Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 132, July-Aug 2020 July-August 2020 | Page 8

KALMER’S CORNER Our Modern Athlete Brand Ambassador’s Blog By Rene Kalmer IT IS TIME TO SHINE! Let’s be honest, the lockdown has been hard for all of us, but it does have a few silver linings. For me personally, I love getting to spend more time with our three-year-old daughter, Karli. We are also trying to stick to our level four lockdown ritual of walking or cycling to the local primary school every morning to feed the chickens, ducks and peacocks. I must also be honest, though, in saying that are also days that we plant Karli in front of the TV in order to just get some work done. A win-win for both mother and daughter. age of 13. She couldn’t believe that they were handing out chocolate bars at the waterpoints, and was very tempted to grab some on route. She did make sure that my parents ‘rewarded’ her after the race for all the chocolates she missed out on during the race! I’m forever grateful for the platform SPAR has given me and thousands of other runners to race and perform over the past 30 years. My highlight was definitely winning a car as part of the 2012 Spar Grand Prix series! SPAR has literally been there every step of the way in my running journey, and it feels very strange not to travel to any of the Spar races for the first time in two decades this year. In this time, I have also had time to reflect on my running career by going through some old running photos. I even discovered my first ever official race photo, from my first SPAR race back in 1994, run at Old Eds in Johannesburg. (I still wonder why I was running with two watches…) At the time I was 13 years old, and very excited to be in the same race as my childhood hero, Elana Meyer. Truth be told, I was equally excited about my first ever race T-shirt and goody bag, and 20-odd years later, I still get excited about every goody bag, while I love spotting fellow SPAR Ladies rocking their T-shirts on the road while jogging, or in the gym. I can’t help giving them an extra big smile when seeing our mutual interest. I once even spotted a SPAR race shirt while jogging in a park in Doha in 2010, ahead of the World Indoor Championships. My collection of SPAR race shirts is also coming in very handy while my new baby bump is growing bigger by the day. Fond Memories That all said, never in my wildest dreams could I imagine SPAR playing such a huge role in shaping my running journey. Two years after running that first SPAR 10km at Old Eds in 1994, I shared the podium with running legends Nicole Fuller and Sonja Laxton. A year later, I won my first SPAR race in 1997 at the age of 17, in Port Elizabeth, where I also set a new course record of 33 minutes 31 seconds. I still remember the whole Kalmer family travelling down to the Friendly City in our blue Kombi, where my sister Christine also took part in her first SPAR 10km at the Sun on the Horizon But wait, I have great news! SPAR is calling on all runners who would normally be taking part in the SPAR Women’s Challenge to #BeSunshine on the 26th of September, when they will be hosting the SPAR Women’s Virtual Challenge, and women from all walks of life can run or walk any distance between 5km and 10km, between 6am and 6pm. The entry fee is only R50, and includes a limited-edition race T-shirt, a buff and a race magazine! Furthermore, for every entry, SPAR will also donate a food parcel to a survivor of gender-based violence, so every entry counts! SPAR is also aiming to set a Guinness World Record for the biggest women’s virtual challenge, so if you want to be a record-breaker, get your entry in. Women from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State, North West and Northern Cape will be able to enter South Africa’s most beautiful SPAR Women’s Virtual Challenge. There will be limited entries available for interested women in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. I really do love the Sunshine theme, as yellow symbolises happiness, optimism and positivity. In these uncertain times, we can all do with a little extra sunshine in our life. I will be 32 weeks pregnant by the 26th of September, so I will be shuffling rather than running on the day, but I’m looking forward to taking part with my family, and spreading some sunshine. See you on the road! About the Author: René Kalmer is a two-time Olympian, having represented SA in the 1500m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and in the marathon at the 2012 London Games. She has also won more than 40 SA titles in track, road and cross country at youth, junior and senior level, in distances from 800m to the half marathon. Images: Courtesy René Kalmer 8 ISSUE 132 JULY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za