ROAD RUNNING
Road to Recovery
The pain had become so bad that Elroy Gelant was reduced to a mere shuffle instead of the hard running he was used to . It was December 2017 , and the Olympian , South African 5000m record holder and multiple SA Champion in road , track and cross country was not only being robbed of the ability to train , but his hernia condition was also making him doubt his own ability . For an elite athlete who easily churns out three minutes per kay splits , sometimes even faster , not even being able to maintain an easy running pace of 4:15 to 4:20 / km was extremely worrying .
“ I could literally only do run-walking , so I was doing the parkruns with my girlfriend Tamzin , but it was scary . The SA season was coming up in a few months and I couldn ’ t string together one decent run . I was really scared that I would not be able to ever get back to the level I am used to , and expect ,” says Elroy .
“ Then I first saw a knot in the groin area in January , and that ’ s when my doctor said we should operate . But we agreed to wait until April , as the South Africa season had just started . I struggled on my long runs , but was able to do my shorter sessions without too much difficulty . However , those long runs are important , so I knew that my season would be a challenge , especially towards the end , as my base was not where it needed to be .” Elroy had also just bought a house , and does not have medical aid , so he needed to find almost R60,000 for the operation , meaning he needed to replenish his reserves first .
That lack of base was clearly evident when Elroy tried to defend his national 10,000m title at the SA Champs in mid-March . “ I had no strength in my legs . I just felt flat , and the pain was now becoming quite bad . I did not even finish my 10,000m race ! It was very demotivating and it made the doubts in my mind about my running career all the more prominent , so I scheduled the operation straight after SA ’ s .”
Surprising Result
For the next nine weeks , Elroy was not able to train properly , if at all , and even then it took time to build up his strength and endurance again . “ I was only able to start training with some effort with four weeks left to go before the SA Half Marathon Championships at the end of July , so I was not expecting anything there . A top 20 would have been great in around 70 minutes .” However , a classy athlete remains a classy athlete , and Elroy surprised himself by posting a time of 61:48 to finish fourth overall and second South African in the NMB Half Marathon in Port Elizabeth , which doubled up as the SA Championships .
Stephen Mokoka won the race overall and the SA title , with the second and third places going to foreigners , hence Elroy ’ s
Images : Jetline Action Photo & Tobias Ginsberg
After a year ravaged by injury and recovery from an operation , Elroy Gelant has been putting in the hard yards to build back up to fitness , and some of his recent results have helped restore his confidence , but with another operation still to come , he is very much focused on relaunching his running career in 2019 .
– BY MANFRED SEIDLER
12 ISSUE 111 OCTOBER 2018 / www . modernathlete . co . za
Elroy finishing his first ( and to date only ) marathon in Cape Town last year in 2:12:49