Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 76, November 2015 | Page 23

at Pukke in Potchefstroom, where he also became a regular road
runner. Then in 1978 a friend at varsity entered him for the Two
Oceans down in Cape Town. “Luckily my dad worked for the
railways, so I got a free ticket, and I pitched up and just did a
56km run in five hours 44 minutes. I was almost dead! In those
days you didn’t need to qualify, so I had gone from nowhere to
my first ultra.”

MY GOAL

To Be a Runner

And more was to follow… “At Oceans they handed out a small A5
flyer for Comrades, entry was something like R5, but because I
was still under-age, I had to get my dad to sign it, so I waited till
he was reading the newspaper and just slipped it in front of him.
The week before the race I went to ask him for some money and
he said, ‘Over my dead body will you run Comrades!’ So I traded
in all my empty cooldrink bottles and off I went to Comrades with
R10 in my pocket – that was enough to pay for petrol, food and
accommodation for myself and my friend Ferdi Botha, who went
with to second me!”

My goal when I started running was to be able to call
myself a runner. It took me a while, but I got there. –
BY LIZETTE DU PLESSIS

I

’m definitely not built like a runner. I’m not fast, nor am I breaking any
records (other than my own personal bests), and the only reason I started
running was because someone told me that I cannot do a half marathon. So
my friend and I started training… but while she complained about it, I secretly
enjoyed it. I loved that burning feeling in my lungs when you’re just about
tapped out from doing sprints over and over and over again.
I especially loved early morning training. The sunrise, the smell of a fresh
morning rainfall, and so on. It just became second nature to me. Even if I was
hung-over from the night before, I would still make myself go out and run,
because nothing cures a hangover like a long hard run!

Today Wiets has run over 530 standard marathons and over 200 ultras
– he only keeps a log of the long ones, because everything shorter
than 42km is just a training run – and he can also look back on some
great race walking memories. “I was organising a club trip to PE for
the Train Race in the early 90s, and at the same time was organising
the Transvaal Race Walking Champs in Krugersdorp. About 10 minutes
before the start, I decided to take part, and I didn’t realise it but I
qualified for the SA Race Walking Champs. The Monday night before we
were supposed to leave for PE, the province phoned to say I had been
selected to represent Transvaal that coming Saturday at the SA Champs.
I said no ways, I’m going to PE, but they said if I go, they will ban me
for two years from all athletics, so I had to drop the train trip and go to
SA’s. I decided to show them, by taking it slow, and for the first 30-plus
kays I was just having a relaxed walk. But then I started catching the
guys and in the last few kays I realised something was happening. I was
regularly doing ultras up to 100km back then, so I had an endurance
advantage, and that year I won the SA 50km race walking title!”

It took me a long time to admit to people that I am a ‘runner,’ but only because
I didn’t feel worthy of the title. I’d show up to races feeling slightly out of place
when I saw other women warming up. Everyone seemed to have more toned
legs and fancier gear, and projected confidence that I was lacking. I’d hide
towards the back of the pack, hoping not to get in anyone’s way as the starting
gun sounded. I desperately wanted to join the ranks of the runner girls I had
put on a pedestal, but wouldn’t allow myself entry into the club.
With a few years under my belt, I now realise that I was always a runner,
and any doubt about that label was unfounded. My legs still aren’t as toned
as I’d like, but who cares – they’ve carried me over distances I never thought
imaginable. Somewhere along the way I found the confidence. It might have
been at the finish line of my first half marathon, or the time I scored a new
PB… No matter when it was, I’m happy to proclaim that I am a runner! I now
believe that you don’t have to run a marathon, or a specific kilometre split, to
be part of this community that I’ve grown to adore. You just have to lace up
your shoes and run. You are a runner if you run. Period!

While that win is one of his fond memories of his athletic
career, Wiets says there are three main highlights that really
stand out: Running his first sub-three-hour marathon
at the Winelands in Stellenbosch, and his first Two Oceans
and Comrades silver medals, both achieved in 1983.
However, he says those highlights are nothing compared
to the four emotional highlights of his life: Marrying
Wilna, the birth of his two daughters, Louise and
Wilandie, and then finishing the 2014 Comrades with
both daughters by his side. “We played through it in 2014,
just having fun and finishing in 11:46. My daughters grew
up with running, so it was an incredible moment for me
to finish their first Comrades with them.”

GOING FOR 50…

Playing the fool for the
camera, Comrades 2014

Lizette (right),
a runner

Images: Hetta Havenga

Images: Jetline Action Photo and courtesy Wietse Run

MANY HIGHLIGHTS

There are currently nine runners in the 40
Comrades Club, with a further four set to join
in 2016, and another five, including Wiets, set to
join in 2017, if everything goes to plan, and he
believes he could even get to 50. “I will be 69
when I get there, as will Alan Robb, but from
40 onwards, who can tell what will happen? You
always have to remember that being able to run is a
blessing, and it gets tougher by the year as you get
older… but what I do know is that my 40th is going to
be one big party. My daughters and my two brothers,
Marius and Hendrik will be running with me, plus my
niece, as well as many running friends, some of whom
are coming out of retirement for it. Now that’s a party I am
looking forward to!”

Ma

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