Category: Columns

Convincing somebody to take up running usually requires getting a few fears out of the way first. Here’s how to go about ‘defearing’ them. – BY MODERN ATHLETE EDITOR SEAN FALCONER

Probably the single most commonly used excuse for non-runners not to join a running friend or family member for a run is the fear that they won’t be able to keep up, will hold their running friend up, or worse, will get left behind and have to run alone. And that’s enough to put them off running entirely.

The ‘runner’ usually just wants to help get the ‘non-runner’ going, so that he or she can discover for themselves just how enjoyable running really is. So the ‘runner’ is usually quite happy to run at whatever pace is comfortable and manageable for the non-runner, because those first few runs should be as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.

The same fear often crops up when new runners are thinking about participating in their first race. I hear it all the time from people I talk to: They are convinced that they will be the slowest person out there and will be left behind by the rest of the pack, probably within the first kilometre, and have to run the whole race by themselves. That means the embarrassment of coming into the finish all alone, long after everybody else, and probably also getting lost along the way because all the marshals will have gone home already. Oh, and no water, because the water table volunteers will also have packed up by the time they eventually get there.

With thoughts like that running through their heads, it’s no wonder some people get psyched out of running races. But if they just took that proverbial first step, they’d soon see just how friendly and helpful the running community is. That there will always be somebody to run with, and 99.9999999% of the time there is always somebody slower than you still behind you, and that race organisers do not just leave you out there to fend for yourself.

And even if you are coming stone last in a race, there will be a sweeper vehicle or bicycle with you to make sure you make it home safely. Oh, and many race organisers will make sure you still get a medal, no matter how long after the cut-off you make it home!

So if you’re a non-runner, just get out there and try it, and if you’re too scared to enter your first race, just take the plunge and give it a go. If you’re a already runner and have a friend, family member or colleague that you’re trying to convince to try running, but they’re scared to take those first steps, keep working on them, because in the long run (pun intended) the health benefits and happiness of running for your ‘non-runner’ will be worth your effort and investment!

Running is like a relationship: We can take the easy way out, but we push on, through the hard times, because the rewards are worth it. – BY MODERN ATHLETE EDITOR SEAN FALCONER

A few days ago it was overcast down here in the Cape, with rain threatening any moment, and that got me thinking about a Saturday morning 10km race I ran this winter in the rain. It was bitterly cold that morning, with heavy cloud and rain, and it was quite windy, too. Of course, I was really tempted to stay in bed when the alarm went off, having listened to heavy rain falling during the night, but I dragged myself out from under the covers, dressed and drove to the race. (That’s what you get for telling your running friends you’ll be running…)

I went prepared, of course – full-length tights, long-sleeve top, gloves, beanie, rain jacket, the lot – just in case, but when I got there it wasn’t that cold, so I stripped down to my normal outfit for racing. Kept the gloves, though, so the old fingers would stay toasty. So to the start and the weather is holding so far, but then seconds before the start gun, the rain starts coming down. And I mean coming down hard!

For the first three kays we ran with the rain drenching our clothing and making puddles in our shoes, and raindrops hitting us in our eyes on the one stretch that we ran into the relatively strong wind. I could barely see where I was going for about 600 metres! But then the rain stopped, the wind seemed to die down, and the rest of the run just ‘went.’ As in flew by…

The point is that those first three kays were downright unpleasant. Cold, wet, windy… enough to make me question my sanity for getting out of bed, let alone starting the race in the first place, and tempting me to turn back while the start/finish and my car were still just around the corner. But I plugged on, and ended up having a lovely run. Getting started was difficult, and keeping it going was even harder, but the rewards for finishing were so worth it.

In recent weeks, I’ve experienced this exact same feeling in my personal life. Relationships are not easy or straight-forward, as there are two people involved and things can easily get confused and complicated. It is sometimes very hard to get a relationship started, and sometimes you need to work through the bad patches or get over a few ‘speed bumps.’ And it’s so easy to quit when this happens, especially when the relationship is young, much like bailing a race in the early kays before you get too far away from your car.

But if you plug through that bad patch and keep going, the rewards could really be worth it, and you may look back on your doubts and wonder why you were even contemplating quitting in the first place. Basically, you’ll feel really happy – and helluva relieved – that you kept going. OK, you won’t have reached the finish line yet, but you’ll still be in the race. And running strong!

Four Seasons in one day is nothing on what I go through each day… No, I do the Seven Dwarfs in one day ritual in my running! – BY MODERN ATHLETE EDITOR SEAN FALCONER (With apologies to the original writer or writers of the Snow White fairy tale!)

Most of you will be familiar with the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It is, after all, one of the most famous fairy tales of all times, made popular by the German Brothers Grimm in the early 1800s when they published their collection of over 200 fairy tales. So you know that Snow White was a beautiful young lady who was sent to the forest to be killed by her jealous stepmother queen, who had a talking mirror that told her Snow White was more beautiful than her. However, instead of being killed, Snow White ended up living with Seven Dwarfs who worked in a nearby mine…

Now I’m not going to go into more detail about the Snow White story – we don’t need to talk about poisoned apples and being kissed by Prince Charming to wake up again – but I would like to talk about the Seven Dwarfs. Interestingly, they were only given individual names in the story in 1912, when the story was staged on Broadway in the USA, and they were then renamed for the 1937 Disney film. And thus today, thanks to Walt Disney, we have the venerable names of Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy.

Now why on earth am I writing about the Seven Dwarfs? Well, anybody who has met me will know that I am not the tallest person around, so I have been known to jokingly refer to myself as a dwarf, and when it comes to my own running, I reckon I go through the seven stages of dwarfness each day. It starts when I wake up, because then I am Dopey. As I often point out in blogs or social media posts, I am not a morning person… which is why I prefer running in the afternoons or evenings.

But once I am fully awake and decide to get moving, I become Doc as I check that everything is still in one piece. By that, I mean I gingerly rotate my ankles to check for any signs of pain – when you’ve torn your ankle ligaments as many times as I have on the soccer field, you become a wee bit paranoid about taking that first step in the mornings. If the ankles check out, I move to the calves, flexing one at a time, then get the knees moving, etc, etc, working my way up. The lower back also gets a careful check before I try to actually get out of bed. I know, I know, I sound like an old man, but hell, I am halfway to 80!

For most of the day, if I am planning an evening run, my legs will become Grumpy, because they have to hang about waiting all day to be released. That means sitting at the desk while I type, or staying cooped up in my car while I drive to meetings and interviews. These legs were made for low flying, and they don’t like sitting around doing nothing all day. They get a wee bit uppity…

Which leads to Sneezy behaviour. I equate sneezes with short circuits, where something is not quite right in the lungs and the body forces you to get rid of the offending object causing the short circuit, via a big sneeze. Well, my legs go through that as well. I can sit there the whole day working, mentally prepared to go running just after 5pm, without so much as a hint of any pain, tightness or discomfort anywhere in my body, but blow me down if I don’t stand up to go get changed at the end of the work day and suddenly I feel a twinge of pain in my knee, or my calf muscles suddenly feel tight, or my lower back says “Howzit, remember me?”

That brings me to my Bashful phase, when I have to slowly coax my body into getting going. Fortunately, this usually only lasts the first few hundred metres of a run, and soon I’m flying along, the grumpiness, ‘sneeziness’ and bashfulness left behind. And then I am Happy! Nothing beats the feeling of running smoothly, when legs, lungs and heart work together in perfect symmetry to allow you to effortlessly glide across the road, field or trail, and you feel like you can run forever.

And that brings me full circle to the end of the day, when I have had my run, returned home, showered, eaten and relaxed, and the night owl in me has exhausted itself enough to allow me to become Sleepy. Then it’s off to bed and some well-earned rest.

Just wish I didn’t need to set that damned alarm clock each time, because Dopey and Doc are not my favourite guys. But anyway, High ho, high, it’s off to run we go…

A few weeks ago we watched Wayde van Niekerk run 43.03 in the Olympic men’s 400m final to set a new World Record. It was a truly amazing performance, considering he was in the outside lane and could not see his fellow finalists, so just had to push as hard as he could to counter the stagger from the start, and that saw him pull away from the rest of the field down the home straight to post the fastest ever time run for the distance. It was one of those moments that every South African watching will remember for the rest of their lives with pride. That was a World and SA Record.

Then just over a week ago the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon took place and we watched in excitement to see if the runners could break 2:10 on the fast, flat course. The goal of the organisers is to create a ‘Big City Marathon’ vibe, with a massed field of participants, but also to provide a fast course that attracts the best in the world to come here and run world class times. This year they eliminated a few more twists and turns from the course to make it still faster, to achieve their sub-2:10 target, and the result was an awesome winning time of 2:08:41 by Ethiopian Asefa Mengistu Negewo. But that saw the record vs non-record confusion begin, because suddenly people were talking about a new SA Record… which it was not.

Getting Excited…
I was doing vibe point commentary at the Pink Drive water station at 32km when I saw an e-mailed press release come through on my phone, with the subject line stating that the SA Marathon Record had been broken. Wow, that’s incredible, I thought, quickly turning off the mic and opening the mail, because I had seen an Ethiopian and two Kenyan athletes leading the race as they went past me, and my immediate thought was that they had either been passed by a South African, or had pulled a South African to a blisteringly fast time of around 2:06. But that did not turn out to be the case. Instead, I read that Ethiopia’s Negewo had run 2:08:41 to “break the longstanding fastest time set on SA soil by David Tsebe (2:09:50) for a new SA record.”

Then a day later I received the weekly Distance Running Results mailer from respected statistician Riël Hauman and he wrote the following: “Despite the continuous and irritating statements by the finish line and prize-giving announcers at yesterday's Sanlam Cape Town Marathon that the winning time was ‘a new South African recoooord!’, it was nothing of the sort. It was not even a South African open record. The reason is simple – a foreigner cannot set an SA record. And, in any case, both the SA domestic and open record is 2:06:33, run by Gert Thys in 1999. All it was is the fastest time ever in South Africa on a standard course. Taking home the big prize was Ethiopian Asefa Mengistu Negewo (31), whose 2:08:41 not only broke his personal best of 2:11:16, set earlier this year at altitude in Bloemfontein, but also the 2:09:50 by David Tsebe in Port Elizabeth in 1990 as the fastest ever on a non-aided route on South African soil. The fastest time ever in South Africa is still the 2:08:04 run by Zithulele Sinqe on a downhill course in Port Elizabeth in 1986.”

What this means is that the PR people behind the scenes at the race and the commentators at the finish got themselves and their audience very excited about a very fast run, but with a wee bit of confusion as to what they had just witnessed. And I can see how it happened, because there are some subtle differences between various types of records and bests, according to IAAF rules.

For a course to count for record purposes, it must be classified as unaided: It must be a loop or semi-loop course, not point-to-point, so that the finish is less than half the overall distance of the race from the start, and the course must not drop by more than one metre per kilometre overall, i.e. must not be a downhill run. That is why David Tsebe’s time was the fastest official time on SA soil up till now, because Zithluele Sinqe’s time on the downhill PE course was not record-legal. Zinqe’s time is therefore classified as a Best, not a Record. The Cape Town Marathon course qualifies easily for record purposes, but then a South African would need to run below 2:06:33 to set a new SA Record, or sub-2:09:50 for a fastest unaided time on SA soil. Neither of those happened, so no SA Records were broken.

More Confusion…
This was actually the second time this year that an event in Cape Town saw confusion about records cloud the day. In May, the build-up to the FNB Cape Town 12 ONERUN saw various people talking about the SA Record for 12km being under threat, perhaps even the World Record, due to the very fast course on offer. So several people went a bit crazy when Stephen Mokoka outsprinted Kenyan Daniel Salel to win the race in 33:34, since it was a whopping 49 seconds faster than Matthews Mothswarateu’s SA Record of 34:23, run in 1988.

However, the ONERUN course is point-to-point and therefore not record-legal, but Stephen’s time is indeed a new South African Best. In fact, it only just missed the World Best by three seconds, that being the 33:31 jointly held by Joseph Kimani and Sammy Kitwara, and it moved Stephen up to fifth on the all-time list for all 12km courses, legal or aided. But this did not stop several members of the media reporting that Stephen had broken the SA Record.

What perhaps contributed to the confusion at the ONERUN was that the men were offered a R10,000 incentive to run faster than Mothswarateu's official SA Record, whereas the women were incentivised to beat Elana Meyer’s aided 38:39 SA Best. (The SA Record for women is actually 38:48, held by Colleen de Reuck.) Not that it mattered in the end, since the 39:40 winning time by Irvette van Zyl did not challenge either mark. But when Stephen broke the targeted mark, in a stunning sprint finish, it naturally got everybody excited, from finish line commentators to media to the public, and thus the record confusion spread.

The point of this is that we all love to watch fast times being posted and records being improved, especially if it is a national record, and the thrill of watching one of our athletes or one of our races produce world class times, perhaps even a world record, is something to truly savour. But we also need to know some background in order to know what we are watching, to recognise a record from a best time. But that all said, it did not matter whether they were records or not, all of the performances listed in this blog were damned exciting to watch!

Check out all the latest news and important info from the world’s biggest, oldest and most famous ultra, the Comrades Marathon. – BY DELAINE COOLS & THAMI VILAKAZI

HUGE ECONOMIC IMPACT IN 2016
Tourism KwaZulu-Natal has finalised its economic impact assessment of the 2016 Comrades Marathon, and the 91st edition of the world’s biggest and oldest ultra-marathon’s economic footprint on the KwaZulu-Natal region stands at more than R605-million!

CMA General Manager, Chris Fisher says, “The Comrades Marathon gives back to the communities in which it operates, to the Cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg as well as the greater region of KZN. The Comrades Marathon as an event, has the single largest impact on the province of KZN by far. We are thankful to Tourism KwaZulu-Natal for the immense amount of work that they have put into the comprehensive economic impact report for our race this year.”

COMRADES PERCEPTION SURVEY
The CMA would like to thank the 3337 runners who responded to the 2016 Comrades Perception Survey. The results will be shared with our runners soon.

COMRADES HISTORY ALIVE & WELL
From novices to Quadruple Green Number holders, the new Comrades Museum has something guaranteed to peak your interest. Over 90 years of history has been encapsulated in a manner that brings the race and its heroes to life. Decade by decade, the story of the race’s progression is tied in beautifully with physical displays on the evolution of running apparel. The new exhibition has sourced never before seen items of Comrades memorabilia and combined it with the stories of runners and the race itself, encapsulating the essence that makes it The Ultimate Human Race.

DIARISE IT: 4 JUNE 2017
The 92nd Comrades Marathon will take place on Sunday 4 June 2017. It will be the 47th Up-run in Comrades history and will therefore once again start outside the Durban City Hall. Looking still further ahead, you can also pencil the 2018 race date into your calendar so long, as the date has been finalised: The 93rd edition of the Comrades will take place on Sunday 10 June. (The CMA has taken the decision to permanently position the race on the second Sunday of June, from 2018 onwards. It will still be on the first weekend in 2017 due to there already being several other large events in the KZN area on that second weekend.)

GET YOUR 2017 TRAINING PROGRAMME
The official Comrades Marathon Coach, Lindsey Parry, has devised a comprehensive training programme to get you on the start line of the 2017 Ultimate Human Race and to achieve your coveted Comrades medal. Follow this link to access the much-needed information and training tips: www.comrades.com.

WALL OF HONOUR GIFT IDEA
Why not give a gift of love to the Comrades runner in your family this Christmas? Over the years, this treasured Comrades memento has become a sought-after gift for Christmas and birthdays. And you can beat the Christmas rush by ordering a Comrades Wall of Honour plaque for your loved one today. Please contact [email protected] for more info.

MY COMRADES STORY:
TIME TO FIND A FRIEND
BY JACOB MASIMLA

“I was running my 20th Comrades Marathon this year. I was not well trained, but managed to get through halfway in a sub-5:30. My goal was to finish in 11 hours. After halfway my knees gave in and I felt that one of my feet was getting sore. I then started cramping in my right leg and was forced to put more pressure on my left leg, until my left knee was overworked from all the pressure. I then tried to balance my weight in a way where I didn’t feel the pain so heavily on the one knee.

As I was running I met Piet Boesak, a long-time Comrades friend of mine, with the same problem. He was so happy to see me that he even forgot about his own injury. We there and then strategised on how we will take on the next half of our Comrades journey, and we started by identifying who will call when to run and when to stop.

On top of Cowies Hill I started getting light-headed, so I told my friend to carry on and that I will catch up with him. Normally when I get dizzy, it is the time when I know that I have to use the loo, and after 10 minutes I recovered. Back on the road I saw another runner with the same problem as mine and recommended that he go to the loo as well. As I hit the 3km to go marker, I stopped running, as I realised that I had one hour left. That’s when I told myself that I will walk the remaining distance. I finally finished the race ten minutes before the cut-off time, which also turned out to be the finishing time for my friend.”

SHARE YOUR COMRADES MARATHON STORY
Every person has a story to tell and Comrades Marathon runners in particular have the ultimate tales of courage, perseverance and endurance. We are calling on ardent Comrades runners to inspire the nation to take up the challenge of running the world’s most gruelling footrace, by sending us your Comrades Story in 300 words or less, and stand the chance to win a Comrades hamper. Please e-mail your story to [email protected].

CSI NEWS UPDATE
The Comrades Marathon makes a positive difference to the lives of the less fortunate around us by supporting six official Comrades Charities, and runners are invited to support these charities through the Amabeadibeadi and Race4Charity initiatives.

GREATHEARTS ROCKED 2016 COMRADES
A message of thanks from the Starfish Charity: “Yay, what an amazing campaign Starfish had this year. A job well done by the 87 Greathearts who ran the 2016 Comrades Marathon in support of Starfish. Enthused to make a difference, they raised an amazing R670,000, having exceeded the fundraising target even before race day. Your efforts are appreciated! A special thanks to all the Starfish supporters and sponsors for making this event a huge success. To Roxanne and the CMA team, Nedbank for hosting our children, to Busby for providing 120 branded caps for the runners and children, and to the little cheerleading Greathearts from Ethembeni School.”

COMMUNITY CHEST HAILS NONTUTHUKO
“Comrades runner and Community Chest Comrades Ambassador Nontuthuko Mashimane is seen here at Masakhane Creche, having fun with some of the children she fundraised for by supporting by the Community Chest of Pietermaritzburg. She raised over R50,000 in her fundraising efforts for the Race4Charity initiative at the 2016 Comrades Marathon, and says she would like to encourage and inspire other runners who run the Comrades Marathon to run for the Community Chest, and together make the 2017 Comrades a life-changing experience, not only for themselves but for the early childhood children.”

To find out more about how you can make a difference, go to www.comrades.com/charities/amabeadibeadi or www.comrades.com/charities/race-4-charity

COMRADES MARATHON ONLINE
www.comrades.com
www.twitter.com/@ComradesRace
www.facebook.com/ComradesMarathon

Proudly wearing her Great Grandmaster age category tags, 74-year-old Annatjie Berntzen of Cape Town lines up most weekends in a race, including trail runs, has a good chat with countless running friends and continues to amaze and inspire many a younger runner. – BY SEAN FALCONER

In the recent local elections, Annatjie went to vote and was happy to wait her turn to make her mark, but when the officials saw her age they immediately took her to the front of the queue, as is the norm with all voters over a certain age. Voting done, she headed home again and later that day, while chatting to her cousin, she mentioned the special treatment she had received, and the first thing her cousin said was, “But you still run like a young person, so why do you need to go to the front?” That’s similar to the reaction the diminutive pocket dynamo from Parow gets from many younger runners each weekend in races up to 21km long.

“Runners often call me Ouma and ask me when I started running, or what made me start. Some even ask me how I ran in my 20s, and when I tell them I actually only started running in my 60s, they usually don’t believe me. Some even ask to take their picture with me! I am just grateful that I am able to run, and I love that others tell me that I inspire them. In one race I was told by a big group of new runners that they used me as a target – they just wanted to get past the little old lady in red socks! At another race somebody saw me running as well as another 70-year-old woman from the Ommiedraai club, and actually put R100 in an envelope for each of us and gave it to the commentator to hand to us at prize-giving, just because he or she said we are so inspirational. I was so surprised!”

BITTEN LATE BY THE BUG
Born in PE, Annatjie grew up in Cape Town. After school she began doing administrative work for Spoornet in the 1960s, during which time she got married and divorced, before moving to Pretoria to begin working for the Department of Public Works (DPW) national office. The last 10 years of her working career were with the DPW in Polokwane, until her retirement in 2007, when she moved back to the Cape to be near family and friends. “My brother and sister both live in Cape Town, and I had been friends with Venita Nel for many years as well, and that also played a role in my decision to move back down.”

It was Venita who got the recently retired 65-year-old Annatjie into road running. “I arrived back in Cape Town on 1 October and later that same week Venita took me with her to do a 5km fun run at a race in Simon’s Town. I even took my little dog with me and we had a nice walk. I had never taken part in any sport, but for some reason in 2007 I started going to races regularly with friends, and as they ran their crazy 10km or 21km races, I started walking all the 5km fun runs, just for fun.”

“Then in 2009, when I turned 67, I joined Tygerberg NLK Athletic Club and decided that I was now ready to take on a 10km race, and I finished my first one in 1:29:28, just 30 seconds before the cut-off. That year I did all the 10km races, usually just coming in before cut-off, but finishing what I started for a well-deserved medal. Then I wanted to do 15 and 21km races as well, so in 2010 I did my first half marathon at the West Coast race, finishing in just under three hours. I also joined the 1000km Challenge Club in 2010, where the goal is to run 1000km in a year in races, and I have conquered the challenge every year, also being the oldest woman in the country to complete the challenge in 2013, 2014 and 2015.”

STEPPING IT UP
Having done the John Korasie 30km race in 2012, her longest run to date, then 71-year-old Annatjie went to the 2013 ORAK 12-hour circuit race in Vredendal aiming to do another 30km… but it didn’t end there. “I only wanted to do 30km, but when I reached the 30km mark in four and a half hours, I thought to myself there is still more than seven hours left till cut-off, so I decided I can still do another 30km and get a silver medal. So off I went, and at 4:30pm I reached the 60km mark. The silver medal was mine, but my friends still cannot believe that I ran 60km. Neither can I, really!”

Later that year, Annatjie decided that she was ready to try a marathon as well. “One day I was chatting to Venita and she said some people want to run a year or two before they take on a marathon, so I asked her if she thought I could do one, since I had been running for more than six years, and she said she thought I could.” That saw Annatjie enter the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, with its generous eight-hour cut-off, and she sailed home comfortably in 5:46 for the best time of the year in the Cape for a 70-year-old female marathoner. The following year she ran the marathon again, clocking 6:10 and finishing third in her age category on the revised route. “I found the marathons enjoyable, but a bit far for me,” says the intrepid Annatjie. “My friends say I can run the Comrades, but I am definitely not that mad!”

LOOKING AHEAD
Annatjie shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, she recently stepped into trail running for the first time, even donning a headlamp and taking on some of the increasingly popular night runs on golf courses! “I do at least one hour of walking every morning, and a 5km time trial on Tuesday evenings, and then weekends are for races. During the races I joke, ‘make way, here comes the old age home,’ but I am healthy and just enjoy my running. I still get the normal aches and pains, but nothing serious, and my doctor is very impressed with me.”

“Up till now, I’ve done more than 110 half marathons, and only two were not finished under three hours. When the day comes that I can’t make the 3:30 cut-offs, then I will retire from 21s, but I will keep running the 10s and fun runs. For me it is great to run, to enjoy the conversation on the road, and it keeps me going. I have a lot of friends and family, so running gives a whole other thing, and then at trail runs you meet a different crowd to the road running community, so I really enjoy the social side of the sport. But I do need to be careful about chatting too much in races. At the Silver Queen 10km, Jenny of West Coast and I were having such a good chat that we got lost. The first time we realised we had gone wrong was when we entered the finish in under an hour, which we know we cannot do! Still laughing about that one.”