Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 74, September 2015 | Página 13

my diet at that stage consisted purely out of
take-away meals – all family meal sizes for me
alone – plus four litres of fizzy cooldrink a day!”

Images: Courtesy Jacques Conradie

Overnight he cut out all the junk food
and started ordering healthy meals from
PaleoMonkey, and on the physical side, he
took the proverbial plunge – by heading
straight up Lion’s Head for a Sleekgeek group
hike. “I threw myself into the deep-end with
gusto, dragging my 191.4 kilograms up there,
and while I only made it to the first ladder and
back, I felt liberated.” The hike was just the
start, and the following weekend Jacques did
his first parkrun – although he refers to those
first attempts at running as park crawls – and
he hired a personal trainer to work with him at
home, because he was still too embarrassed
to be seen in a gym. But by the end of
December he had already lost 13.2kg.

community were outstanding, as were the
runners I began to meet at races! They were
the cheerleaders that were missing in my
previous attempts to lose weight. Failing
was no longer an option, not with so many
eyes upon my journey, and by the end of
that second month, another 11.9kg had
disappeared. I also finally conquered Lions
Head on my second attempt.”

QUITE THE SOCIALITE

then with more and more other runners as
well. “Every aspect of my life just became
better, bit by bit. I had more energy, better
sleep, more activities, and was meeting more
diverse people. I think I may have gone a
bit overboard on the Sleekgeek page with
constant updates of my journey, but it seems
that after years of hiding in the shadows, I
had found a place to come out, and yes, I can
talk a lot… but if that inspires just one person
to do the same, it’s all worth it.”

Besides losing weight, Jacques began to
undergo another big change. Having been
totally reclusive for years, he now started to
enjoy socialising with fellow athletes. At first
it was mostly with fellow Sleekgeeks, but

Today, you will find Jacques lining up for
just about every trail run he can find on the
calendar, almost always with a camera in his
hand, and his Facebook page is full of pics

Loving every step at the Spur Cape
Summer Trail Series

In January 2014 he did his first trail runs at
the Spur Summer Trail Series and Dirtopia,
and says he still remembers how excited
he was to earn his first race medals. “I
then decided that 2014 would be a year
of participation – not competing, but
participating, in every damn event I could
find. I went for a medical check-up and they
found nothing wrong with me, so I had no
excuse not to throw myself into everything,
and you know, I enjoyed every moment of
it. During this whole process the Sleekgeek

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