Winner of May’ s Mountain Ultra Trail( MUT) 168km running event in George, Lodelia Kombrink has grown up with mountains, both literally and figuratively.
Raised in Riversdale at the foot of the Langeberg mountains, the now 41-year-old was built for endurance.
She’ s in the spotlight right now for finishing as the first woman and fourth overall in the gruelling off-road event. But uphill battles have been a constant theme throughout her life.
“ I was a particularly shy child. In fact, I’ m still very shy,” says Kombrink in a brief break from her huge portfolio as finance manager at the busy George Hospital.
“ I went to boarding school when I was six, and although I hated it, it taught me how to tackle adversity.”
She played many sports but over time grew to love netball and then the endurance sports.
At 15 she developed anorexia and left boarding school.“ I spent a lot of time running the gravel farm roads with my friend’ s mother, with whom I stayed in town, and that really helped me beat anorexia.”
So much so, that she went back to boarding school and became head girl in 2002, a year that wasn’ t without controversy.“ I was supposed to run the 800m at the local provincial championships but played sick and instead ran a half-marathon in Oudtshoorn!”
Post-school she went to Free State University and continued her running exploration, completing her first marathon and ultramarathon( Two Oceans 56km) at the age of 19. She also seconded a friend doing the Washie 100 Miler and ended up running 110km of the race herself. The bug had well and truly bitten. Then there was the bus.“ In 2006 I was in a bus accident and in hospital for a month, I had to have a neck operation and hurt my back badly. Doctors told me I could forget about doing sport again.”
By this stage, Kombrink was still very much involved in umpiring netball and achieved the highest South African qualification possible in 2011. She started running again, but her legs were giving her dreadful trouble and two weeks after the 2014 AfricanX trail, she went under the knife again for a back operation. Again, doctors told her to avoid all sport.
That advice was just another high hurdle that needed conquering.“ Three years later I blew the very first game of the National Netball League and still sent my surgeon a picture of me umpiring,” she laughs.
Her journey continued after deciding she couldn’ t do both netball and running. Kombrink also found time to have two children( in 2008 and 2010) and also completed her first two Comrades Marathons despite being ill( once with swine flu) before both.
In 2020, she swapped tar for trail permanently after settling down in George two years prior. The trail running bug had well and truly bitten and she completed the George 6 Peaks event, then did an“ Everesting” challenge where runners have to emulate the height of Mt Everest.“ We went up George Peak eight times in the space of 31 hours to get an accumulated height of 8 800m.”
She’ s also done two Addo 100-mile events, winning both, and in 2024 took a brief break to have her third child, Klara.
Ever since Klara’ s birth, Kombrink has been determined to show her children( and the world) that no matter the odds, breaking barriers is possible.
FEATURE
She does it in many ways, one of which is running in aid of Matla A Bana Xtreme for Kids, an endurance-based fundraising and awareness initiative by the South African NPO, Matla A Bana, aimed at supporting sexually abused children.
“ It’ s about child-friendly reporting facilities where abused kids aren’ t scared, can get some comforting after bad things have happened, some clothes to put on, something to hold on and regain their dignity.
“ It’ s particularly close to me because our hospital has a section for abused kids, my momin-law’ s frail care centre knits teddy bears and I started bringing them to the kids while they’ re being examined. It’ s also close to one’ s heart when you realise bad things even happen to friends’ kids.”
She very much wants her latest MUT success to make a broader impact.“ It meant so much for me as a local event, running a big international event in George. I was sick before last year’ s race so this year was about making amends. For once, I had a proper build-up – more than 200 hours, more than 1 500km and more than 70 000m of elevation during training.
She ended up covering the 168km of the Mountain Ultra Trail( MUT) in 26hr 07min 06sec.“ It was phenomenal to pull off a record-breaking win in my own backyard. To run down the last 17km into George with home support was amazing … Hopefully I inspired young kids and working moms!”
Mountains are extremely close to her heart.“ They demand such respect. They can humiliate you, yet they give you life in the form of water, shade in the sun... perspective from the top of the peak … They can reduce you to silence and make you just look around yourself and find peace and quiet and strength in nature.”
But it’ s more than mountains for Lodelia Kombrink, it’ s also about making amends, helping mend broken young souls, and making dreams come true.
You can still donate to Lodelia’ s campaign to support abused children here.
WWW. BACKABUDDY. CO. ZA
https:// www. backabuddy. co. za / campaign / xtreme-for-kids-ultra-trail-run-100-miles
www. modernathlete. co. za 13