Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 76, November 2015 | Seite 19

FRIEND IN NEED

The race started and Prodigal and Zisandele ran a couple of 10km stretches
here and there with Gerald, while I did just one 10km set and then stuck
to driving. However, their 30km limit each was eventually reached,
as they had to preserve their elite athlete bodies and protect
themselves against overuse injuries, having just come back from
Comrades barely a month before. And so, with 50km to go, when
Gerald wasn’t looking too good, instead of just doing a few
kilometres at a time, I ended up running and walking alongside him
the rest of the way to the finish. He wasn’t taking kindly to stories,
joke-telling or pep talks anymore, so I ran quietly beside him, just
being there while also supplying him with food and drinks.
At about 22 kays to go, he wanted to “lie down for ten minutes.”
I knew that if he did that, he might not be able to get up again and
continue, so I talked him into continuing. Then just 4km from the finish,
he started shivering from the cold, so I took off my very thin T-sh