Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 119, June 2019 | Page 9
Have Your SAY
LETTERS
Got something on your mind that you want to share, a burning question you want answered, or a
good story to tell? Then send it to [email protected], and add a pic if you can. Letters
should preferably be no more than 300 words long, and pics must be high-resolution to be usable.
(Note that letters may be shortened due to space limitations.)
EDITOR’S PICK
THANKS TO THE SUPPORTERS
Run Cango, they said. You’ll get a PB, they said. Downhill all the way,
they said. Well, yes, that may well be so, but when you die at the Cango,
you DIE at the Cango! My beautiful sub-five turned into a murderous
sub-six, when everything but everything went wrong with about 15km
to go. It was so over for me. I couldn’t even run… I was going to have to
walk the last 15km of that ‘godsverlate vlakte,’ amongst tumbleweeds,
vultures and green plastic sachets. All that was missing was the theme
music from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!
I don’t think I have ever come so close to giving up on a race. But
there is magic in every race. The infantrymen at the water stations
were amazing. So friendly, so helpful, so full of energy and vibe. One
wonderful man came running towards my pathetic self, holding handfuls
of sachets of ice cold water. Another sprayed me down. Another helped
me squeeze water into the water bottle I was carrying. One ran with a
struggling runner coming up behind me, holding her arm, encouraging
her and making her laugh.
And then there was this bakkie that kept passing me. They were
supporting some other lost soul out on that white-hot road to hell. Every
time the girls sitting in the back saw me, they would whoop and cheer.
“Kom, Tannie! Tannie kan dit maak!” And every time I heard them, I lifted
my head out of my pain cave and smiled and waved and felt better.
And then there was the finish. People cheered as if I were a winner and
the sound of the cut-off gun a mere legend to frighten weak runners. I
approached the last corner of that dusty field of damnation, and heard
RUNNING NOT AN ELITES ONLY SPORT
I am a long distance road runner with 15 Comrades Marathons and
several marathons to my name. Of late I have taken note of the way
races have become expensive. Most are over R200, which
means an average runner needs to spend between R200
and R300 per marathon to run it, including transport
to the race and snacks. This is going to cripple
the love and courage to run, and races are
going to suffer dwindling entries.
With the economic impact of
basic necessities becoming
expensive, more runners
tend to stay home and
use money to buy home
necessities as a priority.
Also, many runners now
prefer a single qualifier
race and then train on their
own for major races like
Comrades and Two Oceans.
the runners from Century City AC, sitting in the shade of their yellow
gazebo, clapping and cheering for me as if I were one of their own. As I
hauled myself up by the scruff of my sunburnt neck and made myself run
to the end – because one does not simply WALK across the finish line –
they all stood up and cheered. I was getting a standing ovation!
The merciless sun couldn’t make me cry. My painful knee, hips, back,
neck and stomach couldn’t make me cry. That last stretch of road
couldn’t make me cry. But Century City AC runners, your support in the
last few metres almost turned me into a blubbering wreck.
Thank you to all the supporters out there. You have no idea how much it
helps to have someone call out some encouragement. And next time you
see someone out there, doing some dumbass thing like run a whole lot
further than is sane, throw your inhibitions under a bus and cheer!
– Deirdre Hewitson, via Facebook
Your graphic descriptions of the warzone that your race became made
this a letter I had to share with the readers. – Ed.
Road running should not be seen as an elite sport. Race organisers
should do more to keep road running affordable, by looking for more
sponsorship, which should assist to carry the cost of organising the race,
and should be able to encourage young aspiring runners to preserve this
sport while keeping fit to avoid obesity and terminal diseases. We should
be able to encourage the young ones to take up road running without
second-guessing their reaction to entry fees. – Muntonezwi Khanyile,
Johannesburg
Go find more sponsors... If only it were that simple! Economic times are
tight, sponsors are scarce, or reducing their commitments, and race
organisers are having to adjust pricing accordingly. That said, prices
should not be pushed so far up that runners of lesser means are priced
out of the sport. – Ed.
NAME AND SHAME THE LITTERERS
To the idiot who will probably call himself a runner, throwing his water
sachets on the ground during the Zevenwacht Farm Trail for Cancer, and
having the audacity to say, “It is not my problem” when taken to task by
a few TRUE runners who run clean, you don’t deserve to run on the road
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