Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 115, February 2019 | Page 23

ROAD RUNNING
MY
STORY
vivor
Sur
of runners and to find real friends in the running
community. Fortunately, that changed quickly, and I
have to thank so many runners for helping me with
every step of the journey I have been on, and am still
busy with.
Wrong Decisions...
From Drugs & Rejection,
to Running & Acceptance
This is my story... and I hope telling you how running has changed my life as
well as opened up new doors for me will uplift my fellow runners, and especially
inspire young runners to chase your running dreams. It’s been on my heart for
a long time now to share my hopes of becoming an elite athlete, and it would
mean the world to me to achieve that dream. I’m just waiting for the right time
to strike. – BY HERMAN CRONJE
I
am a runner who started at the bottom of the field
in the middle of 2017, from running 10km races
and half marathons, and then later going on to do
my first marathon, clocking 3:21 at the Sanlam Cape
Town Marathon. In 2018 I moved up to the Ultras,
finishing the Two Oceans and the Comrades Down
Run. I also took on the 1000km Challenge and did
1030km in races, all in my first year of running.
I grew up in Brackenfell and was bullied when I was
younger. I also made some bad decisions, and the
wrong friends, who misused me for my positive points.
I never finished school and it went downhill from there,
when so-called friends pulled me into drug abuse.
Those were the worst years of my life. The drugs took
my soul for almost 12 years and turned my life into a
war, with every day being a battle. The struggle was
real when the drug abuse took me to places I never
should have gone, including gangsterism, where
shooting was involved... and if it wasn’t for a small
Bible in my pocket, that the bullet got stuck in, I would
not be here today. Twice, I might add.
After my bullet dodge, I finally realised that help
was needed, and I was fortunate to be treated at a
wonderful place called Family Outreach Ministries in
Graaff-Reinet. I went in at a mere 42kg, and I was so
worn out that anything could have made me collapse.
After a year and 10 months, I came out weighing a
healthy 73kg, and I was fit as well, because I had
been playing cricket while there – and it is thanks to
them and God, who gave me the strength to get to
where I belonged.
Sadly, when I got back home I found out that my
father was ill. He had been a runner when I was
just a little kid, and when I left he was still walking
around, but when I came back he was in a wheelchair.
Eventually he passed away in October 2015, and it
was a very, very big blow to me and the family.
He was not just my dad, but also my sporting
I recently broke 39 minutes for 10km for the first time,
and ran a 1:23 half marathon, but my most treasured
moment was when I broke three hours for the first time
in a marathon, at the 2018 Cape Peninsula Marathon.
I was brought in by Pacesetter Richard Flint in 2:59
that day to secure my A seeding at Two Oceans
and Comrades, and went on to finish both of them
successfully for the first time, and it got me thinking if I
could do that in one year, why not do it again?
It has been a good year and a half for me, and I’ve
enjoyed my races, but I must admit that at first it
was hard for me to find my way through the pack
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