TRAIL RUNNING
Eric and Juan celebrate their win looking too far ahead , and he is not yet sure how long he will keep running competitively – especially given the news that wife Maxine , herself a former athlete , is pregnant with their second child , due towards the end of this year . Their first child , daughter Makenna , is now nearly three years old .
“ Each year I talk to my family , to decide if we can afford the sacrifices needed for me to focus on running , as I want to be able to spend more time with Maxine , Makenna and the new baby ,” says Juan . “ But you make those sacrifices and then the race doesn ’ t ’ materialise … I don ’ t want to go through that again . I thought if I could run a good Comrades last year , and then another this year , then I would decide after that if I am going to continue running professionally . So now it depends on what happens at Comrades next year .” coming home with a great win . “ I chose Om Die Dam instead of Two Oceans because 50km was a shorter jump than 56km , and I handled it well throughout , never went past 85 % effort , so I felt rested ahead of Comrades ,” he says .
“ But it was one of the last races before everything got locked down . Comrades did not get cancelled immediately , so I bought myself a second-hand treadmill the day before lockdown started , and I was determined to keep up my training , but I ran so hard on it that I cracked the board that the belt runs along ! I couldn ’ t get that fixed during lockdown , so got my Dad to try fix it . We tried a piece of wood , but I broke that too , so then we put in a piece of steel , and that worked ... but then Comrades got cancelled , so I decided to take it a bit easier .”
Given his age and where he is at in his career , Juan says he is just taking it one day at a time for now , not
Juan is already looking ahead to what comes next , when he does eventually hang up his running shoes . He has been juggling part-time work as a trader with his training for some years , and is currently busy with his studies to become a chartered financial analyst . “ I was supposed to write my final level three examination last June , but due to lockdown I am now writing this May . Once qualified , I want to go full-time in the financial industry , but I will still be training for Comrades , if work allows . The thing is , I cannot put in as much time as I need on the work front if I am also doing morning and afternoon training sessions , so I cannot do this indefinitely , unless I do really well , so there is a lot riding on this coming Comrades .”
Teamwork and playing to each other ’ s strengths ensured the AFRICANX win
Juan enjoying the challenge of trail
Top Open Category Results
After three days of racing , this is how the top three teams finished in each of the main categories , with their combined times for the three stages .
Open Men ’ s Teams
1 Juan van Deventer & Eric Ngubane ( Nedbank 1 ) 5:08:36 2 Lloyd Bosman & Ettienne Plaaitjies ( Nedbank 4 ) 5:11:13 3 Thabang Madiba & Renier Grobler ( Murray & Roberts ) 5:16:34
Open Women ’ s Teams
1 Danette Walley & Vicky van der Merwe ( STS ) 6:36:21 2 Deanne Laubscher & Chrizell Roberts ( Nedbank Women ) 6:41:38 3 Jeannie Henderson & Kate Rees ( Old Mountain Goats ) 6:53:52
Open Mixed Teams
1 Kallie Burger & Charne Bosman ( 40 Strong ) 6:09:12 2 Natalie Sterk & Nico Sterk ( AFRICANX SterkSpan ) 6:13:59 3 Samantha Bieske & Ryan Eichstadt ( The Badgers ) 6:17:27
Images : Tobias Ginsberg & courtesy Blake Dyason ; Video courtesy Brett Martin
36 ISSUE 140 APRIL 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za