20 Comrades in 20 days for HIV and Aids
A Mossel Bay man is running 90 km every day for 20 days to raise funds for children affected by Aids and HIV.
Comrades runner Koot Steenkamp’s final and 20th day of the quest will in fact be the Comrades Marathon on 10 June. Steenkamp is a member of Outeniqua Harriers running club in George.
The route Steenkamp and five other runners are doing is from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg, running 90 km each day. The brave team plans to arrive in Maritzburg on 9 June, the day before the Comrades. “It will take us 12 hours per day,” Steenkamp says.
“Because Aids orphans have it so hard, we wanted to make our challenge really tough - to identify with them - and also so that people will see we are working hard so it’s worthwhile to pledge funds.”
Children of the Dawn
The charity the runners are raising funds for is Children of the Dawn which supports children orphaned or affected by HIV/Aids. “Many of these children are in child-headed households,” Steenkamp points out. The choice of the word “dawn” is especially poignant because the children must wake up early in the morning and assume adult responsibilities such as cooking porridge for their little siblings.
Born and bred in Mossel Bay, Steenkamp, who had been living in Johannesburg before he moved back to Mossel Bay in December, has a short running history.
This year’s Comrades will be his fourth one. He only started running almost five years ago, on his 37th birthday. “I had been smoking for 17 years and I decided that day I would stop smoking and I put on my running shoes and ran. Since then I have never smoked and I have not stopped running.” He turns 42 in August.
Steenkamp also used to drink 10 cups of coffee a day. Now he drinks rooibos tea with no milk or sugar. “Coffee is a stimulant. When I tried to give it up I got a headache, so I realised my body was dependent on it. I didn’t want that.”
He is also mainly a vegetarian. “If I go to a braai, I will eat meat, but I have more energy and feel better on a vegetarian diet,” he says. “I have a better quality of life.”
Steenkamp says he is a nicer person if he runs before work.
Running adventures
The other runners in the six-person team include two from overseas. They have interesting biographies and have undertaken all sorts of running adventures. An Australian filmmaker will be accompanying the team and tracking the runners’ progress to make a documentary. Two of the runners in the challenge Steenkamp knows from Sunninghill Striders in Johannesburg, where he was the club captain for a while.
The 20-day quest is called #Long road to Comrades.
Come on, support this brave challenge and pledge money for Children of the Dawn: go to www.givengain.com/fb/cause/ campaign/18346.
See www.childrenofthedawn.org.za to find out more about the charity. For more information, contact Steenkamp on 072 830 5500.
He thanks Outeniqua Harriers for its tremendous support and Top Gear Sport in George for sponsoring a pair of running shoes for him.