Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 96, July 2017 | Page 11

Kalmer’s
CORNER
Our Modern Athlete Brand Ambassador’s Blog
COMEBACK
KALMER
It was great to get down to Durban at the beginning of
June for the Comrades Marathon, and even better to
finally make my comeback to racing after a year out of
action, but baby Karli had a few ideas of her own on that
matter. – BY RENÉ KALMER
I
t is a tradition for my father-in-law Nicky van Wyk to book Comrades
accommodation for the coming year in the first week post-Comrades,
“just in case” one of the family members decides to run. You see, my
husband, Andre, has six Comrades medals in the bag, my brother-in-law
Francois has two, and my sister-in-law René has one. Meanwhile, my
father-in-law is just two Comrades races short of his ‘green number as a
supporter.’
This year Andre “forgot to
train” for the Ultimate Human
Race, but he began suffering
serious FOMO as Comrades
was creeping closer. Now I’m
not sure if we were brave or
stupid, but we still decided
to head down to Durban
with an 11-week-old baby, to
support all the brave Comrades
runners. And thus the
adventure began…
The Saturday before the big
race we joined thousands
of runners for the Durban
parkrun. Karli also had a date
to meet Stefanie Schultzen, the marketing manager of the Old Mutual Two
Oceans Marathon. However, one kilometre into the run Karli got very thirsty
and we had to make a pit-stop. Andre offered to attend to the ‘crisis’ so
that Stefanie and I could catch up over the 5km, but then Karli decided
to bail the race and Andre had to walk back to the start, carrying a crying
baby while kicking the pram forwards. Luckily, I only heard after the run
about all the ladies who were willing to help this struggling dad out.
Supporting Act
Comrades race day arrived and I realised we were in serious trouble
when Andre asked me, “So which way are they running?” Our first stop
was standing one kilometre from the start. It was certainly a goosebumps
moment seeing all 15,000 runners bunched together and passing us, still
cheerful and excited about the long run ahead. From there we headed to
Winston Park, about 30km into the race. The leaders went speeding past,
still looking very fresh, but some of the backmarkers were starting to
show signs of pain, and the guts and commitment that would be needed
to reach PMB.
Our plan was to head from there to the finish to see the winners
entering the stadium, but the traffic unfortunately only allowed us to
reach the stadium just before the silver medallists started coming in.
We stayed the rest of the day, and it remains a heartbreaking moment
seeing the final cut-off gun fired. Congratulations, though, to all the
runners that were brave enough to attempt the Ultimate Human Race...
Respect! Enough said.
We then stayed on in Durban for the third leg of the Spar Women’s Series
the following weekend, which would be my first ‘race’ back after pregnancy.
This also gave us the opportunity to attempt another parkrun with Karli,
and this time around we made sure that she was fuelled up before the
run. Andre set a pram best (PB) of 4:54min/km for the first kilometre, but
then the lactic kicked in and we finished in just over 25 minutes. There is
still room for improvement, though, as we finished fourth in the stroller
category. (Yes, I was counting...)
Running with the Girls
Next up was the final race of our running trip to Durban, and I was super
excited to run my first 10km in more than a year. My goal was to see if
I could dip under 50 minutes and I had the honour of running with the
legendary Blanche Moila, who had finished her 14th Comrades just a week
prior, in an amazing time of 9:58:24, which gave her third position in the
women’s 60+ age category! We finished together in 48 minutes and I
enjoyed every single minute of it!
It was great to be welcomed
back by my fellow competitors
and it was also my first race
running in the colours of KPMG.
It is great to be back on the
road again, and I am truly
excited about the year ahead
and getting back to my
competitive best. Thank you to
all the friends, family, supporters,
sponsors and doctors, and
also to Modern Athlete for
supporting me over the last year!
#WatchThisSpace
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