Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 111, October 2018 | Page 7

LETTERS of 11 hours and 40 minutes. Abé with 13 medals, and Claus with 14, made a mother’s dream come true, not to mention my husband, who also completed three Comrades races, and supported us along the route. I am truly blessed. – Elize Kempen I was on the finish line shooting mini-videos of our Modern Athlete Pacesetters coming in when I saw Clause picked up and carried on the shoulders of his passengers as they crossed the line. As a result, I shed a wee tear and my voice was breaking as I did commentary with the video, and I didn’t even know about the family connection in the group. That would really have set me off! – Ed. DUTCH GREETINGS First of all, I’ll make an excuse for my writing in English. It sure will not be all right, but I hope you will improve when needed. I want to deliver a story that might be published in your magazine, Modern Athlete. There is an appendix, a photo that’s made in July at the Pick n Pay Knysna Forest Marathon. This was the second time we came from the Netherlands to run the half marathon. And not just me and my travel companions, but also a group children and young adults from Kurland Village were there. Because they were training constant and they show their effort and commitment, we invited them to join us to Knysna! much fun, they were at the festival terrain for several hours and they loved it! I hope you want to publish about this brave young people! Life is hard in Kurland and running is so welcome. The parents of the kids are so grateful to the young trainer who is taking care. Boeta is only 16 years old, but shows responsibility and is very important in this whole plan. And he is a very talented runner also! Kind regards and thanks for your attention! When you want more information or maybe write a special article then I would love to make a contact for you with one of the runners from Kurland. – Marleen Frunt van den Akker, Netherlands Your English is completely understandable, Marleen, and I much appreciate the letter. Always wonderful to hear about new people coming into the sport and learning to love running, even more so when they come from a community where running has not been popular before. I look forward to hearing more about the Kurland Runners. – Ed. In 2016 I was in Kurland, a small township near Plett, to provide training for different groups. There was no organised running before, so we started with just a few runners. It wasn’t very popular in the beginning, but in the last two years it’s growing! I was in Kurland seven times in the last two years and I’m there to motivate my young runners, to learn them how to do their training. A small foundation (Friends of Kurland) takes care for the cost of transport so these runners can go to a run or do a nice beach training now and then. The photo was taken after the half marathon, the youngsters did 5K. They had so VORENTOE VORENTOE RUNNING ACADEMY I • No Turnin CONTACT: Do you need race numbers, medals or shirts for your upcoming event? [email protected] [phone] [phone] IN2SPORTS.CO.ZA 7 Tel [phone]