SPECIAL FEATURE
Running Rescuer of Animals
Wild animals are unpredictable , as professional vet and elite trail runner Naomi Brand has found out a number of times in both her working and running careers , but that hasn ’ t diminished her desire to work with and help care for them .
– BY SEAN FALCONER
A
rhinoceros can run at 50km / h , whereas even the fastest humans can only get close to 30km / h – and then only for a short distance – so you definitely want to avoid being charged by an angry rhinoceros ! Naomi Brand knows this all too well , after she endured a frightening encounter with a black rhino a few years ago while running in the reserve where she was working at the time . “ I was actually very lucky , because they don ’ t see well and can ’ t gauge distance , but their sense of smell is very good , and when they can ’ t figure out what something is , they tend to charge ,” she explains .
“ That rhino was extra aggressive and chased me for two kilometres , which is far for a rhino to run . I only managed to get away when I turned off the trail and he couldn ’ t see me any more . Then I just collapsed next to the thorn tree I was about to climb in desperation … because , of course , when you need a tree to climb , there are only thorn trees around !” recalls Naomi .
“ Another memory that really stands out was during the Rooiberg Fresh Trail 40km in Thabazimbi , when I helped rescue a kudu stuck in a fence . Thabang Madiba and I were leading the race , with him just a little ahead of me , when we passed a small herd of kudu . One of the babies got a fright and ran into a fence , got its feet stuck and began thrashing around . I was leading the women ’ s race , but I stopped to help the animal , as did a few other runners coming up behind me . While we were trying to free the kudu , the secondplaced woman went past and took the lead , but the third-placed woman was Marianne Simmerlink , another vet , and she also stopped to help , as did my fiancé Xavier . By The time we had released the young kudu , my throat had unfortunately closed up due to asthma , so I had to withdraw , but Marianne eventually caught that other woman to take the win .”
Naomi adds that there have been plenty of snake encounters through the years . “ Xavier said I actually ran right past a snake in Tanzania , when we ran around Lake Malawi . I apparently brushed it with my leg , but it only slithered into the path and stood upright after I had passed . Luckily ! Oh , and I once went for a run on the farm back home , and found an injured wild cat stuck in a bush . It scratched the living daylights out of me while I freed it and then carried it to where I could release it again !”
Passion for Animals
Naomi ( 32 ) and Xavier , a professional photographer , have spent the past year in the UK , where she worked as a vet in Cumbria , but now they are preparing to head to New Zealand in March . Her sister Adri , also a vet , is already in New Zealand , while her other sister , Alae , is working as a medical doctor in Australia . “ I
want to do my Masters degree in wildlife veterinary practice in New Zealand , because they actually pay for research , but it means I will have to stay there for two years ,” says Naomi .
Her passion for animals stems from her days growing up on the family farm near Velddrif , just north of Cape Town on the West Coast . She says the family did a count once and worked out that they had 68 different pets or animals that they had cared for through the years , including a caracal kitten and penguin chick . Naomi even had a little hedgehog as a pet at one stage . “ I heard about a domesticated one that needed a new home and could not be released , so I agreed to ‘ rescue ’ it , but unfortunately it had a tumour and did not survive . I hated keeping it in a cage , but I also learnt a lot about them , and that knowledge proved useful this past year in the UK , where I had to treat many wild hedgehogs brought in injured .”
Looking ahead , Naomi says she would prefer to focus on working with wildlife . “ More and more people are getting pets , notably bred dogs that often can ’ t even breathe properly , so I don ’ t want to work in that veterinary field . In terms of working with wildlife , I ’ m torn between marine animals , after growing up near the sea , and big game – I love working giraffes and elephants . So it will depend on what support I get in my research , be it on elephants or pangolins . After that , I would like to come back to Africa and help with conservation work here at home .”
Running Talent
Naomi has been running since her primary school days , and has run at provincial and national level in both cross-country and road running , and was identified as one of the top 10 upcoming female athletes that took part in the Comrades Marathon in 2015 . However , her focus has been on ultra trail running for the past several years .
Her good form in 2017 saw her win the Addo Elephant 100 Miler in a time that took a massive five hours off the women ’ s course record , and she also won the Chokka Ultra Trail 70km and Karkloof 100 Miler . Towards the end of that year she added a third position in the Ultra-Trail Cape Town ( UTCT ) 100km , which she says was particularly satisfying . “ The medics wanted to pull me off the course a few times , because I was so pale , but I have been anaemic for years , hence sometimes collapsing at the finish of races .”
Then in 2018 she finished second woman and third overall in the Addo Elephant 76km , which served as the SA Champs and a selection race for the 2018 World Ultra Trail Champs in Spain . Unfortunately , Athletics South Africa eventually pulled the plug on the SA team going to Valencia , but in spite of that disappointment , Naomi says she can still look back on many highlights in the last few years , including a top 15 at Ultra-Trail Mont Blanc ( UTMB ), a podium finish in the Tarawera ultra in New Zealand , and winning the Ultra-Trail Drakensberg as well as the Salt Pans Ultra in Botswana .
Images : Xavier Briel & courtesy Tarawera Ultra
18 ISSUE 138 FEBRUARY 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za