Bertie Jacobs
In winter, the San Gabriel Mountains, speckled with flecks of snow on its slopes and blankets of white on its peaks, can be seen from the city of Rancho Cucamonga in California. In 1979, musician Jake Hamilton was born here.
Fast forward 43 years and the Constantiaberg in Cape Town comes into view. The 2022 Two Oceans Marathon is in full swing and Dr Adele Broodryk has a three-kilometre hill to climb, elevating about 200 metres. The 31-year-old lecturer from the Institute for Sport Science and Development at the North-West University’s (NWU) campus in Potchefstroom needs to dig deep. This is crunch time. She needs to edge herself forward, she needs to will her legs up the road. She needs a boost, a psychological inspiration. Mind and body need to be in tune. She starts to sing. As the gradient increases, it is the music of gospel artist Jake Hamilton from the California mountains that accompanies her.
She is at the 50 km mark with six to go. From here she has to run down Rhodes Drive towards Newlands and enter the University of Cape Town at its southern end, after which the race concludes at the campus rugby fields. She glances back. Oh no. Her gaze finds the last thing she wants to see. Coming up behind her is the superlative ultra-distance athlete and former Comrades winner, Ann Ashworth. This does not bode well for Adele. She buckles down, utilising every last ounce of energy and determination her body has to offer. “That last stretch with Ann behind me really killed me. My body felt it afterwards,” she would later reflect. Her resolve keeps Ashworth at bay, and she crosses the finish line in a time of 03:47:23. Sixth overall. The third South African woman behind Gerda Steyn and Irvette van Zyl. Es-tee-ee-el-el-a-are. Stellar.
“It was such a great experience. Everything just clicked. I went into the race with a plan and I stuck to it. My aim was to run the race in three hours and forty-eight minutes, so I am really chuffed that I beat that time. It was my first Two Oceans, my debut. It makes it even more special for me,” she says.
Adele vividly recalls navigating the majestic, meandering Chapman’s Peak Drive and staring out at the Atlantic Ocean as it rolls and breaks into the cliffs below. “What made it even more special was all the supporters who lined the roads to cheer us on.”
She has been running since she can remember, graduating from being a hurdles athlete to attempting longer distances and then, ultimately, to her first ultramarathon in 2018.
“It takes a lot of time and dedication. I train on my own. I just put on my motivation outfit and hit the road,” she explains. Dedication is an understatement. Adele commits to a 16-week training cycle in which she runs up to 160 km a week in 11 sessions. Then there is the diet.
“I know what works for me. I follow a balanced approach, but when I get a craving for something like fries I know my body has a sodium or carbohydrate deficiency and then I give in to it. I believe in moderation.”
Athletes have some peculiar after-race tastes, but Adele is somewhat different. “I just want a glass of cold water. We take in so much fructose and sugary drinks throughout a race that I just crave a glass of water. To eat I want a plate of fresh Greek salad because there was so much carbo loading beforehand. And then, because I cut it out a week before a race, a piece of red meat,” she explains with evident relish.
Will she be back for another Two Oceans in 2023?
“Oh definitely. My bosses know if I had my way I would be a full-time athlete! Running is my release. I have a loving husband, Retief, and two wonderful children, Caleb (5) and Ansu-May (2), who support my running all the way.”
And, there is another impetus to succeed.
“Everybody is always seeing me running around, so I am also doing it for my people. I am doing it for Potchefstroom.”
