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LIFESTYLE

THE COMRADES

MARATHON

Written by a Comrades orphan, Wian, with the help of

his mother. Mostly true...

y father runs the Comrades Marathon. My mom
says that he started to run 2 days after I was born.
And then she stares at me kind of funny... a look
Mthat says: funny coincidence....like it was my fault.
I was born in October 2003. The firstborn. It turned my
mother’s life upside down because my father started to run 2
days after my birth. Up to that point in his life he was a nerdy,
laid back guy, a little barrel-shaped, my mom tells me.

My father started to train for his first Comrades Marathon
in June 2004. He made it to the 36.2km mark when the
paramedics rescued him and took him to a field hospital on a
stretcher.

In June 2005 he made it to 67km, before the stretcher. In 2006
he made it to 85km, before the vultures, as the rescue buses
are known, took him as he ran out of time.
In 2007 my sister was due around June, and my dad says that
my mom threatened to sever some limbs with blunt kitchen
tools if he dared to run THE Marathon. My Granny said that
he sat glued to the TV, silently, for the whole Comrades
broadcast, not eating or drinking anything, with an almost
visible lump in his throat.

In June 2008 he finished his first Comrades!!! With 1 minute
29 seconds before the cut off shot was fired. The TV cameras
were there and he was broadcast all over SA for 3.3 seconds.
He collapsed over the finish line and was on the stretcher
again. oxygen tablets and vitamin C tablets. In addition to vitamin
B injections weekly our doctor administered an intravenous
In 2010 my father announced that he was the fittest that he cocktail called the Bomb. The Plague never struck again, but
had ever been in his life. He was sure to break his own record our fear of the Plague striking in June has never left us.
and very sure that his days of being rescued by the stretcher
were over. Twenty days and 3 hours before the great day, he Finally, my father received his Comrades Marathon Green
developed whooping cough, bronchitis and pneumonia. And Nr #54754 last year, 2018. A big green badge with gold
the worst kind of denial my mom said that she had ever seen. embroidery. He was now part of the elite that had completed
Our whole family merrily flew to Durban. On the evening 10 marathons. Our whole family was at the finish line, and
before the Comrades, it took three doctors to bring him to cried tears of joy with my super ultramarathon athlete father.
reality and announce that he was in no condition to run. My We were only allowed to touch the badge a week later. My
mom took my sister and I to the other side of our rented flat dad wore only green clothes for a whole month after the
to give my dad a little space. I couldn’t stop asking why daddy event until our domestic worker, in collaboration with my
was crying so much. mother, started to hide all green clothes.
After The Great Plague of the previous year, my mother When I grow up, I want to be just like my father.
converted in 2011 to a shameless drug dealer during the
month of May. Our house had barrels of zinc, magnesium, Henk completed his 11th Comrades this year!

Cornwall View • Issue 4 2019 11