his wasn’ t supposed to happen to AJ Calitz... In February, the current SA Ultra Distance Trail Champion won the three-day Tankwa Trail event, and then in March he teamed up with fellow K-Way athlete Nicolette Griffioen to win the mixed category of the three-day Cell C AfricanX Trailrun, to go with three wins in the men’ s category in previous years. Just after that he set the fastest lap time in the Platteklip Charity Challenge on Table Mountain, even

though he was taking it relatively easy in the event where he set a World Record of 15 ascents totalling 10,250m in 12 hours a few years ago. Then on 8 April he lined up for the Impi Challenge obstacle race near Stellenbosch, determined to use his running fitness to full advantage on the demanding course that snakes around various wine farms.

He went on to cross the finish line first, thinking he had won the race, but it turned out that a navigational error had seen him miss one of the obstacles, and thus he was not given the win. Disappointed but still having enjoyed the challenge, AJ headed home to be with his family for his daughter Emilie’ s birthday party that afternoon.“ I felt tired after the Impi, which was not unusual, but that afternoon I climbed on the trampoline to jump with my daughter, and suddenly I blacked out,” says AJ.“ When I came to, it felt like my one eye had gone sideways, but my wife said both my eyes had actually split apart. I told Paulette I was not feeling well and went to lie down, but when I woke up I was still not feeling right. She was getting worried and phoned friends for advice, and they all said go to hospital. I was booked into the neurology section, and they told Paulette I had just suffered a full stroke!”

The doctors came to the conclusion that during the Impi, when AJ was carrying various heavy objects on his shoulders, the strain on his neck caused a tear in an artery that feeds into the thalamus in the centre of the brain. The thalamus controls sensory input and motor skills, as well as the regulation of consciousness and sleep. When you tear a vein or artery, a blood clot forms, and jumping on the trampoline that afternoon dislodged the clot, which then got stuck in

AJ’ s thalamus, causing the stroke.“ It turns out that carrying a brick on your head, a 50kg bag of sand, and then jumping on a trampoline is not good for you... who would have thought?”

BOUNCING BACK QUICKLY

AJ spent three days in ICU, and at first he was not allowed to walk much, as he still had crossed eyes.“ My perception was my eyes were fine, but they were actually pointing outwards, and that affected my coordination badly. When I did start walking again, I had to do it with a pram for the first week, and soon I was going crazy. I was so fit, and building up to my overseas racing season, and as I told my coach and physio, Christoff Smit, I felt like a penned down race horse! He told me to try running slowly, making sure my heart rate did not exceed 100 or 110, but just putting on my shoes and standing up put me over the limit at first!” The neurologist also grudgingly gave AJ the all-clear to start running again slowly, but warned that the long-term loss of co-ordination, peripheral vision and short-term memory will stay with him, because 1.5cm of his thalamus is now dead.

Another reason AJ was raring to get back into action was that he had qualified for the international finals in Germany of the global Fisherman’ s Friend Strongman Run obstacle race series. In September 2016 he had won the inaugural South African leg in Paarl, organised by well-known television personality Ferdinand Rabie, but the finals in Nuremburg were scheduled just six weeks after his stroke.“ I felt OK after a few good training sessions, and the trip was already paid for, so even though the neurologist said he was not keen, he said OK, go and take part, but don’ t race. They

Images: K-Way, Oakpics & Tobias Ginsberg