Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 108, July 2018 | Page 25

five minutes to spare. Whilst reclining in the comfort of a stretcher on the way to
the medical tent, he reflected that the race’s slogan, “Zinikele. It will humble you,”
certainly wasn’t false advertising! Jeremy summed up his story with, “It was tough
but fantastic. I wouldn’t change the experience for anything in the world.”
Jeremy is a junior school teacher from East London. Most chefs dream of opening
their own restaurant one day – I’m not sure if teachers dream of opening their own
school, but if Jeremy ever does, I hope he calls it the “School of Hard Knox” and
bores the kids to tears with tales of his ultra-marathon adventures!
THE HUMAN SOSATIE
2.
Excerpt from the JM Busha 54km Peace Pledge Marathon race report, run in Randfontein, Gauteng.
[Marathon #188 / Unique Marathon #102 / 1 May 2018]
marathons is easy, writing about them afterwards is the
hard part! – when local Carltonville-based runner Chris
de Beer yelled out, “Hey, Running Mann, come over
here and chat to my buddy, Danie – you’ve got to hear
his story!” I gratefully obliged, and what a story it was.
R
andfontein is an old gold mining town on the
wildest west ern limits of Gauteng – if you go
any further, you’ll hit the North West Province.
Despite living in Johannesburg for the past 20 years,
I had never ventured this far west, but managed to
successfully navigate the uncharted extremes of the
Witwatersrand to find myself at the Greenhills Stadium
in time for the 6:30am start. Just as we were starting to
warm up, we entered one of the many industrial areas
around town and the gloom returned as the Tiger Mills
plant loomed large in front of us, blocking out the sun.
A good technique for running through an industrial
wasteland is to create a diversion by striking up a
conversation with a fellow runner. While running the JM
Busha Marathon, I was busy thinking about my backlog
of impending race reports – these days running
Danie de Wet has six Comrades finishes to his credit
and was running the JM Busha as a last-gasp qualifier
for this year’s race on 10 June. I am always surprised
when people leave qualifying to the last minute, and
am usually sceptical of their excuses, but I think
Danie’s story about the time “wat ek soos ‘n sosatie
gevoel het” is a suitable exception. (For those that
don’t speak fluent Afrikaans, that means he became a
human kebab, of the skewer type.)
FREAK ACCIDENT
In January 2015, Danie was helping to clean out some
blocked drains 3.5km underground in one of the
Carltonville gold mines when he slipped, fell and was
impaled by a ‘gwala,’ a 1.8m long, 2.5cm diameter
crowbar-like metal rod. Two remarkable operations
followed:
1. The rescue operation to get him back to the
surface alive, before rushing through to the
Milpark Hospital, because 3.5km is a long way
underground, and 1.8m of gwala is tough to get
through tight spaces.
The operation performed by Professor Kenneth
Boffard and his surgical team to successfully
remove the skewer.
After two weeks in an induced coma, Danie woke up
“deurmekaar” (confused) and minus one kidney, but
thanked the “Grace of God” for his life. It’s been a
tough journey since then, and last year he was back
in hospital several times with stomach complications
related to the original accident. As a result, by the end
of 2017 he was feeling “very down” and his weight
was “way up,” about 30kg heavier than his Comrades
fighting weight, but he says he was lucky that he
knew of a great natural anti-depressant and weight-
loss programme: Running.
BACK ON THE ROAD
You can knock a Comrades runner down, but you
can’t keep him there! Danie talks fondly of “Ons
Groepie” (Our Group) and the help and support
that got him back on the road again. The JM Busha
Marathon was his first 42km since the accident, and
I am pleased to report that he got around the course
comfortably under five hours to qualify for Comrades.
Amazed, astounded and inspired, I wished Danie well
on his qualifying marathon as we parted ways, and
after our chance meeting, I shared Danie’s amazing
story on social media and my feeds went ballistic.
He has subsequently been featured in numerous
magazines and newspapers – even the London Times
ran an article – and has been contacted by various
television and radio stations for interviews.
Danie in action pre-accident, and with the spike that impaled him in 2015
COMRADES 2018 UPDATE
Jeremy Knox had a great run and earned his 'Back to Back' medal in style with
a solid 10:39:58 finish and a big negative split. He also raised about R5000 for
St Bernard's Hospice and is now planning to run the Washie 100 Miler in July.
Danie de Wet got his medal with an 11:30:37 finish, and is already looking forward to
Comrades 2019. He is planning to do some motivational speaking at running clubs and
was recently invited back to Milpark Hospital to receive a special Recovery Award.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stuart is a Joburg-based Lean-Agile Coach (in the software industry) and describes himself as a compulsive marathon runner, experienced
joker and mischief-maker, a father of two gorgeous girls and husband to one gorgeous wife, and a trainee feminist. His popular Running Mann blog has focused
on his goal to complete 100 unique marathons before Comrades 2018, which he achieved in April, and he says his lifetime goal is to attract a beer sponsor, but
says he would settle for someone to sponsor his travel costs so that he can run more marathons and share their story. If you would like to check out Stuart’s full
blogs, go to http://runningmann.co.za, or follow him on social media: @runningmann100.
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