One man on a marathon mission |
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Proudly holding a Loskop finisher ’ s medal in 2018 |
Rupert with wife Sandra and daughters Abigail and Arné |
However , even with two or three shorter runs a day instead of a single 42.2km effort , Rupert says his body took severe strain as the days went on . “ I can ’ t even begin to describe the physical trauma I went through … but funny enough I did get used to it . In fact , around day 100 , I began feeling comfortable in the running , and actually started going faster , much to my surprise . It ’ s incredible what the human body is capable of ... I ’ m no star athlete , and I have no genetic advantage , but I am determined , and I soon realised how big the mental side of running is . It determines how you perform and what you can achieve .”
A Running Background
Rupert ( 47 ) was born in Pretoria and has lived all over South Africa , thanks to his father often moving for work in the mining industry . “ We moved a lot during my primary school years , until eventually settling in Vanderbijlpark when I was in Standard 4 . Later we did two years in Swakopmund in Namibia , then it was on to Hartbeespoort Dam , and eventually back to Pretoria .” Today Rupert is also part of the mining industry , working for his brother Rudolph ’ s PROMAX business that looks after control applications for equipment in processing plants at various mines around the country .
He lives in Pretoria with his wife and two daughters , aged 11 and 9 , and also has a recording studio at his home , where he is involved in the Afrikaans music industry . Over the years he has worked with well-known artists such as Jo Black , Riana Nel , Steve Hofmeyer and Laurika Rauch , but these days is more focused on indie and gospel artists .
In terms of his running background , Rupert says it began when he ran his first 60-metre sprint in Sub-A in the Karoo . “ I ’ ve never forgotten the feeling of the wind in my hair . I don ’ t remember much else of my early schooling , but I remember that . I focused on the sprints in primary school , then middle distance in high school , but by then I was playing cricket , so only running for fitness , often with my Dad , doing five to 10 kilometres .”
“ After school , we moved to Swakopmund and I stopped running for two years , and it was only when I got back to Pretoria , around 2013 or 2014 , that I entered the Deloitte Marathon on the spur of the moment … and almost died ! At 18km , I simply
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couldn ’ t run any more , and I remember at the split , where the 21km runners turned off to finish , I stood there , thinking about quitting , but then a little girl came running up with a water sachet , and I decided to keep going . I eventually finished in over five hours , and once I had recovered after a few days , I decided to try another marathon a few months later , but this time I was determined to do it better .” That second marathon went much better , and Rupert began running regularly as an outlet for work stress . “ When I came home from work looking stressed , my wife would even tell me to put on my tekkies and go for a run ,” he recalls . |
By 2018 he felt ready to tackle the big ultras and thus pre-entered both the 2019 Two Oceans and Comrades Marathons , but the night before he was due to fly to Cape Town for Oceans , he fell sick . “ I was sick as a dog with swine flu , so decided to skip Two Oceans and rather do Comrades , but by June I still had not recovered and had to miss that one , too . I did do the Virtual Comrades the last two years , running the full distance in around 10 hours , and the 2020 edition fitted nicely into my marathon challenge , as it counted as two marathons in a single day !”
Following in Legends ’ Footsteps
Rupert took inspiration for his 1000-day marathon challenge from reading about other runners who had tackled similar challenges . Firstly , there was American ultra-runner Dean Karnazes , whose many running achievements included running 50 marathons in 50 US states on 50 consecutive days in 2006 , but even more influential was Spanish runner Ricardo Abad Martinez , who holds the Guinness World Record for consecutive marathons on consecutive days . “ He ran 607 marathons in 607 days from 2010 to 2012 , and he also ran to raise money for ANFAS , a Spanish organisation that works to help people with intellectual disabilities ,” explains Rupert .
The incredible thing about the Spaniard ’ s feat is that he worked flexible eight-hour shifts in a factory throughout his challenge , so he would alternate running his marathons for one week during the mornings , then another week during the afternoons , and for another week during the night . Because of this , he would sometimes run two marathons in less than 12 hours , when his shifts changed , and could
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Images : Courtesy Rupert van Vuuren , Jean Brummer , Groot FM , Abigail Van Vuuren |