Category: Features

Most sportspeople are willing to try anything new, be it different training sessions, learning how to meditate or starting a whole new eating programme as long as they improve and achieve the results they crave. Trevor Toerien, a runner from Boksburg, has done exactly that. Through revolutionising his diet, Trevor believes he has transformed his sporting career, and achieved running times he would never have done otherwise. An added bonus: his arthritis has since disappeared. Modern Athlete chatted to Trevor on his conscious health choices in order to live a longer, healthier life and run stronger.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
The first thing that catches your eye when you walk into the pretty kitchen of a house in Germiston on the East Rand, is the luscious green wheatgrass in trays on the counter. Very close to those lie more trays, showcasing sprouts bursting with goodness. You immediately feel guilty about the scone you had for breakfast. And when you open one of the kitchen cupboards, you find rows and rows of imported and local vitamins, minerals and other supplements. With an experienced hand, Trevor cuts the wheatgrass, pops it into the blender and within minutes he whips up a wheatgrass shot, which is equivalent to about 1kg of fresh garden vegetables in nutritional value, something he has twice a day. While many of us wake up to toast and coffee or good old fashioned cereal, Trevor grinds a mixture of seeds into a powder which he has with water. He washes it down with a teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar, which is known to alkalize the body. And that is breakfast done for Trevor Toerien.

“I will eat anything as long as it is nutritious. I don’t care what it tastes like. Wheatgrass is an acquired taste. It does taste a bit like cut grass, but I enjoy it. If I know something is good for me, I will have it,” says Trevor, who has just won the gruelling 52km Rhodes Ultra Marathon in a time of 4:30:50. Trevor’s winning margin of 20:26 was the fourth biggest in the 21 year history of the race. He also finished fifth overall (and first Veteran) in the recent Donkey’s Pass 24km Mountain Challenge just outside Newcastle. And to top it all off, he blitzed to second place in the Veteran’s Category of the Central Gauteng Athletics Cross Country Championships held in August in an unofficial time of 26:31.

For this 43-year-old runner, living and eating healthily has become a way of life. “Initially, my friends thought I was obsessive, but once they got to know what I eat and why, they realised there is nothing weird about it.” Amongst his friends and fellow Boksburg runners, Trevor has become known for his somewhat different way of doing things, such as the time earlier this year when he took 18 bags to a Comrades training camp. He made sure he had everything from the wheatgrass to a blender to an ozone therapy machine. He uses this machine from time to time as he feels it improves circulation, relaxes blood vessels and helps to release more oxygen at tissue level. He also packed two kettlebells, a functional movement training tool, weighing 24kg each. “I must admit, it takes me very long to pack. My wife had to transport my bags with a bakkie to the bus we were travelling in. My club mates know me by now. They just laugh and say if I can run a 6:20 Comrades, they don’t care how many bags I take with. Trevor has conquered nine Comrades Marathons and ran a personal best of 6:20:34 this year, earning him his fifth silver medal.

A CHANGE OF LIFE
Trevor has suffered from arthritis since the age of eight. His aunt died from health complications as a result of arthritis and as a teenager Trevor realised that if he wasn’t careful, the same could happen to him. At the age of 21, he became a vegetarian. “It helped me to manage the pain a bit, but it didn’t take the arthritis away.” Trevor started running for Germiston Callies Harriers when he was 31 and within a year, he signed up for his first Comrades (2000). He finished in a time of 9:19. “I thought I was only going to do one. But then everyone said you have to do one up and one down run. And once that happens you just want to do more.” And that’s exactly what he did. He trained hard and longed for a silver medal in his third Comrades in 2002. “Unfortunately, I was overconfident and I went out there just expecting it to happen. I did not respect the race. I landed up running 8:03. I was so disappointed. Something like that really brings you back to earth and gets you off your high horse. It made me respect Comrades, but I was so bitterly disappointed that I took a year off running. I did not do anything and thought I would never run again.” A year later, while watching the Comrades on TV, things changed and the running bug bit again.

“While watching, I realised I should be running there. I got inspired again and slowly started training.” Trevor claimed his silver medal the next year (2004) finishing in 7:25. In 2005, he missed a second silver, finishing in 7:33. That was when he started suspecting something was missing in either his training or diet. “I thought, why am I struggling so much with my running? I realised my training was spot on and I started looking at my diet.” After doing a lot of research on health matters and soya products specifically, he decided to revert back to eating meat as a lot of soya products are genetically modified. He gradually became increasingly interested in all aspects of health and started importing a range of colloidal minerals from the USA. “These minerals contain everything your body needs and because they are in a liquid form, they get absorbed into your bloodstream quickly. I believe it has helped me a lot in terms of energy and endurance.”

Trevor started growing his own wheatgrass and sprouts in his kitchen as well as vegetables in his garden. He finds wheatgrass especially beneficial as it is known for its alkalizing qualities. It also contains a great deal of enzymes that serve as antioxidants. For lunch, Trevor digs into a bowl of sprouts and salad. Dinner time, it’s more sprouts with either grilled fish or chicken. He also eats a South American grain called quinoa, which is tasty and high in protein. He doesn’t eat any potatoes, bread or rice. “Some people walk into my kitchen and comment that it looks like a farm, but I believe living this way basically guarantees you a disease-free life. I know for sure it has helped my running tremendously. I don’t think I am a talented runner. I think my improved ability has a lot to do with my changed diet.” In a restaurant, he usually orders grilled fish. “I don’t like any sauces on my food. Just give me the food the way it was supposed to be, with no additives,” says Trevor.

LIVING LIFE
Yes, he has a life and he does have junk food once in a while! “After the Donkey’s Pass race, we had dinner with friends and I had two glasses of red wine and game. I enjoyed it, but while driving back the next day, I could already feel the effect it had on my body. At home, I went on a bit of a detox and I was fine.” For Trevor, eating healthily has become a lifestyle which he has adapted to and enjoys, especially the benefits he reaps from it. For the last couple of years, he has not suffered from the pain that goes with arthritis. “Of course I get sick, but to me it is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s your body’s way of getting rid of toxins. I just try and dose myself with natural supplements. I have not been to a doctor in thirty years or taken any medication. I don’t want to give away my powers to doctors. I respect them and they serve a valuable purpose, but I feel I can heal my body better the way I know how. I do visit a homeopath from time to time. You can take control of your own health; it’s just a matter of believing it.”

Trevor’s wife, Gaynor, and two sons, Evan (13) and Jody (8), don’t eat the same meals as him. They do have some sprouts and salads, but Gaynor prepares a different meal for her and the boys. “I’m very fortunate that my wife helps me to prepare my food. I have my family’s support and without my wife helping me it would be very difficult to stick to my eating plan. I give my boys some supplements, but it’s up to them to change their eating habits if they want to. Change must come from them and they should not be forced into it,” says Trevor.

TRAINING AND RACES
Trevor mixes up his training with speed work, hills, cross country runs and long distance. In the months building up to Comrades, he runs about 12km some mornings. These runs include two so-called ‘hot spots’, where he runs flat out for 1km and then eases off. Track training on Tuesdays consists of about ten 400m sessions and once a week he does a time trial. Thursdays are reserved for long hilly runs followed by a long club run or race on the weekends. “I do anything between 100km and 120km a week, but in peak training weeks just before Comrades, I run over 200km a week. I usually join my club on a Comrades training camp where we train on the Comrades route. Then I run 40km a day for four days. I love it. It is so inspiring and a great confidence booster.” Trevor includes strength training in his exercise regime and trains mornings and nights with two kettlebells, which he feels have strengthened his legs, upper body and core area.
 
He finds the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon to be a tough race as it usually forms part of his build up to Comrades and he is not very fit at that time. He remembers one particular Two Oceans where he sat at the side of the road feeling as if he was going to die. “I didn’t train well that year and thought I could run on memory. I didn’t bail, which was good. I did bail once in my life and that was at the RAC Tough One.” Trevor ran this Randburg race shortly after his one year lay off from running. “I wasn’t used to the distance and gave up at about 28km. I got into a car and was later devastated that I bailed.” His favourite race is the Rhodes Ultra Marathon, which he has run four times and won twice. “It is a beautiful race. I’m not the sort of guy who will win any road races, but to win a trail run like that was special.”

He has a competitive spirit and loves to give his all. “I always measure myself and say, ‘Well, if you did that, what else could you do?’ In every race and training session I like to run on the edge and push myself.”

GOALS AND DREAMS
Trevor would love to run even faster, but for that to happen, he feels he will have to follow an even stricter diet and train harder. “My dream is to run a sub six hour Comrades, but I’m not getting any younger. It gets harder the older you get. I’m going to run one more Comrades next year. Then I will have done ten. After that I would like to concentrate on Two Oceans.” He believes wholeheartedly in his healthy way of living, but is very cautious of telling other runners what to do. “I would rather live by example and if others see it works for me and they want advice, I am willing to share my story.”

Trevor has one ultimate dream, “To run Comrades at the age of 100. I want to be the oldest finisher of Comrades.”

FAST FACTS

Not being able to run makes me feel… As if something is missing. It’s almost like a drug.
I run because… It helps me in everyday life and in my business. It’s like a form of meditation. While you run you can think about things and let go of a lot of other things.
I like long distance running because… It builds character.
Hardest run ever: Cross country Championships – Witbank
Words to live by: Never give up.
Words of advice: If you work hard, you will achieve. It’s not about wishing for it, it’s about going after it.
Running mentor: Frank Da Ascencao.

The tall, muscular figure running into Durban’s Sahara Kingsmead Stadium almost gets lost amongst all the other shapes and sizes, but there is something about the look on this man’s face and the way he beats his chest that makes you look twice. Sibusiso Buthelezi, a runner from Johannesburg Harriers Athletic Club, is not only finishing his very first Comrades Marathon, he is also proving that determination can make you realise your dreams. Who would have guessed that merely two years ago, this man was 50kg heavier, weighing in at an astounding 143kg? This is the story of one man’s transformation from ‘fat boy’ to Bill Rowan medallist.

NEW BEGINNINGS
It is 3:30 in the morning. Sibu, as he is known to his friends, is suddenly wide awake and lies silently in the dark. That’s when he decides he has had enough of his big body. Today is the day to start running. He gets up and fumbles in the dark to find his shoes. He can’t even remember when last he had them on. Sibu then reaches for his size 48 tracksuit pants and shirt. A couple of minutes later, he breathes the cool morning air, silently welcoming the darkness, knowing that at this hour no one can see his 143kg frame trying to exercise. He knows a 4km route close to his house in the south of Johannesburg and approaches it with a walking/running attitude.

That was 7 August 2007, a day Sibu will never forget because it changed his life forever. “That day, I ran from one lamppost to the next and then I walked from the following lamppost to another. It took me 50 minutes to finish 4km. By the time I got home, I was exhausted and sore, but within me there was a lot of excitement. It was me against the world. I did not want to share my plans with anyone because I have disappointed them too many times before,” says Sibu.

Up until then, he had lived a life of too many cigarettes, beers shared with friends while watching sport on television, eating oversized portions and sometimes even eating two meals for lunch in the canteen at work. Though he was not chubby at school, he was also not the fittest boy in class either. While studying for his BCom Accounting degree, his weight fluctuated constantly and when he started working as Head of Operational Risk at African Bank in 2004, his weight problems reached an all time high.

“I am very outgoing and love spending time with my friends, many of whom I have known since school days. I am always surrounded by people and to me a good time means sitting and chatting with friends. Unfortunately, that is also how it all went wrong. We used to drink a few beers and while drinking you end up eating more and more,” says Sibu.

WEIGHTY MATTERS
Sibu has a big frame and boxed at school and university because his father was a professional boxer. He also tried a bit of weight training, but time and again, he would fall off the wagon and go back to his old ways of no exercise. “I had moments where I was trying to be fit and health conscious. But sometimes I trained so much that when I lost interest, I did so completely. I didn’t even want to drive past a gym because it made me feel guilty. It wasn’t a happy life. My weight was forever fluctuating,” says Sibu.

He started gaining so much weight that he had to buy size 48 pants. “Every time I bought clothes, I had to buy one size bigger. It was horrible. I don’t have to wear a suit to work, but I still like to dress nicely. Unfortunately, my size kept me from doing so. I bought clothes that would fit instead of clothes that I liked. The belt of my pants just made the last hole.” His usual cheerful attitude towards life started changing. “I became nasty and spiteful because I thought the world was unfair towards me.”

Every time he saw his friends, they would comment on his increasing size. Sibu tried to down play it and often joked along. “A lot of my friends said I looked more like a taxi driver than a man who worked in an office. Inside, I felt bad but I tried not to show how much it bothered me. The funny thing was it didn’t make me eat less. The only other time I felt guilty was when I bought clothes.” At work, he struggled to climb two flights of stairs and by the time he reached the top, he was drenched in sweat. But Sibu kept on eating and drinking, anything from pizza to beer. Eating became a habit, it became synonymous with socialising. But after his first run on 7 August 2007, Sibusiso’s life started changing.

CHANGE AND DETERMINATION
He started running every day and also changed his eating habits. “I started taking a lunchbox to work, filled with a sandwich, fruit and salad.” Initially, he did not make any drastic changes as he was scared he would be put off by bland diet food and not stick to his new programme. He slowly introduced dietary changes such as no longer buying snacks at the vending machine, but rather nibbling on fruit and dried fruit. He no longer ate at the work canteen and changed to eating low fat products. “I just made small changes, for instance I still had a bit of mayonnaise on my sandwich, but it was the low fat version.” He cut out red meat and only had chicken once a week. He mainly ate fish and vegetables or stir fry for supper. “By then my wife (Lizzy) realised it was not just another one of my whims and she supported me. She got my running clothes ready in the morning and prepared all my food,” says Sibu, who also added a weight training routine in the evening to his exercise programme.

By September 2007, he was running 8km, though he still started at 3:30 for fear of people seeing him and making fun of him. “I remember the security guards laughing at me when I ran. At work, a lot of people doubted me and said I would never last. In my mind, I created an imaginary book called my humble pie book. Every time someone laughed at me, I would write his name in my humble pie book. The names in that book increased every day,” says Sibu.

Initially, he didn’t weigh himself. “I was so scared because I wasn’t even sure I could maintain it, but I could feel I was losing weight. My belt was now in the third hole.” Only six weeks into his new programme, he worked up enough guts to get on the scale. He still weighed a hefty 136kg, but was 7kg lighter than before.

Sibu kept on running, alternating between 8km and 10km runs. He eventually confided in a friend, Meetash Patel, about his desire to tackle a running race. In November 2007, Sibu, weighing 107kg, and Meetash ran the Soweto 10km in an hour. “It was my first race ever. I enjoyed it so much and just wanted to do more,” says Sibu, who was still not running in proper running shoes. He describes his shoes as a pair of takkies he bought over the counter a couple of years earlier. They were so old, he kept the front parts together with tape.

REAL RUNNER
In February last year, Sibu ran his first 21.1km at the Deloitte Pretoria Half Marathon. “My time was 2:07 and for the first time I was not embarrassed to run. I was a man on a mission.” He completed a couple more half marathons before a friend at gym, Zola Mafeje, convinced him to join Johannesburg Harriers Athletic Club. Sibu’s goal was to run the Soweto Marathon and by the time he ran it in November last year, he had already slimmed down to 97kg. His first marathon was no walk in the park and the words ‘hitting the wall’ soon became a reality. “Things went well up to the 36km mark, but then my body suddenly just came to a stop. I had to walk and even that was too much of an effort. My feet hurt and I had blisters. I eventually finished the race in 4:18. That’s when I realised I also needed proper running shoes.”

By then Sibu’s humble pie book was nearly empty. “People congratulated me on my weight loss. It inspired me because I had the weight of an audience on my shoulders. I did not want to disappoint them.” In February this year, he ran the Dischem Half Marathon in Bedfordview in a time of 1:43. A couple of days later while running in Meyersdal, a suburb south of Johannesburg, he met up with a group of runners who meet every morning at 5:00 at the Virgin Active gym. “They saw me running and said I should join them. The next morning I was there. It was so nice. For the first time, I ran with people who knew different routes. Some of the runners were faster than me, all were more experienced and they talked about running all the time. It changed my life and my running improved so much. Everyone just accepted me. At first we just spoke about running, but later we shared other things too,” says Sibu.

He never really gave Comrades much thought but after a couple of weeks running with his newfound friends, it slowly started becoming a dream. “Every time I ran with my new group, every second sentence had to do with Comrades. That’s when I decided to tackle it.” By then Sibu weighed 92kg, ideal for his frame and height.

He qualified for Comrades in a time of 3:39 at his second 42.2km ever, the Cape Gate Vaal Marathon. Shortly afterwards, he ran his first ultra marathon, Om die Dam, which he describes as a learning curve. The race made him realise he is an impatient runner who starts fast but fades in the latter part of the race. “After Om die Dam, I ran the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon and also had to negotiate the last few kilometres. I thought that was the way it was going to be at Comrades; run faster in the first half and negotiate the second half. I had a finishing time in my mind but never said it out loud. My goal was to finish in the single digits. 9:59:59 would have been perfect!”

A LIFE CHANGING DAY
He felt prepared, but also very nervous on Comrades day. “People always say you feel emotional after Comrades, but for me it was the other way around. I was very emotional at the start. There were so many people around me, but I felt so lonely. I looked left and right and it seemed as if everyone around me knew exactly what they were doing, except me. I was scared I would not finish and disappoint myself as well as my family and friends who were there to support me,” says Sibu.

He saw the sub-nine hour bus at the start and decided he just needed to stay ahead of it. At the 30km mark he joined a smaller group of runners and did everything they did. “I had no idea what I was doing so I thought I might as well join them. I was like a student. When they walked, I walked and when they ran I ran.” Just after the halfway mark, the sub-nine hour bus passed them and Sibu decided to take a chance and join them. “There are so many things about Comrades that I don’t even remember because I was too emotionally involved in that race.”

At about the 70km mark, Sibu’s energy was low and he started thinking of falling back, but at that moment he heard someone screaming his name. It was his wife and two boys, Njabulo (6) and Vukani (3), joined by friends cheering him on. “No one will ever know how much energy that gave me. I didn’t pull back and hung on to the bus.”

Shortly afterwards, he ran past a feeding station with speakers announcing the tenth lady, Kashmira Parbhoo, had just made her way into the stadium. Kashmira is one of Sibu’s running friends, with whom he trains in the mornings. “When I heard Kashmira’s name, I thought, it looks like this is our day! And as we started getting closer to the stadium, I realised that a sub-nine hour was on the cards for me. It was the most amazing feeling. When I ran into the stadium, I saw my family and I beat my chest for my boys. That day was so emotional not only because I finished the race, but because I realised I had come a long way. For the first time, I saw myself as a runner.”

OVERCOMING HARD TIMES
When one speaks to Sibu’s friends you quickly realise how much he is loved and respected, not only for his sheer determination to lose so much weight, but also because of the many hardships he has endured in life.

At the age of 4, he was kidnapped in Soweto where he grew up, but as his kidnappers fled with him in their car, they were involved in a car accident and Sibu was rescued. In later life, he was involved in a serious car accident and landed in hospital with a blood clot in his brain. He could not read, write and had no feeling in his arm and one part of his face. “Doctors thought it could also be a brain tumour that I had before the accident. They wanted to operate, but I refused and started seeing a homeopath. A couple of months later it was gone,” says Sibu.

LOOKING AHEAD 
He believes running has brought him closer to his family. “In the past, I would get home late and not see my kids before they went to bed. Now I can account for my time and I make sure I spend quality time with them. My family also comes with me to races. Races have become a family outing for us. We wake the kids and they dress up. On the way to the race, my wife plays my favourite music by Tracy Chapman. My family is proud of me and my eldest boy has also started running a little bit now.”

Sibu could never go back to his old ways. He looks forward to his morning runs and enjoys his healthy way of living. He is inspired by people from his running group, especially Cindy Beeming and her husband, Arthur, with whom he has a special bond. “They are just such inspiring people with an amazing ability to make everyone around them happy and feel good about themselves,” says Sibu.

He loves running because it is an undiscriminating sport. “All shapes and sizes run. There is no such a thing as this one has a R10 000 bike and that one has a R3 000 bike. Runners are all equal in those long kilometres on the road. It’s just you, your running shoes and your fellow runners around you.”

Sibu would like to run many more Comrades and one day maybe even compete in an Iron Man. “God has given me a lot of chances in life. I have learnt how to live my life in the right way. This is one chance I am not going to mess up.”

Few of us ever reach the age of 100. In fact, most folks can’t even imagine making it to 90, and if they do, the last thing on their minds would be exercise. The next time you feel old and ready to hang up your sweat towel, you may want to consider a 99-year-old Australian great-grandmother called Ruth Frith, the oldest competitor in the upcoming Sydney 2009 World Masters Games.

Ruth trains six times a week and believes that everybody has to try their best. To this golden girl, it’s not about winning events, but about being brave enough to enter and compete, no matter what your age. This is the inspirational story of a granny to whom age is just a number. Modern Athlete spoke to Ruth, hoping to learn some of her secrets to staying healthy and young at heart.

She was always on the sidelines of the athletics field, a proud mother watching and encouraging her daughter to compete. While watching, athletes she had known for many years would dump their sport bags at her side, and she would be the designated guard, keeping an eye on the bags while they competed. Until one day. Ruth, then 74, had had enough. “If they can do it, I can too,” she told herself. That was in 1983, the start of Ruth’s long and glorious athletics career. Today she is the holder of five world records in the women’s 95-99 age category, that is, in the discus throw (9.85m), hammer throw (11.37m), shot put (4.72m), weight throw (5.11m) and weight pentathlon (5 544 points).

This Brisbane great-grandmother, who will turn 100 on 23 August, represents the Gold Coast Masters Athletics Club in competitions all over Australia. She has become the first centenarian to sign up for the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games, the world’s largest multi-sport event. This event is open to sportspeople of all abilities and most ages; anyone can compete as long as they satisfy their sports’ minimum age, which ranges between 25 and 35. The Games, held between 10 and 18 October, will see 25 000 people from more than 100 countries compete in 28 sports at more than 70 venues throughout Sydney, including many Olympic sites.

Ruth, who has been competing in Masters Athletics for 25 years, says she couldn’t wait to sign up for the Games. Turning 100 soon is no big deal to this proud grandmother of six grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and two great, great-grandchildren. “To me, birthdays are all the same. I have never looked at it thinking that I’m getting old. It’s just another year gone by.” She is certainly not like any centenarian we could have imagined. Her voice is clear and her sense of humour is as sharp as that of a 30-year-old. She enjoys telling how she was charmed by South Africa on her visits in 1992 and 1997, and how much she loves the country.

She has outlived her husband, Raymond, who made it to the ripe old age of 97. The couple lived in Sydney, but when Raymond passed away after kidney failure, Ruth moved to Brisbane to live with her daughter and coach, Helen Searle. Her mother’s love of sport must be genetic, because 68-year-old Helen is also a world record-breaking athlete. She competed at the 1960 Rome Olympics and in 1964 in Tokyo. She won a bronze medal in high jump at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and a silver in high jump and long jump at the same Games held in 1962 in Perth. Mom and daughter will both compete at the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games.

Ruth, an athletics official at the shot put and discus events from 1960 to 2001, says that everyone is born with a gift of some sort. Her father was a good runner and she believes his gift was passed on to her. As a 10-year-old girl, she ran everywhere. She has participated in some sort of exercise throughout her life. She wanted to be a doctor, but unfortunately mathematics at school wasn’t her strongest subject. She eventually worked in admin in a solicitor’s office until she got married.

“I don’t think I have secrets to staying young. I am just blessed with good health. I don’t believe in diets and all that nonsense, because if you exercise, you don’t need to diet. Surprisingly, I don’t eat vegetables and potatoes, but I do like fruit.” She says she has a sweet tooth, but gets tired of all the chocolates she receives. “People don’t know what to give a 99-year-old, so I always end up with chocolates. I got nine boxes of chocolates last Christmas. I didn’t know what to do with them. My favourite treat is sponge cake with plenty of cream.” She loves cooking and gardening, but finds it difficult because her eyes are degenerating, leaving her half blind. When she competes, it’s in a category for athletes who can see a metre away. This has not kept her from giving it her all. “You put up with what you have. I have lived 99 years with red hair and freckles, and if you can do that, you can live with anything.”

Ruth trains six times a week. On three of those days, she will train 90 minutes per day in shot put, hammer throw and the other events she competes in. On the other three days, she starts off her training by cycling on a stationary bike for ten minutes and then does light weights in her sunroom.

Ruth’s life motto is to stay true to herself. She believes if you can’t do that, you can’t be true to anybody else. She loves athletics and wherever she goes, she motivates people to go out there and try. “Just the other day, I said to a lot of elderly people that even if you have grey hair and creaky knees, it shouldn’t stop you from exercising. Nobody is expecting you to be an Olympian, just do your best. I know for certain even if you are beaten, the sun will rise the next day. There is no disgrace in being second.” Ruth competes in tracksuit pants or shorts and wears her club vest proudly. But there was a time when she didn’t like wearing shorts. “Women didn’t even wear slacks in those days and most officials were men, so to go out there in a pair of shorts was like not wearing clothes at all.”

“I love training. I have always said that the day I don’t want to train, will be the day I give it up. I will be lost without sport in my life. If it gets taken away from me, it will be like taking my life away.” She’s looking forward to the Games, especially her favourite event which is hammer throw. One thing is certain: Ruth Frith is guaranteed to break records. “Whatever I do at the age of 100 will be a record. My goal is just to go out there and do the best I can.”

Extra sources: www.2009worldmasters.com

Name any South African city, Pretoria, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, and many of us can claim to have finished numerous races there, received another medal and added the umpteenth t-shirt to our already overflowing collection. Been there done that, we sometimes boast. One thing not many of us can say is that we have run seven marathons on seven continents, experienced penguins sitting on our laps and allowed a big burly Russian to scrub our shoes on board a boat in the Antarctica. Modern Athlete spoke to Dimitri Kavallineas about his Seven Continents journey – and starting it all over again.

STARTING OUT
It started out with holidays in faraway places and ended in the southernmost part of the world. As a runner with ten Comrades and 12 Two Oceans Marathons under his belt, Dimitri and his long time buddy, Charles Stewart, are always looking for a race to run while on holiday. They happily refer to themselves as ‘running tourists’.

After finishing the Boston Marathon in North America, the Athens Classic Marathon in Europe and the Buenos Aires Marathon in South America, Dimitri, a self-confessed running addict, realised a marathon on each continent was within his reach, and that one day, he could belong to the elite Seven Continents Club. And so the pilgrimage started. Dimitri and Charles were off to Australia in 2006 to run the Sydney Marathon, followed by the Beijing International Marathon in Asia the following year. Six continents (including their African mother continent) had been conquered and they had just one left to complete the set.

MARATHON MEMORIES
Each marathon holds a special place in Dimitri and Charles’ hearts. It was the different stadiums and the historic routes that especially stood out. The Athens Classic Marathon finished in a stadium with marble seating, built in 1896 for the first Modern Olympics, while the Beijing Marathon finished in the same stadium where the Olympic Games were held last year. As two seasoned Comrades runners, they sometimes got less than what they bargained for, but sometimes they got a whole lot more.

Dimitri was especially surprised when he ran up the so-called ‘Heartbreak Hill’ in the Boston Marathon, without even realising it. When he saw his supporters next to the road, they immediately asked how he felt going up the much talked about hill. “What hill?” Dimitri asked. “We are so used to hills coming from Pretoria, that this route was as flat as a pancake. It was a great marathon, but there were too many people (about 35 000). It took us nearly 13 minutes to cross the start,” Dimitri says.

It was a whole different story at the Athens Classic Marathon, much to Dimitri’s dismay. He looked at the profile of the race on the internet and interpreted it wrongly, expecting a few hills in the first 10km, followed by a flattish latter part of the race. “We started running and we just kept on climbing. The downhills never came. I had to wait for 32km before seeing a downhill!” Their marathon journey took them to some famous landmarks. They ran over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and finished at the Sydney Opera House. In Beijing, the two comrades ran the same route as the Olympic Marathon last year. But it was the big mama of marathons that still lay ahead; the Antarctica Marathon, often referred to as the Last Marathon, because it is the last place on Earth one would think to hold a long distance race.

THE END OF THE EARTH
Antarctica is bigger than Europe and twelve times as big as South Africa. It’s colder than anywhere else on Earth. It is no wonder that the Antarctica Marathon is seen as one of the most extreme marathons in the world. This was a challenge Dimitri and Charles were fired up to take on. The waiting list for entries is about two years. Dimitri and a group of friends, including Tom Cottrell, author and publisher, had to plan things meticulously. They flew to Buenos Aires and took a flight to Ushuaia in the south of Argentina. From Ushuaia – 3 900km from the South Pole – they took a boat to Antarctica, a trip that took about six days. “There were two boats filled with runners and their companions. The organisers decided to split the group of South Africans, because the year before, the South Africans apparently drank the bar dry before they got to the Antarctica,” says Dimitri.

The Last Marathon is certainly no ordinary marathon and you won’t find big numbers on this desolate piece of land. Competitors in the half marathon and female competitors started a few minutes earlier than the men. This was done to minimise the race’s ecological impact on the pristine conditions in this remote part of the world.

The race, with a combined field of no more than about 200 runners, started at the Bellingshausen Station, a Russian scientific research station on King George Island, which is part of the South Shetland Island group. Dimitri and Charles, as always, started together. Though they were kitted out in hi-tech thermal running gear, there was clearly a difference between the South Africans and other international runners, Dimitri says. “We pitched up with our normal running shoes while the North Americans pulled out their yak tracks – a harness with little spikes you pull over your running shoes to stop you from slipping on ice and snow. They were clearly better prepared than us.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t as cold at the start as they expected. At 9am it was just below zero degrees, feeling like a very cold Johannesburg morning. The route was marked out in a figure of eight, over an unforgiving terrain of glaciers and muddy snowy hills. Runners had to follow flags along the way and carry their own hydration packs as there were no manned water tables. Unlike South African road races, in which you see runners pulling in behind bushes for a much needed stop, competitors weren’t allowed to stop anywhere for a loo break. They had to go into one of the stations to use the toilet.

DETERMINATION
Charles, who has run nine Comrades, slipped about 6km into the race and hit his head. A doctor on the route had a look at him and diagnosed him with a concussion. He was a bit confused, but he would be fine. “The waiting list for this race is two years. It’s not like normal races where you can go back the next weekend and do another one. We decided to push through,” says Dimitri, but both men knew a battle lay ahead. It was already hard enough dealing with the terrain. Dimitri compares running on that terrain to running on an ice cube. Not an easy thing to expect from anyone, let alone a man with a concussion. Dimitri kept on asking his Phobians-running mate if he was okay, refusing to leave him behind. The course was marked out in miles and Charles, totally dazed, kept asking Dimitri where they were. “He couldn’t remember a single thing and I had to repeat everything. I must admit, it took my mind off things.”
 
As the day progressed, an icy wind and sleet set in, but the two men pushed through. They crossed the finish line in 6:39 and accomplished their goal; they were now members of the Seven Continents Club. Not that Charles had any recollection of what he had just achieved. “The next morning Charles was his old self. We joked and said he will have to go back and run it again because he can’t remember the race,” says Dimitri.

EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME
Dimitri describes Antarctica as a desolate place of incredible and strange beauty. “It’s an amazing continent. It feels as if you are on a different planet.” The men stayed for another couple of days, swimming in the icy Antarctic and getting to know the penguins on the different islands a bit better. “We were not allowed to approach the penguins, but if you sit still for long enough, they will approach you and even sit in your lap. It was such an experience.” Every time the men got back onto the boat, they had to put their feet in a trough with antiseptic water. “A big burly Russian grabs your legs and scrubs your shoes to make sure no one brings any germs onto the boat.”

NO STOPPING
For some it might be a once in a lifetime experience, but for 56-year-old Dimitri, the owner of a chain of pizza take-out restaurants, it’s only the start. He plans to run another seven marathons on seven continents. He has already completed a couple of South African marathons. He has run the Lake Tahoe Marathon in North America and will do the Toronto Marathon in Canada in October. “I would like to run some marathons in Nepal or Mongolia as well as in New Zealand.” He plans to be back in Antarctica by 2011, not a bad track record for a man who only started running at the age of 44 after giving up smoking. “The same day I stopped smoking, I started running, mainly because I did not want to gain weight. My first run was horrible, but I persevered and look at me today, I’m still running.”

Running has taught him determination and discipline in all aspects of life. He hardly skips his morning training runs with a group of friends, Elayne Ossip, Josene Groenewald, Linda Potgieter and Dawn Saunders. They run for an hour, increasing distance as they build up to marathons. Dimitri also has his heart set on completing the gruelling Iron Man next year, a race that’s anything but a walk in the park. But if he can finish 42.2km in the coldest, harshest and most remote part of the world, he can do anything.

The Addo Elephant Trail Run just outside Port Elizabeth is a gruelling 100, 50 and 25 mile race run through some of the toughest terrain in off-road running. It’s a race designed to test runners both physically and mentally. A young runner named Hylton Dunn has just conquered the Addo, winning the 50 miler (80km) in a time of 7:53. But running wasn’t always part of Hylton’s life. There was a time when drugs were his only high. Looking at a clean cut and healthy Hylton today, it’s hard to believe this is a man who once slept on the streets, spent time behind bars and stole to feed his addiction.

HYLTON THE ADDICT
It was a time when nothing mattered to him. The only thing on his mind was his next fix, the feeling of euphoria that would make it all go away – the pain, the feeling of emptiness and the burden of life’s responsibilities. Hylton Dunn, a once promising sportsman, was a man possessed by drugs. And it all started so innocently.

Hylton never had any shortcomings growing up in the Dunn family home in Springs on the East Rand. He only knew the best private schools. He went to a good university and had the love of a churchgoing family who adored him. As a schoolboy, he excelled academically and his passion for sports earned him his Free State colours in squash. His father, Grenvil, a chemical engineer and his mother, Jennifer, a stay-at-home mom raised Hylton (29), the second of three boys and his siblings with an abundance of love. Life for Hylton could not have been more perfect. Or so it seemed.

Like most teenagers, Hylton caved in to peer pressure, joining his friends smoking cigarettes behind the pavilion of St. Andrew’s School in Bloemfontein. The ‘wildest’ thing he ever did was having a few drinks too many after the Matric exams. Slowly, Hylton was pulled into a vicious circle of drugs that brought darkness into his life. Friends introduced him to dagga, and by the beginning of his first year as a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT), he was hooked. Dagga became his regular companion. “I started losing interest in my studies and in life. Looking back today, I think it was induced by dagga. It made me feel lazy and lethargic for most parts of the day,” Hylton says.

As a 19-year-old student living in a flat close to UCT, he met a neighbour who introduced him to heroin. Soon, words like ‘scoring some H’ became all too familiar to this private-schooled, once promising young man. He would follow friends into Observatory in Cape Town, where they would snort or smoke heroin. He even started using mandrax, sometimes mixing it with dagga.

Drugs ruled Hylton’s life for nearly five years. “I would use drugs everyday and everywhere, sometimes in between classes and sometimes even in the toilets of shopping malls. That’s all I wanted to do,” says Hylton. Nothing mattered to him, not the way he looked, not the way he dressed and not the people who were close to him, the people he was hurting. After his brother, Kevin, walked in on him and a friend high on drugs, the Dunn family learned the awful truth of their son’s abuse. By the middle of his second year, Hylton decided to save himself the embarrassment of failing, and dropped out of varsity.

His father, who owned his own chemical engineering company, offered him a job in 1999 and he stayed in a cottage at his parents’ home. It was a period of lies, deceit and manipulation. Hylton would regularly take the train from Springs to Pretoria, where he met up with drug dealers. By then, he was so used to mandrax that he barely felt its effects and he moved on to cocaine. “Sometimes, I went to Pretoria twice a day, just to get more drugs. It was a mad lifestyle. I didn’t care about anything. All I wanted was to be high and forget about life.” There were torturous days when he couldn’t get hold of heroin. On these days, he couldn’t sleep or think properly, he felt weak and suffered from body cramps.

Hylton’s entire salary was wasted on drugs. On a quiet day, he would spend no less than R500 and on other days up to R2 000. “I kept missing work and my dad eventually threw me out of the house a couple of times.” He would sleep on the streets, in public toilets or in the flats of drug dealers and pimps. He started stealing from his parents, who had to change the locks on their doors. His dad eventually laid a theft charge against him in a desperate attempt to teach his son a lesson and Hylton spent a couple of days in jail. He got out but was soon back on his path of self destruction. His parents kept on taking him back, hoping their son would turn his life around. “I would promise not to do it again, but I knew I would. I lived for drugs.”

His drug abuse eventually culminated in his arrest in 2001. He would make his way into a block of offices pretending to look for work, but would steal everything he could, from cell phones to money. He got away with it a few times, but was eventually caught and landed up in jail. He got out on a condition – he had to undergo rehabilitation at the Noupoort Christian Rehabilitation Centre in the Northern Cape. Hylton agreed, but knew deep down that he wasn’t finished with drugs. He stayed at Noupoort for eleven months and although he didn’t touch drugs, he longed for them. His relapse came in December 2002, when he went on holiday. Hylton thought he could handle a few drinks over the festive season, but one thing lead to another. By February 2003, he was back on drugs, stealing and sleeping on the streets. Eventually, he was caught stealing a second time. Hylton was back in jail.

“I remember sitting in that prison cell just looking at the four walls and the bars. It was dirty and overcrowded and I was amongst criminals, being attacked and enduring threats of rape. That was a wake up call for me. I realised if I didn’t change my lifestyle, that was how it was going to end for me; locked up in a prison cell, on the streets or even dead.”

Hylton agreed to go back to Noupoort in February 2003, this time determined to change his life forever. One of the driving forces behind this decision was his love for running, an earlier passion that had faded as the drugs began to control his life. He knew he had the ability to run well, but realised if he wanted to make that dream happen, it would have to be without drugs and cigarettes.

HYLTON THE RUNNER
Hylton has always been passionate about sport. He enjoyed running at school and as a 17-year-old, completed the Two Oceans Half Marathon in a time of 1:32. He also excelled at squash, something that fell by the wayside in his first year as the drugs took hold of him. During his first stay at Noupoort, he started running to get fit, remembering how good it made him feel in earlier years. At first, he wasn’t allowed to run alone and had to run with a staff member. “I remember my first run. It was going to be 6km, but after 2km I packed up and couldn’t run one single step further. I had to walk back. I realised then how damaged my body was from the drugs. That was the drive for me to keep going. I wanted to feel good.”

Getting fit was a slow process, but Hylton managed to run every day and completed his first marathon in May 2002. He ran with his dad, who has conquered the Comrades Marathon 17 times. Father and son finished the marathon in a time of 3:45. Hylton was so inspired, he started training for the Laingsburg Karoo Ultra Marathon in September of that year. He completed this 80km race in a time of 7:30, but not without some strong emotions. “I broke down around the 50km mark, thinking of what I was accomplishing after all the abuse I had put my body through.”

Unfortunately, Hylton relapsed three months later and was sent back to Noupoort. Only then did he truly commit to a clean life, in which running was to play a major role. On the undulating terrain surrounding Noupoort, Hylton found solitude and peace within himself. He rediscovered his passion for running and in 2004, completed his first Two Oceans Marathon in a time of 4:19 and his first Comrades Marathon in a time of 8:14. He became so hooked on distance running, he tackled the Addo Elephant 50 miler in 2005. It is run mostly on tracks within the Addo Elephant National Park and is known for its incredible scenic beauty, but also for its unforgiving terrain. “It was a beautiful race, but I didn’t expect it to be so intense. I finished in about 13 hours and was cursing out of anger for not being fit enough.”

Hylton went on to do a second Comrades in 2005, finishing in a time of 10:10, a run he describes as ‘a bit of a disaster’. His fighting spirit kept him going and he persevered. In 2006, he just missed a silver Comrades medal, finishing in a time of 7:38. “I was going up Polly’s and I remember the guys saying I shouldn’t walk, but I did. I missed my silver, but that just gave me stronger motivation and ambition to carry on.” That was Hylton’s last Comrades, as he is against the race being run on a Sunday, but he has put his heart and soul into other long distance runs.

He completed his second Addo in 2006, taking fourth place in a time of 9:30. In 2007, the route was changed and Hylton secured another fourth position in a time of 7:22. This year, the race, which was held on 2 May, was changed back to the original route. In the 50 miler race, 74 competitors entered, three did not start and eight withdrew. In the 100 miler race, 21 competitors started, 12 finished and the rest withdrew. The 25 miler had 48 competitors completing the race. “I set out to win and I believed in myself,” says Hylton. It was only after the 50km mark that he overtook fellow competitors Chris Antonie and Michael Hendricks, both previous winners. “When I passed them, I still felt good and said to them, ‘keep on going, you are going to do a good time.”’ Hylton reached the finish line in a time of 7:53, a course record. “When I crossed the line, I expected to feel emotional, but I was too tired and sore to think of anything.” Michael finished second in 9:13 and Chris took third in 9:53.

Sadly, Hylton is not the only athlete caught in the web of drug use. These five famous drug busts have been burned into the memory of sports enthusiasts.

Name                     Sport designation         Drug used             Date caught

Jennifer Capriati       Tennis player                  Marijuana               1993
Tim Montgomery     Olympic sprinter             Heroin                    2000
Wendell Sailor         Waratahs rugby player    Cocaine                  2006
Tom Booner            Cyclist                            Cocaine                  2008
Michael Phelps        Olympic swimmer           Marijuana                2008

THE WAY FORWARD
Hylton believes running and his faith are what keep him going and free of drugs. “I’m doing it not only for myself, but also to show others there is a way out.” His biggest regrets are making the wrong choices, not finishing his varsity degree and not being the perfect son. However, he is not embarrassed about his past. He prefers to be open about it, hoping that other people can learn from it.

Hylton has set his eye on the Karoo Ultra Marathon in September and would love to win it. When he trains for big races, he does between 160km and 200km a week, including speed work and hill training. After big races,
he cuts down to 10km a day. The highlight of his day includes his two runs, one in the morning and one at night. Hylton, now a restaurant and kitchen manager at Noupoort, says it’s running that ultimately brings him happiness. “If I miss a run, I start feeling grumpy, as if I have missed out on something.”

His parents have been his greatest supporters and through running, he knows he makes his family proud. “The level at which I am competing now is enough to realise that with one small slip, all will be lost.” He sums up his outlook on life: “I have realised that nothing is impossible. Running keeps me motivated, confident and focused. Today, I am stronger because of my past.”

Filipe Da Lomba, Fil to his friends, is a 32-year-old planning analyst at Anglo Platinum, with a degree in accounting from Johannesburg University. All of Fil’s friends say that he is not the man he once was, physically that is. Fil now looks half the size he used to. He recently lost 21kg, which he attributes directly to his running goals for 2009. He is a great character and his success is an inspiration to many. Modern Athlete had the privilege of chatting to Fil to gain some insight into how big his dreams were and how he managed to achieve them.

How long have you been running?
I have been running on and off since 2003, but never took it very seriously. I ran the Two Oceans in 2003, 2004 and 2005 but then went into hibernation until September last year.

How much did you weigh when you came back to running and how much do you weigh now?
The day I started in September 2008, I weighed 89kg, not a pretty sight for someone who is only 1.64m tall. When I lined up at Comrades this year, I weighed 68kg. I lost a total of 21kg.

What inspired you to change your life this way?
After running the Two Oceans in 2005, I promised myself that I would only run again if I lost weight and was in good shape. In 2008, I went down to Two Oceans as a spectator and saw all my mates run, which made me realise how much I missed running. So, I decided I wanted to do it again, but I knew I had to lose the weight. To be honest, I think I was also tired of my lifestyle, so when the club started training in September, I joined them and took action.

How did you do it?
I started running five to six days a week at the running club. I made a conscious effort to run in a school that was at a level higher than I had previously run. I knew that if I merely plodded along at a comfortable pace, I was not going to achieve much. It was pretty tough going at the beginning and I was the last man home on many occasions, but by being consistent and not missing runs, I quickly improved and was able to run with the school. I also set myself an ultimate goal weight and target weights that I wanted to achieve at the start of each race in the build up to Comrades.

How long did it take you to reach your goal weight?
It took around eight months to reach my goal of 68kg.

Did you use a dietician?
No, but I did attend a talk in which one of the speakers, Cara Humphreys, made a lot of sense to me and confirmed that I was on the right track in terms of not going on any crazy diets. She was adamant that the body needs all food groups to be healthy and to perform at its best.

What were the key changes to your eating habits?
The change to my eating habits was not in what I ate but in how much I ate. I looked at what I ate and at what other people ate and what became very apparent was that most of us don’t eat that badly. It’s not like I was having a hamburger every day. What I was doing was eating too much. My portion sizes were far too big. I changed this by trying to have a carb and protein at every meal, while remaining conscious of the amount I ate. Today, a smaller portion has become the norm. Next time you go to a restaurant, look at what they serve you and ask yourself, do I really need to eat all of that? We live in a world of excess; everything needs to be bigger, faster. Food has followed the exact same trend and many of us just consume what is put in front of us without even thinking.

I have become passionate about correct eating habits. I don’t believe in diets where you eat this and don’t eat that (such as the no-carb diet). You cannot sustain a diet like that forever and once you stop, the weight comes back.

What were the key changes in your training habits?
I added in some quality workouts i.e. speed sessions and hill work. I am now a firm believer that in order to improve, these workouts are crucial and that you have to take yourself outside your comfort zone. Plodding along at a comfortable pace is not going to make you faster.

Did you do any training other than running?
I did some gym work but nothing too crazy.

How did you stay motivated?
I trained with a bunch of really great people. When I woke up in the morning, I wanted to get out of bed. The school I ran with also had a weigh-in every Saturday morning after our run. It’s amazing how this motivated me. I did not want to weigh in heavier than the week before in front of everyone. Having a goal weight for each race leading up to Comrades also helped a lot. It split this ultimate goal, which at first seemed impossible, into manageable chunks. When I achieved one of the smaller goals, it gave me the confidence and drive to go after the next one.

We hear you had a bet for Two Oceans. How did that start?
I was at a birthday party and, since a lot of my friends are runners, the conversation turned to running. Andrew, a mate of mine, said there was no way I would break six hours for Two Oceans. My reply was, “You’re right. I’m going to break 5:30.” Since my previous best had been 6:47, he could not resist taking the bet.

It was one of the things that motivated me during my training. It was about proving that I could do something that others thought I could not do. I won the bet in a time of 5:19. I have pictures of me collecting on my bet, but I did not have the money for long as I had to buy everyone dinner that night.

What portion of your improvement would you contribute to your weight loss?
Probably 60% to 70%. I look back and think, how did I ever run 56km at that weight?

Your time improvements in all distances are incredible. You must be very proud of these achievements.
What I am most proud of is not the times, but the fact that I stuck it out all the way to the end. It is so easy to be lazy, but like most things in life, the more you get the more you want. Take Comrades for example. I was disappointed with my time, definitely something I intend working on and putting right, but if I look back, I would have gladly taken that time six months ago. The funny thing is that people say to me, “It must have been so hard.” It was, but the only thing I remember is how much fun and how satisfying it was. I think that a lot of that has to do with the people I ran with.

What is the experience like running ‘higher up’ in the pack during races?
The first thing is your mindset. It’s totally different. You go from trying to survive to chasing certain splits so you concentrate a lot harder. As far as physical exertion goes, it’s by choice that you push. Your body is tired, but you have to keep going. Whether you call it adrenalin or endorphins, there is a special feeling you get when you run fast. It’s like going from point A to point B in a VW and a Ferrari. Both get you there, but the smile on your face when you get out of the Ferrari is a lot bigger.

How has being a fitter, leaner Fil Da Lomba affected your career and your social life?
I have quite a lot more energy these days. I find that when I go into the office after a run in the morning, I feel invigorated and ready to tackle the day ahead, whereas before, I would spend the first hour just trying to wake up and get going. It has also given me the confidence to tackle new things. I now know that if I apply myself and do the work, there is very little that is impossible.

Socially, I definitely have more confidence and am less self-conscious. When you have this extra weight, you tell yourself it’s not an issue but deep down I think you know it is. When you meet someone and they give you a compliment about your new, leaner physique, it makes you feel good and you become more confident.

How do you intend maintaining your weight going forward?
I’ll keep running and exercising, while sticking to my new eating habits. I would like to do an Iron Man triathlon in the next few years. Someone put it quite nicely to me a few months ago: for 31 years your body looked after you; now it’s time to look after your body.

What’s your next goal?
To try and qualify for the Boston Marathon. Whilst Boston may not be as well-known as London or New York, it is a very special marathon in that it has been going for over 100 years and has a very tough qualifying standard. Every person who is at the starting line is a pretty serious runner and needs to do some serious work. You won’t find anyone running in fancy dress at this marathon. In order to qualify for my age group, I need to run a 3:10 marathon. This is an opportunity for me to push myself beyond what I’m doing now, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Fil closes off with a fantastic message for our readers.
William Ross Wallace said, “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” Next time someone tells you that runners are crazy, and asks you why you would want to run, just remember you are doing something that very few others have the ability or the discipline to do. You are really living.

 

When you mention ’74-years-old’, most people would either think you were referring to a collectable antique or to somebody currently residing in a retirement home. Caspar Greeff has defied all the odds. At 74 years of age, he is still very much a regular on the running circuit.

Born in Cape Town in 1935, Caspar spent most of his weekends rambling around the mountains to keep fit until he was transferred to Johannesburg in 1966. To his disappointment, Jo’burg had more mine dumps than mountains and the affiliated clubs were more interested in actual mountain climbing than leisurely walks.

He realised he would have to find a new way to exercise and since road-walking had become very popular at that time, he thought he would give it a try, getting his family involved at the same time. “My family and I participated and enjoyed the walks, although we were not very good. I took part in a few 50km walks, which I enjoyed. In 1969, once he had mastered the 50km walks, he thought he would push himself a little further and try the Comrades. “I ran my first road race that year which was the 56km Korkie. My second race was the Comrades. Those days, there was no qualifying race necessary.”

To put Caspar’s humble quote into perspective, one would have to understand the jump that Caspar made. He went from enjoying long walks to running his first Comrades at the age of 34, with no previous training, and finished in a time of 07:38:25. He went on to run nine silvers in a row between 1969 and 1978. He obviously had some hidden natural talent!

One of the athletes who made a huge impression on Caspar in his early days was Fritz Madel, who won five Comrades golds between 1959 and 1966 and won the London to Brighton marathon. Fritz believed that to run ultra-marathons, you needed to train over exceptionally long distances. “His methods worked for me and for the bunch of running friends with whom I trained. We all trained over long distances and most of us got silver medals in the Comrades.”

Caspar went on to run 18 silver medals at Comrades, his last being in 1995 at the ripe age of 60! His PB is 06:38 and he had a best overall position of 50th in 1976. He has now run 36 Comrades Marathons, including this year’s race, which he finished in 11:47 at the age of 74.

For those of you who have run Comrades, you will be able to appreciate the times that Caspar has achieved over the last 15 years. This is a great example of the leveller this great sport of ours is. You are on the road, with both young and old, rich and poor, and only you can define the results you achieve. 

Mr Greeff has an impressive resum? for a man who only began his running career in his mid-30s. “I have lost count of the number of standard marathons that I have completed, but it is probably well over 200, with a best time of 2:38.” His ultra-marathon list includes, amongst others, 36 Comrades, 11 Karoo Marathons (80km), three 100-milers, two 100km races, two London to Brighton Marathons (90km), six Settlers Marathons (64km), 17 Korkie Marathons (56km) and two Rhodes Marathons (52km). He also has a green number in both the City to City (50km) and Bergville Marathons (52km) and has completed 24 Two Oceans Marathons. Caspar also had the opportunity to run a race in Perth, Australia. He ran a 64km ultra and made a discovery about the quality of ultra races on an international level. “I arrived at the race to be told that there were no seconding tables. The organisers arranged for me to be helped by someone else’s seconds, so I could finish the race. I realised then how lucky we are to have such well-organised races in South Africa.”

It is at the Two Oceans Marathon that Caspar Greeff’s results really stand out. He ran silver in his debut marathon in 1976 and ended with a total of four silvers, with a PB of 03:46:37. The impressive part about Caspar’s achievements at Two Oceans is that he has won his age category three times in three different decades: 1985 as a Master, at the age of 50, in 3:57:13; 1997 as a Grand Master, at the age of 62, in 4:25:08; and in 2005 as a Great Grand Master, at the age of 70, in 4:58:44

With so many miles on the road, Caspar has a lot of fond memories. He tells a unique story about running in Hush Puppies, not your typical running brand. “I have run about six Beaufort West ultras. One year when I arrived in Beaufort West, I discovered that I had left my running shoes in Johannesburg. I ran the race in my Hush Puppies, which fortunately had level soles, and finished in a time that was not much slower than my previous year’s time.”

Caspar’s daughter, Michele Murry, said of him: “I am grateful for the time I have spent running with him, as we have shared many special moments together. He has always made running seem so easy.”

Caspar is one of the three founding members of RAC. He was a professor of actuarial science and an actuary.

Caspar Greeff is a true vintage model. He is an inspiration to all runners and living proof that the sport can keep you healthy and fit, well into your twilight years. We’re inspired by his incredible story and we wish Caspar many more years of enjoyment on the road.

Coma2Comrades is the incredible story of an athlete who, in the prime of his life, went out for a routine morning training run on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March 2006. His life would never be the same again. From that day onwards, it would be thrown into turmoil and turned completely upside down.

This is the Wayne Korras Story.
Wayne was born in Kensington in 1963, the second of four boys. He attended Dale College and was always a keen, all-round sportsman, playing first-team hockey, cricket and tennis. 

Wayne the Doctor
From a young age, Wayne felt he had a calling to become a medical professional. He remembers living in Witbank as an eight-year-old. He was sick one night and his mother tended to him, asking him to wake her if he needed cough mixture during the night. His interest in medicine and in the diagnosis of sick people was awakened and from that night on, Wayne knew he would make medicine his life.

 It was not a simple road to medical school but Wayne’s determination to succeed ensured that he would achieve his goal. It is this character trait, in fact, that shaped all the aspects of Wayne’s life. He remembers taking an aptitude test at school. The question: Name three things you want to do when you leave school. Wayne wrote: Number one, medical doctor; number two, medical doctor; and number three, medical doctor. His guidance teacher, Mr Reynolds, called him in and explained to him that he did not have the potential to be a doctor, as he was only top of the C class. He recommended instead that Wayne consider becoming a toolmaker, a maize miller or, if he was persistent in considering a professional field, a lawyer. Wayne researched these options, taking a day to observe individuals in each of these roles, but this only fuelled his determination to pursue medicine.

 After matric, Wayne applied to the medical schools at UCT and Wits and was declined by both. Wayne, not one to give up, decided to do a BSc at Wits and to apply for the medical programme every year. He was declined time and time again, but for Wayne, doing anything other than practising medicine was not an option. At the end of his fourth and qualifying year, Wayne again applied, this time broadening his options and submitting applications to five universities. It was not to be. He was rejected from all five. He decided to pursue a BSc honours before applying again, but before he began his studies, his luck suddenly changed. The day before university was due to start, he got a call informing him that someone had withdrawn from medicine at Wits and he was first on the waiting list. Naturally, he jumped at the opportunity and was the first student at class the next day. He was so early, he actually had to wait for them to open the doors.

 At the end of Wayne’s fourth year of medical school, he happened to meet his old guidance counsellor again. Wayne approached him and asked if he remembered the advice he had given him. He reminded him of the incident and gently suggested that, as a school psychologist, he should never doubt the ability of his students. He should instead point out that their chosen goals while difficult to achieve, could be reached with hard work and perseverance. The student had clearly become the teacher.

 Wayne would go on to have a long career as a student. He spent four years completing his BSc, six years at medical school and another year doing what is referred to as ‘house jobs’, playing assistant to specialists. Once qualified, he had no idea what to specialise in, so he went to work at Johannesburg Hospital for six months in the plastic surgery field. This gave him the clarity he was looking for. He decided to become a General Practitioner. He preferred having patients with a variety of ailments, as opposed to being a specialist working in one area only.

 Doctor Korras would spend 12 years working in a practice in Melville, before moving to Dunvegan, 18 months before his accident. Over this time he built up a reputation as an excellent GP and had a large and loyal customer base, people who trusted him with their lives.

 Wayne the Athlete
Korras has always been an extremely talented and competitive athlete. He joined Bedfordview Country Club, the club he now runs for, to play hockey and cricket. He excelled in both disciplines. On the cricket front, he played in the premiership side, which included several famous Transvaal Mean Machine players of the era, such as Clive Rice, Rupert Hanley, Henry Fotheringham, Gordon McMillan and Drummond Dunlop. Korras played provincial hockey for Southern Transvaal in the late 80s. He was a centre forward who humbly says, “I tried to score regular goals.”

 It was during one of the hockey seasons that Wayne felt the pull towards road running. The hockey team used to run the Bliss 21km as part of their training. Wayne ran the race with Gordon McMillan, who he constantly encouraged to speed up. Finding he was comfortable on the road, Wayne joined the running section in 1983/84.

 It was during his second year of medicine that one of the girls in Wayne’s class bet him and his friend, Brett, that they would not finish Comrades the following year. The prize at stake? A dinner date with her. As it so often does, male testosterone took over. Wayne never got the dinner date, but he did fall in love with Comrades and what was to become a lifelong relationship with the race began that day.

 In 1987, at the age of 23, Wayne completed his first Comrades in 10:41. On that day, he ran with Owen Anderson and Rupert Scott, fondly called the ‘mobile meatball’ because of his large frame. He clearly remembers the gooseflesh as he finished. Today, he has run a total of 16 Comrades, but says the feeling of exhilaration he felt finishing the first Comrades has never returned.

 In his first few Comrades runs, Wayne was unable to break the 10:40 mark. He relied heavily on his general fitness from other sports and did very little mileage in preparation for the race. In fact, in his second year he only did 140km training and nearly bailed only 8km into the run. It was at this point that he noticed he was behind a girl with a ‘nice bum’. Mesmerised by this, he managed to get halfway and struggle his way to the end.

 During the 1992 up run, Wayne caught up to one of the experienced runners from his club, Neil Alexandra, going up Field’s Hill. Neil wanted to know how much training he had done, and after finding out it was only 600km, Neil casually stated that Wayne was welcome to run alongside him for as long as he could. At the 60km mark, they were still together and Neil became the first person to point out to Wayne that if he actually put some effort into his training, he could be a much better runner. At Polly Shorts, Neil asked Wayne to run ahead, as he was struggling to keep up. Wayne went on to improve his time by over 1:10.

 From this point, Wayne started training properly for Comrades and his times improved dramatically.

 In 1998, Wayne ran his first silver in a time of 7:12. He contributes this mainly to his focused preparation and setting himself the goal of running his first silver in his Green Number year. He would go on to run six consecutive silvers with a best place finish of 162nd in 2002 and a best time of 6:50 in 2003, a massive improvement from the 10:52 and 9 869th place in 1989. What better example of his character and determination to succeed?

Wayne compares a fast Comrades with a round of golf. You can have a great score in a golf game if the bounce of the ball favours you in 50/50 situations. The beauty of Comrades is that you can’t just go out and have a fast run. You have to be alert the whole day and manage every aspect of the route. Most importantly, you need to prepare properly. There are no short cuts or lucky bounces.

 Although Wayne’s passion is Comrades, he also has other impressive achievements, such as his Two Oceans silver, which he received for running the race in 3:58. When asked which silver is harder, Comrades or Two Oceans, he explains that, “Two Oceans is harder in terms of pace, but you only have two tough sections to negotiate. The difficult part of Comrades is that, although it is a slightly easier pace, it is literally double the distance over constantly challenging terrain.” Korras saved his PB marathon for a special occasion, the cobblestone roads of Paris where he ran a time of 2:46.

Hockey and Wits didn’t only bring together Wayne and road running. They also brought together Wayne and his wife, Robyn. They married in 1991 and have two beautiful daughters, Cailyn, 13, and Kesley, 11.

St Patrick’s Day 2006
Dr Wayne Korras woke early for his training run on the morning of 17 March 2006. He left the house a role model in a perfect world. He was a happy family man with a beautiful wife and two kids, a very successful General Practitioner and an extremely talented athlete. Little did he know that he would not return home that day.

 The Bedfordview runners met at their regular rendezvous point in the Virgin Active car park. The club had just started increasing its morning run distance, so although they still ran the same route, the faster runners ran ahead in the A group and the B group followed. Because the Om Die Dam race was the following day, the A group was a small one consisting of only eight runners. Two of the runners with the group that morning were new. Richard Albrecht, who normally ran in the afternoons, had changed to mornings that week and Joe Mendoza, who had not run with the group for the last six months, had recently rejoined the group.

About 3km into the run, the A school stopped at a BP garage for water, then left to continue on the route. They were about 1km from the garage and running on Herman Road alongside the airport highway. Wayne was running with the group when he noticed a car coming towards them. JP Lombard, the driver of the vehicle, was on his way home from a friend’s house at 5:30am and claims to have fallen asleep at the wheel when he smashed into the running group. Wayne doesn’t remember much more about that morning, but fellow runners, Michelle Kellock and Grant Greeff, remember the incident vividly.

Michelle was running in front of the group alongside Grant. Wayne and Richard were just behind them. She recalls shouts from the group appealing to the driver to slow down as the vehicle veered towards them. The car just kept coming. Road traffic engineers have since established that the car was travelling at approx 88km/h. Grant allegedly pushed Michelle out the way just before he jumped to the side and the car missed them. Richard and Wayne took the full brunt of the vehicle’s force as it ploughed into the group. Richard was dragged on the bonnet for roughly 40 metres and Wayne was flung straight up, landing on the pavement. Joe was run over and caught between the pavement and the front wheel. Karl Quinn took a side impact which snapped his legs. Michelle recalls seconds of absolute chaos, the sounds of the screeching car and screaming voices and then just silence. Grant ran to the aid of Richard and Michelle, and then to Wayne. Wayne was lying on his stomach, unconscious. He had severe head injuries and was heaving as he breathed. Michelle stayed with him, talking to him as they waited for paramedics. She even removed her shirt to try and stop the bleeding. There was nothing Grant could do for Richard, so he waved down a taxi and called 911. He then went to the aid of Joe and they started CPR but it was too late. Both Richard and Joe died at the scene of the accident from massive internal injuries. Wayne refers to the incident as a design from above; he believes the Lord needed two more angels.

A medical specialist, Garth Diers, was amongst the approaching B group. He attended to Wayne on the scene as they waited for the paramedics to arrive. Once they arrived, Wayne was put onto a drip and a helicopter was called. Carl was transported by ambulance and Wayne was flown to Milpark Hospital. Several people on the scene doubted he would survive the trip to the hospital and a comment was passed, “This may be the last time you see your friend.” Deep in his heart, Wayne believes he heard this comment and it was a catalyst to his determined nature. He had spent his life proving he could do what other people told him wasn’t possible. He became a doctor despite the words of his old teacher. He ran a sub-seven hour Comrades despite a colleague’s claims that he couldn’t. This time, his biggest challenge would be to live when all those around him thought he would die.

As soon as his wife heard the news, she rushed to the hospital. Wayne had arrived at the hospital in a coma with severe head injuries, a broken right arm, leg and collar bone, three broken ribs on each side, three fractured vertebra and a fractured jaw and nose. Ironically, he was treated by Professor Boffard, who had been his lecturer at Wits. Robyn was referred to a head injury website to educate her on what the possible outcomes of the accident would be if Wayne did survive the coma. The risk of 14 day mortality with the severity of Wayne’s injuries was 81% and if Wayne survived, there was a risk of severe disability or worse.

Miraculously, on his wedding anniversary, 13 April, 28 days after the accident, Wayne Korras woke from his coma. He doesn’t remember much about the months that followed, but he had to spend four and a half months in hospital, two months in ICU and two and a half years in Netcare Rehab. At the age of 42, Wayne Korras had to re-learn the things we take for granted. He had to be re-taught to use the toilet, to walk and talk, to brush his hair and teeth, and to shave and get dressed. To make things more challenging, he did not react well to one of his medications and the side effects left his body totally rigid.

Understandably, this was a very hard time for the Korras family. Wayne says his wife Robyn was phenomenal. She travelled to the hospital every day to be at his side. She had been at his side at each of his Comrades and she was there as he fought for his life. The family received huge support from some unsung heroes in the local running community, and from family, friends and patients. A dinner roster was set up so that Robyn wouldn’t have to worry about cooking and could focus on helping Wayne recover.

They spent the next year going between rehab, physiotherapists and speech therapists. Wayne firmly believes that being an ultra runner dramatically helped his healing process. He says that the perseverance a runner needs to succeed, combined with the fact that he was a doctor and had some insight on his therapy, gave him the presence of mind and strength to work on his recovery. One of Wayne’s motivations came in the form of Dylan Thomas’ immortal words, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” In Wayne’s opinion, getting hit by the car was the easy part. It is everything from that point that was difficult.

 JP Lombard, the driver of the car, has since pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter, for the deaths of Richard Albrecht and Joe Mendoza. This put closure to the case but several runners feel the legal system has failed those affected on that fatal day, as well as the society in which we live.

Wayne eventually made a full recovery but his life has never returned to normal. “The biggest mountain I had to climb was not the physical recovery, but overcoming the doubt everybody had in my ability. I still fight this today; getting people to believe I can do things again.” Wayne’s survival is a miracle and he firmly believes that he survived because he has unfinished business on Earth. He knows that there is something he still has to do, but he is not sure what it is.

Dr Wayne Korras wants nothing more than to carry on with his life’s dream of being a doctor and helping others. The HPCSA (Health Professionals Council of South Africa) has to approve his ability to practise again. Currently, there is no precedent for dealing with someone who has gone through what Wayne did. As an impaired practitioner, the HPCSA has not given Wayne permission to practise again, ironic considering even doctors recovering from drug addictions are allowed to practise. Wayne spent some time shadowing a doctor who was part of his rehabilitation team. After four months, she informed him that it was time for him to move on. She wasn’t quite sure who was shadowing who, as she was totally convinced of Wayne’s competency to practise medicine again. Wayne still lives in hope that the HPCSA will compile a panel to evaluate his case. In the interim, he is involved with a wellness venture for staff at PAG and intends to do some motivational speaking.

 2009 Comrades Marathon
For Wayne Korras, running is all about Comrades. “Comrades is my story and my life has been about it. The beauty of Comrades is that it strips you to the core and only you know the answers.”

It took Wayne eight months to get back on the road and he started out running up to 5km with friend, Nikki Loubser. During his comeback, his friends would make light of his narrow stride and tease him about his right leg that made a flapping noise every time his foot hit the ground. 

His first ‘unofficial’ race was his own club’s Dischem Half Marathon Helper’s Run, run the weekend before the race. This race is for all the club members who give up their time to help with logistics on race day. Wayne was a little nervous when he went to bed the night before. He had run the route so many times, but was not sure how his body would react. He finished in 1:50 and was irritated that it had taken him so long. This set in motion the familiar cogs of determination and Wayne vowed to return to the pace of his pre-accident days.

It has taken Wayne five years to get from 15 Comrades medals to 16, a fact that leaves him bitterly disappointed. For most of us, the fact that Wayne can even walk again seems enough of a miracle and the fact that he has come back to run the 2009 Comrades is nothing short of incredible.

“It was great to be at the start again and part of the race. It was not as cold as I remembered and so I discarded my disposable at Polly’s. At halfway, I was on track for my silver medal. In fact, I had ten minutes to spare. I could feel I was falling off the pace in the second half, but each time I asked my legs to pick up 10 or 15 seconds, they said, ‘No, you’re on your own buddy!’ Passing Arthur’s Seat was also fairly spiritual for me. I was grateful to the Lord that I could run again and having my family on the road once again was also inspirational.”

Wayne finished in a time of 7:51:39, collecting his first Bill Rowan, which placed him 808th overall and an amazing 117th in his age category. Although it was not the perfectly scripted dream comeback run, Wayne is too modest to realise and put into perspective what he achieved on 24 May 2009, his miraculous return from ‘Coma2Comrades.’ Wayne plans to try and get four more silver medals, taking his total to ten and “God willing”, he would like to complete 30 runs.

Wayne defines himself as an extremely loyal person. He has been with the same club his entire running career, run all 16 Comrades in adidas shoes and doesn’t plan on making any changes. He chuckles as he says, “It’s hard to get rid of me!” A truer word has never been spoken.

 Wayne would like to thank the following people for their support:
Robyn Hull for organising a meal roster and for breaking the fateful news to Robyn the morning of the accident. Joanne Kavanaugh for organising a golf day to raise funds for Wayne’s family.
The general public and ‘too-many-to-mention’ friends for their financial and emotional support and the time they all gave expecting nothing in return.
BCC and Jeppe runners and the running community at large for all their help and prayers.
 

Dr Wayne Korras is building his career as a motivational speaker. If you would like Dr Korras to speak at any gathering, club or corporate function, please email editor@modernathlete.co.za.