TRAIL RUNNING
It Started With a parkrun
My romantic journey with Brad began thanks to running , but things didn ’ t quite go as smoothly as I originally hoped . Thankfully the opportunity to chat properly was eventually provided by parkrun . – BY BRON ERWEE
Heart racing . Heavy breathing . Sweaty
palms . Tangible anxious energy . Frantic ripples in your stomach . You know the signs … that you ’ re running too fast . This is how Brad and I began our friendship . We had spotted each other around the start of the Modderfontein parkrun for a few weeks , but neither of us attempted to strike up a conversation . Besides , I figured that I would just catch up with him along the wide-open , scenic route , and show him how it ’ s done . He ’ d probably ask about my superb training regime , and the rest would be poetic history ! That was , until the time was counted down and we started running .
Dashing off at a competitive pace , my upright , athletic form crumpled into a wheezing slump within the first 20 metres , straightening up only long enough to see Brad striding smoothly up the hill . What a champion ! Without access to a powerful , enthusiastic Great Dane to pull me up the ‘ mountain ,’ I quickly realised that my running expertise was not going to be consulted that day …
Breathlessness
But one fateful Saturday , I came to learn about Brad ’ s one weakness . We started off as usual , trudging up the torturous hill , Brad taking off at rocket pace . This time , though , I managed to catch up after a while . By the last kilometre , I was ahead enough to pretend that I was taking it easy as I played the conversation through my head . “ My training regime ? Oh , quality ice-cream for energy and calcium intake , and a committed two-minute warm-up .”
I was visualising it so clearly in the last 500m , that I completely missed Brad sprinting past me towards the finish funnel . After scanning through , I stumbled ( almost literally ) upon Brad , sprawled out under a tree , looking as drained as I felt . “ Are you okay ?” I asked . After receiving a feeble thumbs-up , I decided that Brad was not in the right state of mind to receive my wisdom , so I left him to recover , intentions of an icecream recovery reward as my priority .
Conversation-starter
A few weeks later , Brad and I happened to volunteer together one Saturday morning . Besides the obvious but incredibly important reasons of serving your parkrun community and fellow parkrunners , volunteering is also about making new friends and just having all-round great fun , and it happens to be a great opportunity to get to know someone better .
In between greeting happy runners and scanning barcodes , I learnt that Brad ’ s recent exhausted episode was the result of a sports-induced asthma attack , and that he did not remember me offering to bravely and selflessly save his life , but he did manage to recall the colour of the socks I was wearing that day .
He also offered me some training advice ( hey , this is not how I imagined it going !), and confidently assured me that if I ran with him , I would be knocking minutes off my finish time , running half-marathon distances “ for fun ” and achieving my PB goals quicker than Bruce Fordyce completes an ultra-marathon . ( Figuratively , of course …)
Unforgettable Journey
That was six years ago , an in that time I have achieved my PB goals once , and have never run a half marathon . However , Brad and I have travelled to and run more than 100 different parkrun routes , completed more than 250 parkruns each , volunteered more than 90 times collectively , run more timed races than I have place to keep the medals for , started an Instagram page that was featured in a popular running magazine ( Look , Mom , we ’ ve made it !), revelled in countless running adventures , and gotten engaged .
It ’ s been nothing less than a breath-taking journey – pun intended … all because Brad couldn ’ t keep up his showing off . And it started with a parkrun .
Ed ’ s Note
Bron , now you can claim that you have had an article published in another popular running magazine , and you can tell your Mom , “ Look , now we ’ ve really made it !”
This article was originally published in the bi-weekly parkrun South Africa e-newsletter and is republished here with their permission . For more info on their weekly 5km runs all over the country , go to www . parkrun . co . za .
Images : Courtesy Bron Erwee
30 ISSUE 133 SEPTEMBER 2020 / www . modernathlete . co . za