ROAD RUNNING
Rupert with a pile of his retired shoes the support he received from the running community saw him through this expensive part of the challenge .
“ One runner that I ran with told me that he wanted to buy my next pair , so we went to Runaway Sport together ,” recalls Rupert . “ That was the same time as the Tokyo Olympics , for which Asics had brought out a special edition Nimbus 21 , and the owner of the store gave me another five pairs ! Other people would just contact me out of the blue and offer to sponsor another pair , and somehow , when I knew a pair was close to finished , I would get another call . It always worked out well , and I can ’ t thank the running community enough for all their help and support .”
Supporting daughters , even in the rain
Getting the family involved whenever possible
“ I must say , though , I got quite used to the routine , getting up at 3am and running at 3:30 , then back home at 6am to get ready for work and take the kids to school . Then I would run again at lunchtime , and after work I would join a running club group … but that was also a challenge , as I couldn ’ t just run with them and say bye soon as we finished , I needed to stick around for a cooldrink and a chat , to get them involved and committed to supporting the challenge .”
Rupert also says that he tried hard to include his family in the challenge , such as getting his daughters to ride their bikes with him while he ran , or running around the local park near them while they walked the dogs . His daughters also joined him here and there for some of his round the house runs , and parkruns . “ In the end , my family played a big part in this project , and I couldn ’ t have done it without them .”
Community Support
Another challenge was replacing worn out shoes , given that the average pair of running shoes can do around 800 to 1000km before they are worn out . With Rupert eventually covering around 28,000 kilometres , he ended up going through some 25 pairs , and said
Rupert says that getting to run on many different routes and in different areas , with different groups , really helped him keep the challenge going . “ I took advantage of every opportunity to run in new places , including in the Cape during family or business trips , and I also ran in Lichtenburg and PE while on business trips . I would contact the local running clubs and join them for a run , but most of my runs were in and around Pretoria , and often Joburg as well . Everywhere I went , people made me feel welcome and took an interest in what I was doing .”
Coping with the Pain
Unsurprisingly , Rupert ’ s body rebelled at the constant physical workload of running marathons on consecutive days , and besides his issues in that first week , he says he had regular hamstring and shin issues , but thankfully not serious enough to prevent him from running . “ I think it was only by God ’ s grace that I suffered no serious injuries , nor got sick during the challenge … but I definitely still experienced a lot of pain . Funny story , I was talking to my bio the one day and said , it ’ ll be easier if you rather ask me to describe what doesn ’ t hurt , that will save both of us a lot of time ! Luckily my medical team understood the motivation for my challenge , and were prepared to help me keep going , not just tell me to quit ,” says Rupert .
“ I realised early that pain would be a constant companion in the challenge , so I decided to see how much pain I could withstand . Some days , my muscles were so sore that I couldn ’ t tell if it was an injury or just soreness , and of course I thought about skipping those days , but I always talked myself into pushing
on , and every single time , I began feeling better as my muscles relaxed . I actually enjoyed those runs , and often finished stronger than I started . As they say , it ’ s not how you start , but how you finish , and I experienced that every day , especially on the first run of each day .”
Another lesson Rupert Learnt along the way was that his body needed a bit of diversity . “ In November 2020 I did the 947 Ride Joburg after running a marathon in the morning before the ride . That was an interesting day ! I expected to struggle with the ride , but it actually felt like a good recovery , and the next day when running , I felt great , so I started adding two rides of about 10km a week to relax the muscles . I also found that 20 to 30 minutes of post-run stretching really helped to keep me going .
Overcoming pain and exhaustion took a lot of mental strength
Images : Courtesy Rupert van Vuuren , Jean Brummer , Groot FM , Abigail Van Vuuren
22 ISSUE 148 JANUARY 2021 | www . modernathlete . co . za