This was supposed to be Joanna Maingard’s big running
year. Then COVID-19 arrived, international travel was
stopped, running events were put on hold, and Jo had to
do a rethink. The original plan she had put together was
ambitious: To run eight international marathons in eight
countries in just over three months, all to raise money
for a cause close to her family’s heart. Unfortunately, the
pandemic forced those plans to be put on ice, but that
wasn’t going to stop Jo from running, or fundraising!
– BY SEAN FALCONER
Images: Jetline Action Photo & courtesy Joanna Maingard
Dream Big. Those are the words that Joanna
Maingard lives by in everything she does,
including when she tackles long distance
running and triathlon events. Dream Big is also
the name the 25-year-old industrial psychologist
from Durban chose for her 2020 World Marathon
Fundraiser plan, which would see her run the Tralee,
London, Prague, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Stockholm,
Midnight Sun and Hamburg Marathons, in Ireland, the
UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden,
Norway and Germany respectively. And she would do
this to raise funds for the Coshulwazi Crèche in the
KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, to honour the memory of her
late cousin, Jenna, who passed away aged just 12.
“It was going to be a fairly hectic schedule over three
months. The plan was for me to stay in Ireland for the
first few weeks and run the first marathon, then head
over to London,” says Jo. “Actually, the original plan
didn’t include London, but when my aunt got an entry,
I decided I wanted to run with her, so I wrote to Save
the Rhino International and told them my story, and
somehow I got in, too, on a charity entry. As a result,
I was going to run London to raise money for rhino’s,
while also raising funds for the crèche. The trip was
going to finish with Hamburg, followed by two weeks
in Portugal with friends, with the sole purpose of
resting and eating as much as I liked as I recovered!”
“Besides the fundraising angle, I wanted to do the
eight marathons so close together because I wanted
to strip myself down to the core and see what I can
achieve. I believe that you are capable of more than
you can conceive, so you need to push your limits.
Also, like Zac Effron in the Down to Earth series on
Netflix, travelling the world to see how people live
healthily, I planned to do something similar, to build
Jo’s late cousin Jenna
my wellness library and
experience as part of learning
for my job. But the main reason
was to raise funds in memory of
my cousin, so when the trip had
to be called off due to the pandemic,
I had to go through a sort of grieving
process,” she says.
Taken Too Soon
Jo tells the story that even though Jenna was nine
years younger than her, they were quite close.
They also had a strong familial resemblance, and
sometimes were even mistaken for each other. “In
April 2016, Jenna was on holiday on our family farm
in the Midlands when she caught what we all thought
was normal flu. When she didn’t get better, my aunt
and uncle took her to hospital, where she spent a
month in ICU, but she just kept deteriorating.”
“I was in Stellenbosch at the time, busy with my
studies, and I used to send her voice notes that her
mom would play to her. On 17 May, I ran the FNB
Cape Town 12 ONERUN, and later that day, I just
had this feeling I needed to go home, so I phoned my
mom and told her I was flying home to see Jenna. She
was on a ventilator and we weren’t sure if she could
hear us, but the doctors said she could. Two days
later she passed away. She was only 12, and had no
previous health issues, so it was a massive shock for
the whole family… but we also took a lesson from it,
to live life to the fullest at all times. Now everything I
do is in Jenna’s memory.”
This saw Jo decide to dedicate part of 2020 to
raising funds for the Coshulwazi Crèche, an informal
township school situated about 3km from the family
farm. “It’s a cause very close to my heart, as my
family adopted the crèche in 2016 after the passing of
my cousin. We decided as a family to take the crèche
under our wing, so we’ve built a new roof, erected a
new ablution facility – because they had no running
toilet – and put in a Jojo tank to collect water. Every
Christmas and Easter we also give gifts to the kids,”
she says.
“I’ve always wanted to use my passion for running
for something bigger than myself, so when I decided
in December last year that I wanted to run eight
marathons in eight different countries, I thought this
would be a great chance to see more of the world and
give back. My goal with the challenge was to raise
R90,603 – Jenna’s birthdate was 9 June 2003 – in
order to build another classroom for the crèche, which
caters to around 60 children aged two to six. They
have too little space in just one building for all the kids
to learn in.”
On Hold, For Now…
With the trip to Europe cancelled, Jo says she found
herself looking for a new running challenge. Having
run the Soweto and Sani Stagger marathons last
November, which were just three weeks apart and
had prompted her to dream up the eight-marathon
challenge, she had kept her training up in preparation
for the big trip. But when lockdown began and level
five restrictions meant that running could only be
done around one’s house, Jo says she made the most
of it. “I was house-sitting for my parents in Mount
Edgecombe, and I gave it a try by running loops
around the house. It wasn’t great, but at least I could
still run.”
Jo is raising funds for the Coshulwazi Crèche
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