosis (filtration with carbon filters) to remove harmful substances. Thus tap
water is often a chemical concoction that looks and tastes refreshing, and
promises good health, but in fact is the complete opposite. Therefore, I
recommend that you look for purified water products that contain the essential
trace elements that your body needs, notably sodium, potassium, calcium and
magnesium.

 

 

We all know
that aerobic exercise, particularly running, delivers many health benefits,
including cardiovascular fitness, muscle endurance and increased bone density.
For those people looking to lose a few kilograms, exercise is also an effective
method of weight control, with excess energy and fat being burnt up and more
muscle being formed. Even better news for weight-watchers is that a new study
has found that exercise may reduce appetite as well, for anything from two
hours up to a couple of days.

 

Now this may
not quite tally for everybody, as we all know at least one athlete who is
always hungry and eats like a proverbial horse in order to generate the energy
they need for their running. The logic there is that the athlete is burning so
much energy and must replace it by eating, but researchers are now saying that
exercise can reduce appetite instead of sending it sprinting for the fridge.

 

MEASURING UP

A group of
scientists at the University of Loughborough in the UK, led by Dr David
Stensel, investigated what effect vigorous exercise has on the levels of the
two important appetite hormones, acylated ghrelin and peptide YY. They did this
by asking a group of male university students to do 60-minute sessions on a treadmill
and 90-minute weight training sessions in the gym, then measured the levels of
these hormones in the athletes’ blood during and after the sessions, as well as
asking the athletes about their hunger pangs.

 

Ghrelin is
released by the stomach and pancreas to increase appetite, while peptide YY is
released from the stomach after eating to reduce appetite. Several previous
studies of the effect of exercise on ghrelin have come up with mixed results,
however, and Dr Stensel says that this is because there are actually two forms
of the hormone – active or acylated ghrelin can pass from the blood into the
brain and affect appetite, while non-acylated ghrelin cannot get into the brain
and does not affect appetite. Thus total ghrelin levels may be misleading in
the case of appetite suppression.

 

PROOF IN THE PUDDING

The study
found that vigorous treadmill running caused acylated ghrelin levels to drop
and peptide YY levels to increase, which both suppressed the athletes’ hunger. On
the other hand, the weight-lifting sessions led to lower ghrelin levels but
didn’t affect peptide YY levels, which explains why the athletes reported less
reduction in appetite. In both cases, these effects usually lasted for about
two hours, but in some cases longer.

 

Dr Stensel’s group
admitted that they don’t know why weight training affects acylated ghrelin
levels and not Peptide YY levels, but speculate that it may be because lifting
weights does not cause enough energy expenditure to affect this hormone. They
also say it may be because the disturbance of the gut caused by running is
responsible for changing gut hormone levels. Therefore, while they conclude
that more research is needed to ascertain the ideal intensity and type of
exercise for appetite control, they can still confidently say that working up a
sweat with a hard run is a great way to exercise while not boosting your
appetite to the extent of packing in more than you sweated out. And that’s
great news for all those people who are looking to control or reduce their weight.

Many of us watch the weather on the TV news to see
what to expect for the next few days, especially if we have a training session
or race coming up, and so, for about three minutes, we listen intently to the
weather presenter talk about low pressure cells and cold fronts, showers and
wind forecasts, and minimum and maximum temperatures. Now most of have a pretty
good understanding of the weather patterns, but what we don’t know how is how
much work goes into predicting the weather and then packaging it for TV.

 

One person who does know is Derek Van Dam (30), the
Cape Town-based head of the weather department and chief meteorologist for e
News Channel Africa. “I’m part of a team that does the daily broadcasting, and
there are three parts to our job: Meteorologist and weather forecaster,
graphics producer, and presenter. We use computer models to take an initial set
of conditions and predict into the future, but I will be the first to admit it
is still an educated guess, because Mother Nature can be unpredictable and doesn’t
care what the SA Weather Service or Derek Van Dam said.”

 

AMERICAN IN CAPE TOWN

Derek hails from Grand Rapids, Michigan in the USA. He
studied meteorology as well as broadcast and cinematic arts, and then worked
for a local TV station for four years as their morning meteorologist. Then in
2007 he came to Africa with the Christian non-profit organisation,
Compassionate Life Foundation, working to help orphans affected by HIV/AIDS in
Swaziland, and after an intense experience there, came to Cape Town for a
holiday.

 

“I rented a house in Camps Bay and when the rental
agency found out what I do, they asked if I wanted to meet the people at eTV,
across the road from their offices. It was good timing, because eTV was about
to launch its 24-hour news channel, and they offered me a job. I was only supposed
to stay for two years, but nearly five years later I’m still here. I’ve had
such an incredibly warm welcome from Cape Town’s people, and SA in general, and
really feel at home. It shows what kind of accepting people live here, and I
can really see why this is called the Rainbow Nation.”

 

The sporty lifestyle also suits Derek well, he says.
“I’m a pretty adventuress guy who likes mountain climbing, surfing and a daily
run on Table Mountain, so Cape Town suits my lifestyle. I believe my career
should fit my lifestyle, not the other way round, and I won’t sacrifice
lifestyle for a bigger paycheque. It’s easy to say that living in Cape Town,
but I wouldn’t want to live in a city that doesn’t suit my active lifestyle. I
would be claustrophobic and unhappy.”

 

RUNNING PEDIGREE

Derek played competitive soccer up till college, until
a dislocated shoulder ended his playing days, but being surrounded by a fit
circle of friends and having active parents, he soon picked up a new sport. “I started
running and worked my way up to 10km, then the half marathon, and now I’m
getting ready for my first marathon in November at the Winelands Marathon in
Stellenbosch, where I hope I’ll catch the marathoning bug. I’m also hoping to
qualify for the Two Oceans, and then maybe go on to Comrades. My girlfriend,
Tara, has done the Comrades, so I’m feeling the pressure!” he jokes.

 

Derek prefers trail to tar, however, and his day
starts with a 7am 10km run on the mountain. “I can literally walk straight out
my back door and start running, and I don’t need to carry water because I drink
from the mountain streams.” Then, after his must-have post-run coffee, it’s off
to the office and a very busy day checking weather patterns and preparing the
weather forecast for the daily news shows. “I often work through lunch and eat
at my desk, which I know is a bad habit, but we’ve got a lot to get through
each day.”

 

BLAME IT ON THE WEATHERMAN

Ask him if he has he ever gotten a forecast totally
wrong and Derek bursts out laughing. “I’ll never live this one down. The whole
eTV company did a team-building climb on Table Mountain, so the CEO mailed me
for a detailed forecast and said the whole company was counting on me. I predicted
a sunny day with moderate wind and no rain, but I forgot about the tablecloth
of cloud that forms on the mountain, so I didn’t warn them about really cold, wet
conditions up top. Everybody got soaked and I still get ripped about it.”

In a remarkable running career, Dan Biggs claimed four
Comrades gold medals between 1981 and 1986, and capped that with numerous podium
positions in both the Duzi canoe race as well as the old Transvaal Ironman
competition, making him one of the most versatile and talented athletes of his
day. “My running strength really paid off in canoeing races when the water was
low. In the 1981 Duzi, I ran for three hours and only paddled for 15 minutes!
It made for interesting races between the runners and paddlers.”

 

BITTEN BY THE BUG

Born in 1959 in Ixopo, Natal, Dan was the youngest of five
kids. At school, he didn’t like having to wait to be picked up by his mother
when his older siblings finished later, so he ran home instead, and from that
his love of running grew. His athletic career took off in 1978, the year after
he completed his national service, when he began studying at the University of
Natal in Pietermaritzburg. There he was coached by John Baxter, who he credits
for giving him the self-belief to compete with the best. Dan won the Natal
Marathon Champs in September 1980 in a PB 2:22:36, and the following January finished
second in the Duzi after a titanic struggle with Graeme Pope-Ellis, ran an
excellent 3:20 to finish sixth in the Two Oceans in April, and then decided to
run Comrades.

 

However, that year saw the Comrades organisers
incorporate the 20th
Anniversary Republic Day Festival into the Comrades programme, which prompted about
30 students from universities around the country to wear black armbands in
protest, including Bruce Fordyce and Dan. “For us, the Comrades
symbolised a celebration of the human spirit, so why involve it with the
Republic’s most infamous ‘achievement,’ Apartheid? Our black armbands did not
go down well with many people – for the first kilometre a tall Afrikaner swore
at me and became even more rabid when I told him to sod off! All the abuse I
received along the route just made me more determined to do well.” That
determination carried Dan to fifth position in 5:54:08 “It felt great to have had
such a good first Comrades and done my bit for the struggle at the same time.”

 

CHASING GLORY

In 1982 Dan teamed up with
his Springbok canoeist brother Tim to win the Duzi pairs, then went into
Comrades hoping to do the double, but unfortunately picked up an injury six
weeks before the race and finished way off the pace. The following year he
finished second at both Duzi and Ironman, and 14^th at Comrades, and
then in 1984 he repeated his two second places and got back amongst the
Comrades golds, finishing fifth in 5:47:11. In 1985 he claimed third, third and
sixth respectively, with a 5:57:55 Comrades finish.

 

“In 1986 I sacrificed the
Duzi and Ironman so that I could concentrate on the Comrades, because I
desperately wanted to win it, but I probably peaked about six weeks before the
race, and then I picked up a bad cold three days before the race. I was nevertheless
determined to give it my best shot. At 60km I was running with Bruce and Hosea
Tjale, lying joint second as we chased Bob de la Motte, but my stomach started
to feel dodgy. So when I saw a portaloo under a bridge, I decided to answer the
call of nature while I had the opportunity to do so in a dignified fashion! When
I came out of the loo, Bruce and Hosea were about 300m down the road and on the
day I was not good enough to catch them, eventually finishing eighth in 5:45.
While it was my best average pace of all my Comrades at 3:50 per kilometre, I
was devastated! But later I realised that I had done my best possible build-up
to the race and had fought hard on the day.”

 

SLOWING DOWN

Dan went on run six more
Comrades, the last in 2001, but says that when his competitive running days
ended, so too did his motivation to race. Today he works as a landscaper in
Cape Town and is father to two artistically and musically talented children,
Sarah (21) and Josh (18). “I loved the heat of
battle and always raced to win. That’s why I did not make a good transition to
social runner in later years, as running somewhere in the middle of the pack
simply did not do it for me. I still run most days on Table Mountain, which I
find excellent therapeutic soul food.”

UTi Rhodes Trail Run
52km, Rhodes, Border, 14 July

There was talk on the way down to
Rhodes about extreme weather in the Cape and everyone was getting excited (and
a little nervous). As all Rhodes runners know, this is the one race that we all
pray for bad weather. We want it cold, we want snow, and we want ice – and this
year we got our wishes!

 

Friday dawned crisp, clear and
beautiful, and we all met up at the local school, in full costume, to hand over
a ‘box library’ to some of the kids that we could rustle up in holiday time.
Lots of fun was had by all, and we also gave some moral support to the amazing
team from DM Kisch Attorneys, who had been painting the school classrooms for
two days already!

 

And then the weather arrived… As
the day got progressively more cloudy and cold, we rested (and ate) for the next
day’s race, and I made final tweaks to the Polar Bear costume that I would be
wearing to raise funds for the Run to Read Challenge. It started raining in the
evening, and it rained and rained and rained – my first experience of this in
10 Rhodes runs. “The rivers are gonna’ be fun,” I thought. Race organiser
Darrell Raubenheimer also informed us that he had various routes mapped out
“just in case…”

 

WEE BIT WARMISH

Actually, the 5?C start was
disappointingly the warmest I have experienced at Rhodes, especially given that
I was wearing a ‘fur duvet’ and oversize fibreglass head! However, this was
soon to change. The route had been adjusted to two ‘out-and-backs’ because the
top of the mountain was completely inaccessible (and still was at the time of
writing, two weeks later), so we all managed to see the top guys flying past us
on a couple of occasions.

 

About an hour into the run the
rain started, then the sleet, and finally the snow, much to the delight of the
runners, and this was accompanied by much photo-taking. As we ran on, the snow
got thicker as we progressed ever upwards. This wasn’t ‘African snow,’ this was
proper Northern Hemisphere-like snow! We ‘ran’ on into the biting wind and snow,
not to mention several freezing river crossings, and the polar bear suit
started to get wet. And heavy.

 

The checkpoint tables were as
always amazing, and deserve a medal themselves for being out there in that weather.
The Polar Bear, his trusty vet (physio) Jane MacKinnon and my good friend from
KZN, Lionel ‘Farmer Brown’ Howard, had a long, slow run, but everyone who
passed us gave us heaps of encouragement and all were slightly jealous that I
was so warm in my rug.

 

BEARING UP

After experiencing the first ever
‘rolling checkpoint’ and trotting back towards the wonderful hamlet at Rhodes,
I got a serious ‘bear hug’ and an amazing cup of tea at the last checkpoint,
which nearly reduced me to tears – but as we all know, real bears don’t cry…
Then we came down the street to the finish, to huge cheers from the amazing
supporters who had braved the elements. This had been a shorter but very tough
and hugely memorable Rhodes.

 

To all the fantastic Rhodes
runners, friends of Rhodes and other supporters, thank you for your generous
support of our ‘Run to Read’ challenge for the local school. We raised over R20 000, and you have all made a big difference to
some very special children in a wonderful but very poor part of our Country.

Randburg Harriers Running Club, Johannesburg, Central Gauteng

“Run
days are fun days! That’s the motto of our club,” says Randburg Harriers club
secretary Michelle Knotzer. “And this is a very family-orientated club. Running
is an individual sport, and since athletes put so much of their time and energy
into their sport, we like to make their families a part of it as well, so we
make sure they feel welcome to attend any event and to offer moral support to
their loved ones. We therefore involve the families as much as possible.”

 

That’s
how Michelle herself got involved in the club, despite the fact that she says
she is not a runner. Her parents are both long-time members of the club – her
father is a runner and her mother a walker – so she has spent a lot of time
there since a young age, but little did she know back then that she would eventually
be running the club. “I’ve now been club secretary for nine years and all the
hard work I’ve put into the club has turned it into a passion and a family
thing, more than just a job.”

 

RUNNING AROUND
RANDBURG

The
club was founded in June 1982 by Dave Jack, who felt the need to start a new
club in the Randburg area, and he convinced three of his friends to come in
with him, Tony Kirby, Tony Turner and Leon van Wyk. Leon is more famous for the
clocks and trophies he makes as special gifts for runners with Comrades Green
Numbers, and he still makes all the club’s trophies all these years later. The
longest standing member of the club today is Rod Pearson, who was the very
first member to sign up for the new club, even though he wasn’t even a runner
then, but 30 years down the line he has completed 22 Comrades Marathons.

 

In June this year, the club celebrated
its 30^th birthday with a big gathering of both former and current
members, the latter now numbering 490. This year at Comrades, the club had 215
entrants, the fourth-largest club contingent, of which 133 made it to the start
line and 123 finished the race. Amongst them was Reform Ndlovu, whose excellent
6:46:42 saw him finish as first Randburg Harrier home and 24^th in
the men’s veteran category. The fastest female finisher in the club with a time
of 8:24:24, was Paula Quinsee (17^th in the women’s veteran
category), who earlier this year took part in the 9in9in9 Challenge. This saw
her run nine marathons in nine provinces in nine weeks, along with Eric Wiebols
and TV weatherman Simon Gear, to raise funds for the Starfish Greathhearts
Foundation.

 

CLUB RUNS

Randburg
Harriers hosts the massively popular Valentines Nite 10km in February as well
as the Kwai Half Marathon, 10km & 5km in May, both of which start and
finish at the Randburg Central Sport Complex on the corner of Republic Road and
Silver Pine Avenue, which is the club’s home base. The club is a big supporter
of charitable good causes, so a sizable portion of all money raised from the
entries at these two races is presented to the club’s two official charities, the
Ann
Harding
Cheshire Home for the Disabled in Randburg and the Whiggles and
Squiggles School for Special Needs Children.

 

The
club hosts two time trials a week, both of which start here as well, offering
8km and 5km distances on both Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. Then on
Sunday mornings there are long training runs of anything between 18 and 32km,
and the club also organises track sessions coached by Dave Coetzee for those
members looking to do speed work. While road running is the main focus, the
club has added a cross-country section, which has attracted more young runners.
Added to that, Cresta Wheelers have now sharing the club premises, and this creates
a perfect environment for those runners who would like to participate in
cycling or triathlons as well.

 

However,
it’s not all just ‘business’ at this club, says Michelle, jokingly explaining
that “Randburg Harriers members often joke that they are drinkers with a
running problem. We have a large number of social butterflies who love to have
a beer in the clubhouse after their time trial, and that creates a great club
vibe that anybody is welcome to enjoy with us.”

 

Go
to www.randburgharriers.co.za for more on the club, or contact Michelle Knotzer
on 011 792 7003  /
[email protected].

ANSWER

It seems like you are an active person taking part in
a variety of sports that involve a lot of running, therefore there’s a sense of
repetitiveness involved that can lead towards overuse injuries, especially if
you continue participation with niggly pains. Physiotherapists and biokineticists
work closely together and treatments normally overlap during the rehabilitation
period. One difference between the physio and the biokineticist is that the physio
concentrates on the specific site of the injury, whereas the biokineticist looks
at the cause of the injury and provides rehabilitative exercises.

 

Say you have been running consistently for the last
year, with no discomfort, and all of a sudden you get a sharp pain in your
right knee during your run. Your knee swells up and weight-bearing causes lots
of pain, so you would immediately consult your physio to help with the
inflammation and to get you pain-free. Now that the injury is better, you need
to correct what was causing the pain.

 

Your biokineticist then does a biomechanical analysis
of your whole body and picks up that your right foot has no arch (flat-footed
or pronated) compared to your left. Therefore the excessive pronation of the
right foot has created an unstable knee by collapsing inwards during running
and causing damage inside your knee. To correct this you have to do specific
exercises to build up the arch in your foot as well as correcting muscle
imbalances in your legs, thus improving the stability in your ankle and knee,
and keeping you injury-free.