Our Modern Athlete Brand Ambassador ’ s Blog
KALMER ’ S CORNER kalmer ’ s corner by RENÉ KALMER
Spreading Some Sunshine
This past month I had the pleasure of being part of the SPAR Women ’ s Virtual Challenge , and once again I saw that when you can ’ t find the sunshine , you can be the sunshine !
Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that the year 2020 would be just one big blur . It seems we had barely pinned our 2020 licence numbers on , before facemasks became a compulsory accessory , and words like social distancing , sanitise and the “ new normal ” became part of our daily vocabulary . Suddenly we were ‘ under house-arrest ’ for five weeks , during which some of us mastered new skills such as skipping rope , baking banana bread and brewing pineapple beer !
We went from planning our next long run or Comrades qualifier , to running crazy laps of the “ garden route .” Of course , some runners took crazy to the next level , like Eddie Mouton from George , who ran the combined distances of Two Oceans 56km and Comrades ( 90km ), plus a little extra to make 160km in total , by running up and down his corridor at home , in one day ! button . Staying motivated was a struggle to begin with , with no races in sight . Luckily , SPAR then announced that “ the sunshine will not be cancelled ,” and launched the SPAR Women ’ s Virtual Challenge . I immediately counted the weeks , not to race day , but how far along in my pregnancy I would be .
At 32 weeks on race day , I realised that running a 10km would be highly unlikely , never mind chasing a pregnancy PB . I had set my 10km pregnancy PB of 43:10 doing the Wonder Women Justice League Virtual 10km at 24 weeks , but my pregnancy running had gone pretty much pear-shaped after that . Nevertheless , I was excited to be spreading some sunshine with thousands of other runners in the SPAR challenge , and I also surprised my sister-in-law , also Rene , and her running group in Hartenbos with race entries . They went all out and had an absolute blast spreading sunshine on the promenade in Hartenbos !
The highlight in the lead-up to the race was spending an afternoon with the ladies from the Irene Homes for the Mentally Disabled , along with Elana Afrika Bredekamp from Jacaranda FM . These ladies were responsible for packing the 30,000 race packs and it was touching to see how much love and care went into each race pack . Even though the ladies were very disappointed that I was just a runner , and not an actress from 7e Laan , I drove home with a grateful heart . I will never take any goodie bag for granted again in the future .
Joining the Yellow Wave
Along with my girls from the Vorentoe Running Academy , I was invited to join the SPAR activation at
Marks Park on race day , as lockdown restrictions had eased down in September . Our pre-race rituals looked a bit different this year , as Elana led the warm up with the Jerusalema dance , and for the record , I blame my baby bump for my lack of rhythm in the warm-up . We then enjoyed a lovely 5km walk around Emmerentia Dam , along with the ladies from the Hannah Charity . It was also an honour to meet Ria Adam , the first winner of the SPAR Women ’ s Challenge race in Durban 31years ago .
Bright yellow social media posts from my friends and their families , all dressed in the official event T-shirts and buffs , flooded my timeline for the rest of the weekend . I ’ m also very proud of my teammates from the Murray & Roberts Running Club that took up the challenge and showed their support to our favourite 10km series .
Overall , the first ever SPAR Virtual Challenge was a huge success , with more than 30,000 racers taking up the challenge . That unofficially broke the record for the world ’ s biggest women ’ s virtual challenge , according to the Guinness World Records , but the SPAR Executive team decided not to spend the R350,000 required to make the record official . Instead , SPAR used that money to add more items to the food parcels given to 30,000 survivors of gender-based violence and their families that benefitted from this amazing challenge .
So , a huge shout-out to the SPAR Women ’ s Virtual Challenge for bringing so much urgently-needed sunshine back into our lives , and proving that no matter what was cancelled this year , the resilience , optimism and unity of our nation cannot be cancelled !
Timely Good News
Dreams were deferred as races like Two Oceans , Comrades and even the Olympic Games got cancelled , and we were forced to press the reset
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
10
ISSUE 134 OCTOBER 2020 / www . modernathlete . co . za