Lionel Blaauw locked the door of his Tantyi shack and passed out. Having been released from prison where he'd heard that both his parents had died, and riddled with stage four mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), with no one to take care of him, he decided to give up on life.
Lionel Blaauw locked the door of his Tantyi shack and passed out. Having been released from prison where he'd heard that both his parents had died, and riddled with stage four mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), with no one to take care of him, he decided to give up on life.
Last month, however, Blaauw completed the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town in a time of 4:38:56, and came sixth out of the 20 runners who represented Grahamstown. “It was a dream come true, a restoration of my life,” says Blaauw.
He is wearing a leather jacket with a hole in the shoulder, and a hoodie underneath, on a freezing morning in Scott’s Farm, where he now lives.
He tells the story of several attempted suicides, including one in jail, when he tried to hang himself with a cut-up blanket, but was intercepted by the police.
His final suicide attempt – giving up on life in his shack, was also interrupted. This time by nurses from the local clinic and a Rhodes volunteer who knocked on his door three days after he had locked it.
They called him outside and encouraged him to take his medication. He initially refused, but was finally convinced to go to Jose Pearson Hospital in Port Elizabeth.
Very slowly, as Lionel was nursed back to health, he started running around the quad of the hospital. Little rounds became longer and soon he could do 5km in one go.
Soon after being released from hospital, Lionel heard about a 10km race at Kingswood College. He also heard about medals for the first 30 people. “Oh God, please let me receive a medal,” he prayed. Even though he didn’t have the right running shoes, he made it into the first 30. '
“From that time on, that medal has encouraged me to keep practising,” he says.
The training has paid off. Lionel has been participating in races in and around Grahamstown ever since, even though he is unemployed.
He says since he caught the running bug, he has started looking for gardening and cleaning jobs. “Anything to get the R20 to go run,” he smiles.
Then this year, with the help of Stephen Penney from Run/Walk for Life, Lionel got sponsorship, along with four other Grahamstown runners, to do the 56km Two Oceans Marathon.
Intimidated by the distance, Blaauw said to himself, “I don’t want to die in Cape Town!” But because he believes you can’t run away from the challenges in life, he decided to enter.
Run/Walk for Life, who give ongoing support to runners who cannot afford to pay for kit and races, paid for the timing chips of five runners, and applied to the Two Oceans Runners' Village for full sponsorship on their behalf.
The five were encouraged to approach local businesses for spending money, which was divided up between them.
Penney says Blaauw didn’t want to rely on others – a sentiment echoed by Clint Moss, Manager at Albany Sports, who has been helping Blaauw out in his own personal capacity since Blaauw came to look at shoes at the shop last year. “He never expected anything for nothing. He is willing to return in terms of work ethic,” says Moss, who adds that Blaauw always promotes the company through word of mouth.
Moss describes Blaauw as a “joyful, outspoken guy with a hard background. I’ve never seen anybody with so much commitment,” he says.
It is this commitment that led Blaauw to end up with a Salisbury medal at the Two Oceans. “Afterwards, I was so stiff but so overwhelmed by the joy… I didn’t even want the massage.”
He describes staying in a hotel as “a taste of heaven” and says he’s never seen so much food in his life. “Plenty of food… every kind of food. I don’t even know the food’s name!”
Blaauw says he still struggles to get by on odd jobs. His wish is to live comfortably in town, and to support himself to buy food. “Nice food, because I’m a runner. It’s hard to run when you have no food and you want to work. "You just want to be like other people living a normal life.”
Despite hardships, Blaauw keeps running twice a day, come rain or shine. Running is his message to a community whom he finds unhealthy and often without hope. “Running is about life, to show that any man can change, and any man can do something good.”
Completing the Comrades Marathon would also be a dream come true for Blaauw. “If God blesses me, if I can get a job, I’ll be happy and my happiness can take me there next year.”
