Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 61, August 2014 | Page 11

By race day she felt a bit better and decided to
start and just see how she felt, and found herself
in the lead for the first six kilometres. However,
she was still feeling a bit weak and thus drinking
a lot of water, and was passed by Leilani Scheffer.
She retook the lead at 10km and opened a twominute lead, but at 20km she ran out of water.
“It was actually quite scary, because I began to

into my mouth and I bit as hard as I could.
He pulled his hand away suddenly and one of
my teeth was pulled out, and then suddenly
he ran away. I still don’t know what made him
run, but I stood up and ran back up the trail
to a nearby house, where I asked for help.
The people phoned my parents and cleaned
me up.”

I would love to do trail running overseas and
compete at a high level, but I think I must
give myself time to reach all my goals here
first
feel dizzy and felt I might fall off the mountain.
Luckily I got some water from one of the men,
and four kilometres later I filled my water
bladder at the last water table. But then the
race really became very technical, and I was
drinking a lot again, and would you believe
it, I ran out of water again! The whole time I
thought Leilani was chasing me, but I didn’t
know she had already dropped out somewhere
around 18 due to an injury, so I kept pushing.
I have never felt so physically challenged, but
with 5km to go I reached a stream, could get a
solid drink and then pushed for home.”

NASTY EXPERIENCE

The fact that Danette is still running is
testament to her character. In 2009, she was
doing a 16km training run with two clubmates
on the ‘Bergpad’ trail above Stellenbosch,
when she got separated from her training
partners. “I was the slowest of the three at the
time and they pulled about 100m in front of
me as we went through a twisting section of
the trail. I came around a corner and suddenly
there was a man in the middle of the road with
a knife. It happened so quickly – he grabbed
me by my hair and dragged me into the
bushes, then threw me to the ground.”

Apart from a few scratches and the tooth,
she was relatively unharmed, but the mental
scars remained for some time. “At first I could
only run on the track at Coetzenberg. Then a
few weeks later I managed to run around my
block, but as soon as I saw another person I
would turn around and go the other way. My
father actually followed me in the car for a
few months, but gradually I began to regain
my confidence, and I decided that I wasn’t
going to let it ruin my outlook on life, or stop
me running. Now I am just more careful and
avoid overgrown areas or roads where I can’t
see ahead.”

TOP RUNNERS

Danette was recently signed up to the
Contego Trail Running Team, and she
trains with Jacques Janse van Rensburg’s
group in Stellenbosch, which includes
Landie and Christiaan Greyling, Michael
Bailey, Kane Reilley and Chantal Nienaber,
who have all represented SA in Trail
World Champs. “I really wanted to be
part of this group and was incredibly
nervous for my first session, knowing who
I was training with, but they are all so
motivating, because I can see how hard
they work. Jacques also makes training fun
and interesting, so a lot of my success is
thanks to him.”
Naturally, Danette says she would love to
turn professional as a runner – what she
describes as the ultimate dream – but is
not yet at that level. “It’s all still new and
sudden for me, and you can’t plan too far
ahead, because your body must adapt
to the running. I would love to do trail
running overseas and compete at a high
level, but I think I must give myself time
to reach all my goals here first, and if the
opportunity then comes to race overseas,
and see the world, that would be terrific.”

Danette and Helene finished third in the
women’s category at AfricanX 2014.

Images: Jetline Action Photo & courtesy Outsider Communications

“I screamed, so he stepped on my face, but
I kept screaming and he tried to put his hand
over my mouth, but one of his fingers slipped
On her way to
winning the
Bastil