Shawn Combrink’ s running journey began in Cape Town back in the early 80s when he found a training plan for the Two Oceans Marathon in a newspaper. He was already a social runner, regularly doing Saturday morning 5km Heart Foundation Fun Runs with a group of mates, but admits“ this was more an excuse to enjoy a few post-run beers with the boys.” However, when he started following the Oceans training plan, he says he was hooked.“ Unfortunately, I had to relocate to Johannesburg for work, which meant that I was not able to run that year’ s Oceans after all, but in Joburg I continued running, joining a group of colleagues for a 10km run every lunch time.” In 1987 Shawn ran his first marathon – the old Pick n Pay Hyper to Hyper in Pretoria – which he managed to finish in 3:25, even after arriving late to the start line thanks to the dodgy navigation skills of his running partner. He chuckles as he remembers painfully running the last bit of that race on the yellow emergency lane line.“ I was convinced that the paint would stop my feet burning, because it wasn’ t as rough as the tar!”
Where’ s Wally?
At that stage, Shawn says he didn’ t have any intention to run Comrades, and actually knew very little about the race, but a year after his first marathon, when a friend wanted to run Comrades before emigrating, Shawn agreed to run a section of it with him. They therefore started training and running races together, one of which was finally Two Oceans, and then they
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lined up at Comrades together. Content with the idea of running just the first 20km or so, Shawn says he actually got to the start line not really knowing what he was doing – mostly because he and his friends had enjoyed a great night out after experiencing the vibe at registration …
By the time Shawn and his friend got to Pinetown, he felt strong, so he told their seconders that he would continue running and meet them a bit further along.“ That was the year that Wally Hayward was making his long-awaited return to Comrades at the age of 79, so I suggested to my friend that he only needed to run consistently until Wally caught up to us, and then he could just follow his pace, which would ensure that he finished on time.” However, they had just crossed the little bridge in Camperdown when they asked a spectator if he had seen Wally, and were told the great man had already passed that point about an hour before!
Seriously disgruntled, Shawn and his friend walked the next 5km trying to fathom what had happened to their strategy, but they continued running, and Shawn landed up crossing the finish line in 10:37:45 – nearly an hour after Wally – after deciding at each landmark to just go on just a bit further.“ I have to admit, I was overcome with emotion as I got to the top of the grass embankment overlooking all the gazebos at the finish line, just before entering the stadium. I realised that if I could do that, I could do anything,” says Shawn, and it was exactly this attitude that saw him reach the Comrades finish another 11 times – and later saw him
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return to running again, when he thought he never would.
Back to Basics
Years later, after completing the amazing Marathon du Medoc( a. k. a. The Wine Marathon) in France, Shawn and his partner in life and adventure, Paula, were spending a few days on a barge in the French countryside, when he accidentally took a tumble from a jetty. Having seriously hurt his back, he resisted seeing a doctor for almost two months when back in South Africa, but says“ not even a brandy-painkiller combo could numb the pain, and so I was off to the surgeon, who explained that surgery was my only option, and that it would be a long road back to health. He added that I would be the only one to determine whether or not I would run again.”
As so many injured runners experience when they can’ t hit the road, Shawn suffered a bit of depression after his surgery, but he was determined not to be another complacent couch-surfing-formermarathon-runner, as he puts it. He was advised by his physiotherapist to walk as much as possible, so he took to hobbling around the house and was soon venturing outside to see how he would manage a kilometre.“ It was 14 minutes of pain and discomfort, and I was flat on my back for the rest of the day, but it was also the beginning of my road back to running,” says Shawn.
He challenged himself to complete a kilometre every day for two weeks, which then turned into a month,
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Images: David Papenfus & Courtesy Shawn Combrink |