#RunClean

I honestly don't have a lot of words to describe how I am feeling right now...

Frustrated is definitely one of them, sad should be in there, mad, well kinda, but mostly just very disappointed...

After being unable to compete in the Two Oceans event for the 3 years I was gone in the States,(from August 2015-Jun 2018), I finally got my chance to line-up at the start of the Two Oceans Half Marathon yesterday. (In my post 'The Medals Against the Wall" I share my first Two Oceans Half Marathon Experience.) Yesterday the Two Oceans Marathon celebrated its 50-years of running the event.

"The Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon has earned a reputation as the world’s most beautiful marathon. The first race was held in 1970 and saw 26 runners line up to face the unknown challenge. Since then, the race has become a national institution and a firm favourite with local, upcountry, and international athletes. Old Mutual is proud to continue its association with this great event, which is the premier event in their road-running portfolio. Participants can choose from various distances – the scenic 56km ultra marathon or popular 21km half marathon and the 5km or 2.5km fun runs. The event attracts close to 30 000 participants across all the distances and provides them with a mixture of breathtaking scenery, a gruelling test of fitness for both the elite and recreational runner, and an unrivalled race organisation and atmosphere. Participants consistently vote it as one of the best in South Africa and it continues to attract strong fields and an increasing number of international entrants. The event has become synonymous with the Easter Weekend in Cape Town, with the pre-race activities at the expo, family day, and fun runs on Easter Friday. En-route entertainment on the race day provides fun, excitement, and a unique experience to runners, family, friends, and spectators alike." - Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon

Less than two months ago, I was booked into hospital to get a back operation. However, I got a second opinion and with the right rehab and treatment I managed to get back in time for the Two Oceans. I lined up with only 8-weeks of running, but that I did everything in my ability to get there and was ready to give everything I had!

MY RACE PLAN WAS SIMPLE

1. BUILD UP AND FINISH STRONG: Start conservatively, make sure the first kilometer is controlled. I drove the route again to make sure I knew the profile and what to expect. I knew I had to pace myself with the hills, so I can finish strong!

2. FLAT OUT: GIVE MY ABSOLUTE BEST! No holding back, this is not a tempo run. Run with everything you got!

3. RACE: Knowing that some of the best women in Africa were running, I knew it was going to be one hell of a race and I made myself ready to chase!

4. RUN WITH HEART: To me this was big, after everything I went through this year already, this was my chance to make a really good comeback. This was more than just a half-marathon to me, it was an opportunity to race against some of the best and prove I can be one of them!

RACE DAY

A light drizzle starts coming down while the national anthem is playing. My legs are shaking, my heart is already racing, waiting in anticipation for that gun to go off... They take away the tape in front of the elite section and they shout: "Only 30-seconds remaining, stay behind the line!" The gun goes off and 16 000 runners run into the dark of the Newlands Main Road. (The half-marathon race starts at 5:50am, while it is still pitch dark outside.)

1K: I am in-control. I started out conservatively with 3:23 for my first kilometer. I am right where I need to be among the top 10 women.

2K: Time to start climbing and chasing...we approach the first hill and I start chasing the women in front of me. One by one, I will work my way up...

3K: I am in the top 5, first Nedbank woman, and nearly at the top of the hill approaching the first downhill. We get to the downhill, it's very steep, the rain is pouring down, the road is wet, there's no street lights...

3.87K... I slip and fall straight back on my lower-back/coccyx bone. It happened so fast, going through the first water station I stepped onto a water sachet someone threw down and slipped.

Race over...after less than 4km!

The helpers took me to the side. Just coming off a back injury, you can imagine how terrifying it must have been to fall back AGAIN! I laid there next to the road at the water station, a dull aching pain in my back, uncertain if I hurt something again...I waited for more than an hour for the medics to arrive! I am very thankful for the kind Two Oceans helpers who looked after me and gave me a blanket to support me until the medical team arrived. Tears rolled down my face as I looked at the clock and realized I would have just finished, if I stayed on pace...

The disappointment was just overwhelming.

It took the medics another 3-hours to get me to the finish with the road closures and traffic. By the time I was finally in the medical tent at the finish line, it felt like I ran the Ultra not the Half! I heard the amazing news that Gerda Steyn successfully defended her Two Oceans Ultra Marathon title running the second fastest time ever ran over this course! I felt so happy, yet so sad that I couldn't even see it happen! What an incredible run! Truly one of my biggest inspirations and one of South Africa's best distance runners ever!

Gerda Steyn made South Africa proud by defending her Two Oceans Ultra Marathon title and running the second fastest time run for the course.

If you have had as many falls in a lifetime as I have had, it is hard not to feel like not getting back up again. I felt so embarrassed. And what are the odds...why me again? But it could happen to anyone! Not only is running races in the dark dangerous, and something I wish Two Oceans could do different with their half marathon is to start a bit later, once the sun has already risen. Not only for safety purposes, but also so runners can see and enjoy the pretty route - by the time the leaders finish the sun only rises.

Aside from racing in the dark, the BIG ISSUE is just throwing down a WATER SACHET anywhere!

#RunClean

Modern Athlete launched the #RunClean campaign in July 2015. Their mission is to promote a cleaner sport to eradicate the litter problems at races and events in South Africa. The campaign targets runners, clubs, events and regional athletics provinces. Awareness for the campaign is driven across various marketing elements such as print media, social media platforms and on runners entry forms etc., with the objective of educating runners to “think before they throw their water sachets".

This initiative encourages runners to commit to:

• Think twice about tossing the water sachet!

• Carry own water

• Wear running kit with a pocket

• Promote a no littering rule

• Volunteer to help clean up at a water table races/events

I hope people start thinking twice before throwing down your water sachet in a race. It may have serious consequences to someone else. Aside from that, running with your water sachet until you see a bin, will not slow you down. It's really not heavy at all or difficult to carry.

I would like to say thank you for my sponsors: Nedbank Running Club, Nike South Africa, BiogenSa, FutureLife SA, Bavaria, Tsogo Sun for the support to get me to the start line. I appreciate all the time, effort, planning and preparation that went into this event. I am very privilege to be part of the Green Dream Team and the Nedbank Running Club.

Congratulations to all of those running and finishing the race yesterday. Super proud of my athlete, Jana Le Roux, that ran and completed her first Ultra Marathon. As well, as my boyfriend that got a silver medal, clocking Sub-90 minutes, in the half-marathon.

To all of those that sent me messages yesterday and today via WhatsApp and social media, I just want to say thank you! You have no idea what it meant to me and how it helped me to lift my head back up again, and get back up after yet another humiliating fall and setback. You give me new hope...

I promise, I will get back up...

RunClean, RunSafe

- ANNIE

CAPABLE, DURABLE, POWERFUL

My name is Sophie Cope...

I’m a distance runner and Fine Art student at the University of Cape Town. Among many other things, I love writing, painting, Long Run Sunday, oats with peanut butter, and the sea. I haven’t always been a runner, but I have always found great satisfaction in chasing big long-term goals, doing hard things for their own sake, and finding a way to break them down into daily, manageable tasks.

Every wildest dream feels a whole lot more doable and real if it's mostly just a case of carrying out the next small task, investing in the daily insular process, many days in a row. Among so much else, running has become the best example of this for me. Of course, luck and talent are real factors in determining success, but for me, it’s somehow the most soothing, remarkable thing in the world to think about the fact that really, the people who get to where they want to be are the ones who keep showing up. Over and over, emphasizing consistency over perfection, sticking around for the long haul. The thing about this biggest predictive factor of success— just sticking around for the long haul, continuing to show up, being willing to consistently try hard even if it’s imperfect— is that it’s really hard and unglamorous. Sometimes the simplest things are the hardest.

What do you say to yourself when you’re trying to do hard things?

After doing the Leapfrog half marathon this weekend as my first half marathon in a year, Annie asked me to write about the things I say or think about when it feels real hard specifically in the context of racing. That is what I am going to do, but for me, finding ways to grit it out through the long haul of something like a half marathon is so similar to whatever it is I think about when I’m trying to commit to the long haul of a training block, a degree, or a life plan with many goals. I think if learning how to do hard things as an athlete doesn’t teach me how to be a braver human and keep at it when I’m doing hard things in the rest of the world, I would struggle to find the point in it all.

The importance of words

As I said before, I love writing and I love using certain phrases, poems, song lyrics and words to help me form metaphors and understand what’s happening in the world around me. The lyrics of my pre-race pump-up playlist are hilarious and trashy and SO important to me. I always have to listen to Sia sing Unstoppable and House on Fire before a hard run, and I have a whiteboard above my bed so that I can wake up and read a different piece of a poem every day.

For this particular half marathon, I wrote the words ‘CAPABLE, DURABLE, POWERFUL’ on my left arm. They’re a reference to a huge athlete-artist role model of mine, Alexi Pappas, who talks about how being capable and durable and powerful is something we can all aspire to and return, regardless of how objectively ‘successful’ or linear one’s progress may be at a particular time. These words are not about external numbers that can be compared to anyone else, or short-term time goals that often get chased in a very ‘all-or-nothing’ kind of way.

Since I haven’t trained specifically for the distance or done many properly long runs since being injured just under a year ago, I knew that if I was working hard enough, the race should start to get quite uncomfortable after about 15km. And this is where the words that you say to yourself are most important — not when it’s breezy and effortless, but when things start hurting. I wasn’t actually in quite as much pain as I thought, but still — my body would have been glad to stop, and for the last 6km, the only words I allowed myself to have in my mind were (over and over and over again): capable, durable, powerful. I think it’s sometimes valuable to repeat words or phrases like this, even if you don’t really believe them or feel them at all. In my case, I stopped thinking about what they might really mean and just used them as a way to fill up my head with something positive — a repetitive intention to keep going, rather than a repetitive desire to stop.

Other very simple things that I frequently drum into my head until I start to believe they are sometimes just ‘I am okay, I am okay I am okay!’ (when I feel the least okay) or ‘there is only now!’ Or ‘everything is its own reward’, or (often), ‘THIS IS A GIFT’.

In this way, I use words as prompts to help me to keep at it, and hold on to the memory that I have chosen to do this hard thing, right through the long and difficult and boring parts, and also to remember the fact that (unless faced with unusual circumstances) it is fully within my capacity to decide to persevere or not. Which is freeing and remarkable. And realizing that the decision to persevere is primarily in your own hands — in a hard half marathon, or in any long-term life pursuit — can be freeing and remarkable for you too.

Thank you to Annie Bothma for asking me to write about something that I love (and could probably go on about for many more pages!). With Annie being the definitive example of someone who has really managed to keep showing up and re-narrating her story so bravely and well in the face of so much adversity, it’s an absolute honor to be sharing these thoughts on her blog.

- Sophie Cope

RUNNING WILD WITH BENNIE

I would like to introduce you to my second dad and mentor, Bennie Stander. Bennie Coached me from the age of sixteen until nineteen, before I left for America in August 2015. Since I returned Bennie has been my mentor guiding me through my own program. I will always turn to Bennie for running or coaching advice. He has always been one of my biggest running heroes and will always be! Read more about Trail Running Coaching with Bennie in this blog post.

In March, I decided to expand my personal training business Fired Fitness to Online Personal Training and Running Coaching. I decided to involve Bennie as my business partner. Bennie specializes in Trail Running and has his own trail running group that meets weekly in Stellenbosch.

MORE ABOUT BENNIE

Some people know and remember him as the legend track and field and road athlete, some know him as Coach Bennie, and some know him as the running shoe expert who always makes sure that you get the best pair of running shoes for your running style. One thing is for sure, Bennie Stander makes a lasting impression on everyone who comes across his road! Bennie started running at the age of three when his dad went for walks in the afternoon. But he raced his first 800m at the age of seven! For someone like Bennie, it's hard to ask about his running career highlights, because there is just so many! 

Apart from his own accomplishments, Bennie also helped a lot of other runners to the top! He coached close to 200 athletes in the past 20 plus years! He started helping people after his first coaching exam in 1976, and had 8 runners who represented South Africa at various occasions! Some of the top runners that he coached, includes the Namibian Triathlon Champion, JP Burger and the World age record holder (40-45) in modern heptathlon, Susan. He is currently coaching a couple of top trail runners and has his own running group. 

COACH BENNIE STANDER’S RUNNING HIGHLIGHTS

• His first SA Cross Country Championship as an U/15 boy

• Being the fastest U/15 800m athlete in SA.

• Training with world record holder Danie Malan at the age of 13.

• Running under the top 16 men in the WP senior Cross Country Champs at the age of 13!

• His training run with Ivo van Damme as a junior.

• His Western Province U/17 Cross Country title.

• Winning SA Universities Cross Country team titles together with a strong Maties team.

• Running a sub-4-minute mile.

• Achieving Western Province colours in track, cross country and road.

• Finishing second to Ewald Bonzet at four occasions (5000m, 10000, 16km and 21.1km) (A big privilege and something I will never forget!'')

PB's:

• 1000m: 2:27:3

• 1500m: 3:48 (but ran a 3:38 as part of a mile race)

• Mile: 3:55.87

• 2000m: 5:17.1

• 3000m: 8:17.0

• 5000m: 14:10

• 8km: 23:39

• 10km: 29:23

• 15km: 46:17

• 16km: 49:31

• 21.1km: 66:23

• 32km: 1:52.7

GET YOUR OWN TRAIL RUNNING PROGRAM WITH BENNIE:

• Detailed monthly running program, including specific distances, workouts and when to take rest days.

• Trail-specific workouts.

• Guidance on how to prepare for a trail race, what to expect and take along. 

• A program based on your needs and abilities, taking account of your past or present injuries and training history and goals.

• Periodization Training helping you peak for your target races.

• Personalized coaching and feedback.

• Interactive online platform and training log through Training Tilt.

If you are interested in getting a trail running program from Bennie contact him directly for more information.

CONTACT INFO:

PHONE: +27-82-510-4140

EMAIL: benniestander0@gmail.com

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