Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 76, November 2015 | Page 4

Editor’s letter

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hile I was editing articles for this
month’s edition, I had one of those
moments when emotion wells up
inside and makes you catch your breath as a little
pinprick of a tear just escapes the side of your
eye. Perhaps I am getting old and sentimental as
I approach veteran status, but I find that dealing
with the running community can do this to me.
Over and over.
The story that got to me was the My Story
contribution from Bonita Suckling, which you
can read on page 20 of this edition. It tells of her
Comrades 2015 run in memory of her late son,
Jed, who passed away from cancer, and for the
other cancer kids and parents she has dealt with
in her ongoing charitable work. In the process of
putting this edition together, I have reread that
article probably about six or seven times, and I
want to tell you that I had the same emotional
reaction every time. I am not at all embarrassed
to admit that it got to me big time.
Contrast that with the Living Legend article on
Wiets van der Westhuizen (page 22), a guy I
have had the privilege of knowing and running
with for many years. He’s nearly 60 and still
the life of the party, always cracking jokes and
laughing, always telling a funny story about his
38 Comrades runs and hundreds of marathons
and ultras… and one of those interviews that
make my life hard. I mean, how does one
summarise a running career as long as his in just
1200-odd words? Do you realise how many great
stories he told me during our interview that I
simply didn’t have space to include?
Like the story of him running Comrades in
1991, the year he earned the last of his six silver
medals. Going up Cowies Hill he realised he
urgently needed the loo for a ‘number two,’ but
there were no portaloos or garages in sight, so he
knocked on the front door of the next house he
passed. No answer, so he went to the next house,
but again no response. By the time he walked
into the yard of the third