By : Anne-Thea Dippenaar - 2007
What motivates most women to start running? The three letter word that causes the most stress in a women's world: FAT. Yes that is why I started running. At school I was a sprinter and anything more than 400m was agony. The first time I did a 5km I thought that this must be the ultimate only to realise most runners do not even consider putting on their "tekkies" when asked for a 5km run.
I did a few 21's but moving to Empangeni I realised, to be considered a runner, you had to at least do a marathon and so I started training for the Beds for Africa.
Proudly I finished in 4:23 to be congratulated that I have qualified. "Qualified for what?" I asked. The Comrades Marathon was the answer. "No, you do not understand I cannot do that." Ryza and the afternoon group at that stage then explained very nicely that it was not so hard. Only 200km per month for 5 months. What can be easier than that? Little did I know! Finishing my first Comrades was the one of the biggest achievements of my life. It was supposed to be only one but then the back to back and then our son convinced me into another one and now I stand on three Comrades.
One of my biggest motivations is my visits to the Oncologist. Sitting in the waiting room watching the other patients trying to look as healthy as possible but knowing there will not be a next run for them, knowing how blessed I am to be able to keep on running. As long as the Doctor will allow me to run I will, maybe not do the Comrades again but certainly the shorter distances.
Thanks to Willem (my husband and second) and Monique (my daughter) who always motivates and pushes me, I also think that if it was not for the people of this club I would not have gotten this far.