Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 104, March 2018 | Page 12

ROAD RUNNING
Old Mutual Two Oceans Half
Marathon, Cape Town, 2017
SA Half Marathon
Champs, Port
Elizabeth, 2017
BREATHING EASY
Having won six SA titles, represented her country more than 10 times, and become a regular on
podiums throughout the country, Nolene Conrad has established herself as one of SA’s leading
female long distance athletes, but running has brought her more than just success, it also saved her
life. – BY SEAN FALCONER
N
olene Conrad is the picture of health and
fitness as she bounds into the dining hall for
our interview at the Stellenbosch Academy
of Sport (SAS), where she works as Athlete Manager
for Elana Meyer’s Endurocad and interns on the
Sanlam Cape Town Marathon organising team. The
32-year-old recently returned from a month of high
altitude training in Kenya to prepare for the World Half
Marathon Champs in Valencia, Spain on 24 March,
clearly the trip paid off: She clocked a blistering
1:13:05 to finish first woman and ninth overall in
the Peninsula Half Marathon in Cape Town on 18
February, just 17 seconds off her PB.
In that kind of form, 2018 looks set to be another
great year for her after a brilliant 2017 season. That
included finishing runner-up in the Old Mutual Two
Oceans Half Marathon, ending third overall on the
points table of the Spar Grand Prix Series, and taking
12 minutes off her marathon PB at the Valencia
Marathon in November, clocking 2:35:21, the fastest
time by a South African woman for the year. She
also added still more podium positions and national
champs medals to her collection at various SA Track
and Field and Road Running Champs, so it’s hard to
think that there was a stage when the doctors didn’t
think she would make it past the age of 21.
OXYGEN STARVATION
While growing up in Cape Town, Nolene was
diagnosed with asthma at age 13, and was constantly
in and out of hospital. “My asthma pump became my
lifeline, and I slept with one under my pillow, as I often
woke up during the night unable to breathe. One night
when I was 16 I had a really bad attack, and when I
12
tried my pump, it gave two squirts and ran out. I
went to find the spare, and it was also finished, so I
woke my parents in a state of panic,” says Nolene.
“We didn’t have a car back then, so they called an
ambulance, which took some time to get there. I
passed out and woke up in the ambulance on a
nebuliser, then spent a week in hospital, where the doctor advised me to
do some physical activity, like swimming or running, to grow the capacity
of my lungs. He said my asthma was getting worse, so I would probably
not make it to my 21st birthday if I didn’t start exercising!”
The very next week a determined Nolene went back to school and through
a friend joined the Cross Country team, with her first 4km race coming
soon after that. “That first season was a struggle, and I needed medical
attention after every race. I would collapse and they would need to put me
on a nebuliser. The teachers actually suggested I rethink being a runner,
but I was adamant I was going to persevere, because of the doctor’s
warning, and because I was scared of suffering the same fate as my uncle,
who died of asthma.”
By the end of that season she managed to finish a 4km race for the first
time, and says that gave her hope that she was on the right track. “I had
just been pitching for races, but now I started training regularly and joined
the training group at Pen Tech under Tobias Philander. I trained hard for
six months, and while I still got attacks, sometimes induced by exercise,
they were not as regular. And when the next school cross country season
started, I began finishing in the top three regularly. That’s when people
started noticing me, and my coach told me I had real talent. I was also part
of the MacSteel Micro Development Programme with the Sport Science
Institute, which also helped me greatly with my asthma.”
MAKING HER MARK
By the time Nolene finished school, she was receiving offers of
scholarships from colleges in the USA, but she made the hard decision
to turn them down and stay in SA, because she wanted to run for her
ISSUE 104 MARCH 2018 / www.modernathlete.co.za