Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 90, January 2017 | Page 20

left him determined not to run another step.
“One day my friend Beau Schoeman said let’s
go do a 21km, and even though he let me beat
him, it was very tough, which put me off running
for life. Until parkrun. Lynn had started walking
the Root44 parkrun and I joined her after about
seven weeks, as did the two boys, who were
both athletes at school and who ran the 2014
Gun Run 10km together after a few parkruns.
Then we were on holiday in George and Barry
asked me to sign him up for the Sanlam Cape
Town Trail 20km, so I just signed up as well.”

Ma Feature

The Running
All the Doyles
at the Root44
parkrun in 2014

W

hen the Root44 parkrun was
established in Stellenbosch in 2014,
the organisers used to joke that
if the Doyle family of Somerset
West were ever to miss a Saturday morning
run, the Root44 field would be half the size.
That’s because the Doyles had made such an
impression on everybody thanks to their regular
participation. Bothers Colin (a nuclear technician,
now 57) and Trevor (a financial advisor for
Discovery, 46) would be there, along with Colin’s
wife Lynn and kids Barry (22) and Mark (19),
plus Trevor’s wife Lynn and kids Mia (16) and
Nathan (14) – and when Root44 celebrated
its first birthday, the Doyles were even given a
special award for dedicated attendance!
The Doyle brothers are not your typical runners,
and they are the first to say so. They openly
joke about their build, and the fact that they are
really good at letting gravity help them maintain
speed on the downhills, and it is this irrepressible
sense of fun that they bring to every run they
do… which includes a lot of parkruns. You see,
they are both members of the exclusive parkrun
SA Tourist club, a group of runners who have
run 20 or more different parkruns around the
country, and the kids are part of the club, too (or
nearly there).

DOYLES

is a regular on the podium at trail events, was
on 105 runs on 22 routes, with Mark, who is
studying applied mathematics at Stellenbosch
University, on 75 at 22. Young Nathan, in spite
of actually being more of a swimmer, was on
79 runs at 17 routes, while Barry, now working
as a software developer after studying B.Sc
Computing through UNISA, had done 50 runs at
15 routes. “Barry would have had more, but he
has a bad habit of forgetting his parkrun barcode
at home,” says Colin.

Novices to Marathoners

Colin says he did a bit of cross country at school,
but his debut half marathon about 30 years ago

Nathan

Mark (red shirt)

Barry with Bruce Fordyce

At the time of writing, Colin had done 138
parkruns on 35 different routes, while Trevor
was on 158 and 38 respectively. Mia, who has
earned junior provincial colours as a runner and

20

Before he took up parkrunning, the furthest
Trevor had run was 400m back at school.
“Running was boring, and I found team sports
more entertaining. Then Mia took up running in
grade 4, because she had a nice teacher who
was also the cross country coach, and in 2014
I just kind of fell into running parkruns as well,
be cause I was taking her to run each Saturday.
Without parkrun, I would not have run a step.
The last time I had run was playing hockey in
my 20s, and I couldn’t even run a few seconds
on a treadmill. I actually started doing parkrun
to rehab an old Achilles injury, and in that first
parkrun I think I cramped four times! Then,
after 25 parkruns, I madly decided to enter my
first marathon – I hadn’t even run a 10km yet!

ISSUE 90 JANUARY 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za

Mia (number 3)

Images: Courtesy Doyle family

When the extended Doyle family
of Somerset West get together for
a running event, you’re sure to
hear plenty of jokes and laughter,
but they’re serious about their
running, especially when it comes to
parkruns… although they have been
known to attempt a marathon here
and there. – BY SEAN FALCONER

Having used the Spur Winter Trail Series for
training, Colin duly lined up for the 20km, but
shortly before the start he realised his two
mandatory race wristbands were still in his car,
parked a few kays down the road, so he had to
sprint to go fetch them. Trevor, who was due to
run the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon the next
day, had come to support him, and says they
gave an exhausted Colin a lift back to his car
after the race. “The kids were hanging out the
windows, because I think his sweatband was
decomposing, and then we had to dangle a Coke
in front of him to get him up the stairs at the
Waterfront.”