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www.thevillagenews.co.za
15 April 2020
Runner completes Locals keep running, backyard marathon lockdown-style Johann Kotze and several other members of the Whalers Athletics Club have certainly not allowed the lockdown regulations to curtail their activities. Instead of getting together for their weekly runs at the Hermanus Sports Club, this intrepid bunch has improvised ‘backyard trails’ around their homes and created personal challenges for themselves to keep them motivated and on the move.
Writer Raphael da Silva
A
passionate runner successfully completed the equivalent of a full Two Oceans Ultra Marathon on Saturday by running a distance of 58 km around the Sandbaai property of his future parents-in-law’s and raising over R21 000 for the CHOC Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa.
On Saturday they, too, decided to run their own ‘No Oceans’ Half Marathon – Home Edition. Among the locals who took up the challenge was enthusiastic runner and restauranteur, Rudolf van der Berg, who completed the 21.1 km distance by running around (and around, and around…) his house. “I usually do 10 km on the treadmill every morning but for the No Oceans we all ran outside our homes, setting off at the same time at 07:00.”
“It was great. Physically, I could have gone on running. But mentally, it was exhausting keeping myself stimulated while going around in circles,” said Alan Hradaker (46), who completed 485 laps of the 120 m rough track around Sampie and Ritamarie van Zyl’s property. When the Two Oceans Marathon was cancelled due to the Coronavirus lockdown, Alan realised that many charitable organisations around the world would be losing much of the additional income they depend on to keep going, due to the cancellation of fundraising events. So, one morning as he was walking around the Sandbaai property where he and his fiancée, Margriet van Zyl, are spending the lockdown period with her parents, Alan, who is a financial advisor based in Cape Town, decided to go ahead and run his own Two Oceans Marathon to raise money for the CHOC Foundation. Alan chose this non-profit organisation, which provides comprehensive countrywide support for children with cancer or life-threatening blood disorders and their families, because of his own experience with the disease. His mother died of lung cancer in 2012 and Magriet was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after they got engaged, which necessitated two years of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. “After what I personally went through with my mother and Magriet, I could only imagine what parents must go through when their children are stricken by cancer,” said Alan. Even after doing a number of preparation runs,
Alan Hardaker completed his own Two Oceans Marathon by running a circular backyard trail around his future parents-inlaw’s property in Sandbaai. PHOTOS: Magriet van Zyl
Our locals all made it to 21.1 km, including Johann’s wife Heidi and some oldies such as Johann’s parents, Johann Snr and Elsabé Kotze. But Johann Jnr, who first made the news when he ran the astonishing distance of 100 km around his house on Saturday 4 April, had to quit halfway due to inflammation of his
one foot. “Because of the painful bunion I had to stop after 10 km,” he says. This does not take anything away from this four-times Two Oceans and four-times Comrades veteran’s achievement the previous weekend, though. Running in your backyard is not the same as running on the open road – manoeuvring around tight corners and over different terrains of grass, gravel and paving is hard on your joints and prevents you from getting into your usual running rhythm. “It’s also difficult to focus and stay motivated,” says Johan. “Because of the confined space and the monotony of having to do so many laps, I had to change direction every 2 to 4 km as my head started to spin!” Johann completed 1 000 laps of 100m in a time of 13 hours 45 minutes and 4 seconds. His fellow club members sponsored him at R1 per lap and the proceeds were donated to Relief.Life which is coordinating the food bank at Bosko Church that supplies food packages to the neediest members of our community during the lockdown. – Hedda Mittner
Alan knew that completing the marathon distance over the uneven sandy terrain would not be easy. “I knew it would be mentally challenging to keep running so many monotonous circular laps, but Magriet and her family were supporting and cheering me on all the way, while also manning a water table. It turned into an awesome morning of running.” Alan finished in just over seven hours and has managed to raise a total of just under R22 000 for CHOC through direct donations and the Givengain platform. The link, which will remain open until 30 April, can be found on Alan’s Facebook page (Alan Hardaker) and anyone is welcome to contribute to this worthy cause.
LEFT: Johann Kotze of the Whalers Athletics Club recently ran 100 km around his house in one day to help raise funds for Relief.Life. MIDDLE: Johann’s mom, Elsabé Kotze, joined the rest of the family in running the 21.1 km ‘No Oceans’ Half Marathon this Easter weekend. RIGHT: The owner of Burgundy Restaurant, Rudolf van der Berg, was one of several local runners who successfully completed the ‘No Oceans’ Half Marathon on Saturday.
