Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 111, October 2018 | Page 17

THE RUNNING
MANN
By Stuart Mann
SUPERHERO IN RUNNING SHOES
Enie Manzini is an inspirational athlete, firefighter, paramedic, single mom and all-round heroine. She is also a survivor of
domestic violence. Sadly, superheroes need a villain to battle, and hers came in the form of her husband. – BY STUART MANN
T
he cycle of physical abuse started shortly after
her daughter was born in 2006. Enie’s husband
liked to go out often, partying and drinking,
whereas he thought his wife’s place was in the home,
and strongly disapproved of her running. Although
most of Enie’s runs were done before the rest of the
household woke up, he accused her of neglecting the
family and putting running ahead of him. He showed
his displeasure in the form of frequent and merciless
beatings. Regrettably, this story of domestic violence
is all too common in our society. Even when Enie
managed to obtain a protection order against her
husband, the beatings continued.
The turning point in Enie’s life came in 2016, while
carbo-loading for the Deloitte Pretoria Marathon.
She had just mixed a shake and took a large sip,
but it tasted bitter. Heart palpitations, sweating
and disorientation soon followed, so she carefully
inspected the carbohydrate tub and noticed tiny
yellow pellets mixed into the powder. She had been
poisoned! Her 10-year-old daughter came to her aid
with a glass of milk to help neutralise the poison and
Enie managed to drive herself to the hospital, but
she realised that she’d had a lucky escape and filed
for divorce as soon as she was discharged from the
hospital.
From Good to Great
From Great to Elite
Enie had produced a numer of solid Comrades
performances in the past, with five sub-9:00 Bill
Rowans to her credit, but admits, “I used to cheat
on my training and dreaded doing track and speed
work.” This year was her seventh Comrades and the
first time she cracked silver, coming home in 18th
position with a time of 7:21. (She had been on track
for an even quicker time before stomach problems
resulted in a couple of unplanned stops in the last
third of the race.)
She was also part of a bigger success. Although this
was Team Massmart’s first appearance at Comrades,
they trounced their more fancied rivals to win the elite
women’s team prize, awarded to the team whose
fastest four members have the lowest combined time,
and all the Team Massmart runners taking part ran
personal bests, led home by Ann Ashworth’s famous
victory.
Enie highlights the role that good coaching, nutritional
advice and training support played in her running
transformation, as well as the change in mindset and
drive that comes from being part of a professional
team. “Joining Team Massmart motivated me, it’s a
great experience and an inspiration for me to be part
of this team. To be in an elite team has changed my
running completely.”
What’s next for Enie?
Enie continues to empower herself academically with
further studies, to grow spiritually through involvement
in her church, and plans to enhance the physical
side of her life by training for triathlons as a future
challenge. As for running goals, Team Massmart
wants to retain the team title at next year’s Comrades,
and Enie plans to be up there again with an even
stronger performance, perhaps even a gold medal.
Enie Manzini is a great example of someone who has
held onto her dreams, struggled through tremendous
adversity, and is just now starting to realise her
potential. “Although it’s difficult, you can be a mom,
have a career and still have aspirations to achieve
your dreams,” she says. This is a brave woman who
wants to share her story to help motivate and inspire
other women – especially those who might be in a
similar situation to hers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stuart’s lifetime goal is to attract a beer sponsor with his running blogs, but he
will settle for a travel sponsor so that he can run more races and share their stories. Read his full blogs at
http://runningmann.co.za, and follow him @runningmann100.
Enie always dreamt of being an elite ultra-marathon
runner, and in many ways, this kept her going
during those long years of hardship. Freed from an
oppressive home environment, she was suddenly
able to realise that dream, and after what she’d been
through, she says balancing being a single mom with
a full-time job and part-time studies was easy. And
she went from being a good runner to a great one.
She ran personal bests over almost every distance
and brought her Comrades time down from well
over eight hours to 7:36. She even managed to win
a couple of low-key night races. Suddenly she was
a contender, and in January 2017, Enie lined up at
Benoni’s Johnson Crane Marathon, in a field full of
Comrades gold medallists, but there was a surprise
winner in the women’s race – Enie Manzini. Then
one morning the phone rang, and Enie could hardly
contain her excitement when Ann Ashworth said she
was forming an elite women’s squad, and would like
Enie to be part of Team Massmart. The dream was
now a reality. “It was at that moment I knew God had
answered my prayers,” says Enie.
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