RECORD RUNNING |
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doesn ’ t do much chemical engineering at the moment . About a year and a half ago , his family moved down to Stellenbosch , in the Western Cape , so he regularly commutes to Gauteng and Limpopo . “ I ’ m a bit of a nomad , travelling a fair bit , but it doesn ’ t bother me ,” he says , adding that this really helped with his record quest . |
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He began running while doing his military service – as he puts it , the guys would do anything to get a sport pass and get out of camp for a while – but he hung up his running shoes when he finished his service . He then pursued his studies and began working , and it was only in the year that he turned 30 that he decided to give running another go , with the 2002 Comrades Marathon as his goal , and he has gone on to finish the Comrades 21 consecutive times – every year from 2002 to 2024 , excluding the COVID-affected 2020 and 2021 years – with a best of 7:38:59 in 2014 . |
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It was in 2023 that he decided he was ready for a new challenge . “ I had run over 500 races across South Africa , including 12-hour circuit races , a few 100-milers , a 250km self-sufficiency race and two six-day circuit races , but I had become a bit bored with it all , so I decided to think of something different . I ’ d heard about the Seven Continents Club from other runners – the challenge to run a marathon on all seven continents – and at that stage , I had only run overseas once – the Amsterdam Marathon – so I was vacillating about the idea of running a marathon in Antarctica . That ’ s the most difficult one , because of the logistics , and some people wait years to get there , so I got myself on the mailing list for that .”
Henk in action in the new ultra on Antarctica
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Another continent in the bag after his Polish ultra |
Henk explains that there are two different companies offering a seven-continent marathon challenge , one of which is the seven marathons in seven days on seven continents non-stop challenge , but he says candidly that this idea did not interest him . “ I don ’ t think it ’ s such an achievement , because the average person can do a marathon a day for seven days in a row . I ’ ve run more than 100km per day for six days in a row , so I was looking for something more than just marathons around the world , and I also found out that more than a thousand people have already done a marathon on all seven continents .”
“ I therefore wanted an ultra-marathon continental challenge , but while we have a lot of ultras in South Africa , it ’ s hard to find them on all the continents ,” he continues . “ Then I got an email that mentioned a new ultra in Antarctica , and I thought , okay , so now it ’ s possible to run an ultra there , and therefore , on all seven continents , but I ( and a few others ) assumed incorrectly that nobody had ever done that before , because this was going to be the first ultra ever on Antarctica , and I wanted to be one of the first to do it . I found out later that it was just the first ultra in Antarctica by that specific company , but I ’ ll come back to that later .”
Getting Going … and Derailed
At that time , Henk had already run a considerable number of ultras in South Africa , thus taking care of Africa right off the bat . He was also due to fly to Europe on business at the end of September , and had entered a marathon in Turkey on the first of October , so he changed his plans at the 11th hour by entering the Silesia Ultra in Katowice , Poland instead , on the same weekend . “ So now I had two continents , and that tipped the scale in favour of the Antarctica race , scheduled for March 2024 , and I decided to pay the deposit of the insanely big amount to go do it ,” he recalls .
“ I just didn ’ t realise at the time that it was a whole expedition taking 13 days , including crossing the Dake Passage by ship , which can be a nightmare . Any case , I paid the deposit and I was now committed to go to Antarctica , and in the end , of the 152 runners on the boat , only 10 ran the ultra , with the rest doing the marathon or the half marathon . At that stage , I still
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Three down , four to go after the Antarctica Ultra |
thought I could perhaps become the first person to run an ultra on all seven continents , but on the ship , one of the American ultra runners told me that it was his third continental ultra as well , and he was also trying to become the first guy to do all seven continents .”
“ I just said , well , good luck , because I didn ’ t think I could compete with him , as just a month earlier , at the age of 53 , I had finally been diagnosed with a birth defect called popliteal artery entrapment syndrome , which required surgery when I got back from Antarctica . I had always had a problem with stiff , burning calves when I ran , and never could figure it out in spite of going for scans and treatment . Nobody could find anything , so I just made peace with it and ran through the pain for many years . But in January , my doctor – that ’ s Dr Marcel Jooste at Semli , Pretoria – sent me to a vascular surgeon , Professor Levien , and he said he could fix the problem . I responded , well , I ’ m booked for this 10,000-dollar trip to Antarctica , so I think I ’ ll do that first .”
Henk explains that popliteal artery entrapment syndrome is a condition that only around 3 % of people have , and it happens early in a baby ’ s development in the womb . “ The femoral artery runs behind the knee – at this point is called the popliteal artery – and very early in a baby ’ s development , the calf muscle sits on both sides of this artery , near the knee . The calf muscle must then move to the medial , inner side , but in those three percent of people , it doesn ’ t move completely and a little bit of the muscle of the calf is on the wrong side of the artery . So , if you stand on your toes with a straight leg , then you can close that artery completely , and that ’ s why I would have problems when I ran uphill , because with each step , I was effectively shutting my calves down for a fraction of a second , by stopping the flow of blood . So , the surgery was essentially to cut away that piece of muscle that shouldn ’ t have been there .”
Back in the Game
Four days after he returned from Antarctica , Henk was in surgery , followed by two months of recovery , initially with staples in his legs . “ At the end of May , I was allowed to run again , and in the meantime , the
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Images : Courtesy Henk Moen |