We've all watched those types of films or read those sorts of books. You know, the ones where an underdog heads to the mountains and goes back to basics ahead of a showdown with a seemingly superior opponent. Soul searching and large amounts of physical activity generally form the backbone of an extended period of monastic existence, the character eventually leaving their spartan surrounds heading back to civilisation. Inspired, rejuvenated and at the peak of physical fitness, they are ready to tackle the obstacles of life with stoic resolve, be it professionally, personally, or both. And while this description could no doubt evoke images of Sylvester Stallone chopping wood in the Siberian hinterland, this sort of cliched narrative has in fact been acted out in real life. And with outstanding results. Just ask Charl Mattheus.
Peruse the California State University Sacramento State website and one Dr. Charl Mattheus assumes the mantle of Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health. Now in his mid-fifties, Charl spends his days lecturing students in the specialty subject of healthcare administration. He has made his home in the US for almost two decades now, is married with children and is happy and at peace with his place in the world. A long list of university degrees are also behind his name, as is a Comrades Marathon title from what seems another lifetime. But achieving the latter was testament to a qualification of a different sort, one that saw Charl emerge from the school of hard knocks with a degree courtesy of the university of life.
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It was in March 1997 that the Somerset East-born athlete landed at Denver International Airport. Intent on driving a rental car straight to Leadville, Charl was on the last leg of a long trip to begin a self-funded three month training stint in the Rocky Mountains. Already an established Comrades Marathon contender, Charl was embarking on unchartered territory as far as preparation for the grueling ultra-marathon was concerned. South African athletes flying overseas to prepare for a race in their own backyard wasn't really de rigueur back then. But then Charl wasn't too worried about what others thought. An eternal optimist, he had devised a simple and self-directed plan of action to wrest back the Comrades title and had selected Leadville as his preferred training ground. It's just that the elements on that frigid March day slowed him actually getting there.
'I literally flew into a snowstorm,' recalls Charl of his arrival in the US. 'I had never driven a car in snow before so I figured I could just get an airport shuttle on to Leadville. But because of the weather, they could only take me as far as a town called Fox Hollow. So, I spent the night there. But I needed to train, so I did what I always did when travelling abroad – go for an out-and-back run so as not to get lost in a foreign city. I wasn't prepared for the freezing cold temperatures, though, and ended up with frost bitten lips and freezing fingers.'
With the snowstorm abating slightly, Charl managed to hitch a ride with some loggers up to Leadville. Ensconced in the back of the forestry truck, he kept himself warm thanks to the company of two husky dogs. Arriving in the two-mile-high town, it was time to get to work. The Comrades Marathon was three months away and there was no time to waste.
But let us pause for a second to ask a pertinent question. And that is what was a top South African ultra-marathoner doing so far away from home? Especially in an environment so far removed from the ideal climate and altitude of the Highveld. To get the answer requires a pause and rewind of sorts, some five years prior to be exact.
'My whole journey to Comrades 1997 happened so long ago that it's almost lost in history,' explains Charl. 'I was a RAU (now University of Johannesburg) student in 1992 and felt that I was in shape to win Comrades that year. But I started feeling ill the week before the race and, being a student with no health insurance, went to the local pharmacy and bought some over the counter cold and 'flu medicine. I took the medicine, started to feel better, won the race, proposed to my fiance at the finish line, and then was informed that I had tested positive for phenylpropanolamine. The irony was that the product (Degoran) was taken off the market a year later, and the IOC removed phenylpropanolamine from its banned list around the same time. But it didn't help me that much.'
With Charl's positive test began a sequence of events that tested his will and spirit to the limit. Long story short, he was selected to the South African team for the World 100km Championships the following year only to be assaulted by a fellow competitor mid-race; people judged him and sponsors dropped by the wayside; he lost his job and his wife walked away. By 1995 he was on the upward trajectory again, but even his close second place at that year's Comrades (less than a minute to Shaun Meiklejohn) was achieved on a torn calf muscle sustained early on in the race.
'It was like one of those sad old cowboy songs,' says Charl of those turbulent years. 'You know, where the cowboy loses his horse, his farm and so on. But I kept plugging away. Comrades winners have many characteristics in common and one of those is hunger. You have to be hungry to win.'
It was that hunger that eventually provided him with a Eureka of sorts. Yes, he was returning to full fitness and had managed to secure some sponsorship. But something was lacking. He came to realise that he literally needed to get away from it all.
'I had too many distractions in South Africa,' explains Charl. 'Especially with sponsors, who expect you to make appearances. And rightly so – they are paying the bills after all. Then there were family and friends, which of course take up a lot of time too. An elite athlete has to be very focused, even selfish, especially when it comes to rest and recovery. So, you do need a lot of time to yourself, which influenced my decision to go abroad for a few months.'
After much deliberation, Charl eventually selected Leadville as his offshore training base. This after considering several other high-altitude options. Locations in the Andes and Himalaya mountains were on the list, as was Russia. But practicalities prevailed and Leadville it was.
'I don't speak Russian or Spanish, so the language barrier was a big factor,' he says. 'Plus accessibility. So, Leadville was an easy choice really. I rented a small house there, which was home for the next three months.'
And that was pretty much that. Training solo, Charl got into a simple routine that was centered around a daily running average of around 30km. He thrived off the hard work and rugged surrounds, as he did living a solitary existence.
'The training went really well,' he remembers. 'It was as if I felt little bits of improvement every day. I lived alone and didn't make any friends there. So, I filled the time between runs with the usual stretching and gym work, and read several books. I remember having just got a laptop computer at the time, so that also kept me occupied as well as studying up on nutrition and watching little cable TV.
'There were a couple of things that stood out from that trip,' he continues. 'I remember one day in particular where I ran for six hours in an area of freshly fallen snow. But I ignorantly ran without sunglasses and contracted sunburn of my eyeballs, pretty the same as when a welder suffers from arc-eye. Another time, Gert Thys came to visit. Gert had run a 2:08 standard marathon at the end of 1996 and was staying in nearby Boulder with Mark Plaatjes. Bearing in mind that Leadville's altitude is pretty much twice that of Boulder and Gert only lasted a couple days with me. He cut short our planned 20-mile tempo run telling me that it was impossible for him to train so high up. So I took him back to his base and spent a couple of days training there.'
Tapering is a critical time for any athlete. Wanting to maximise the gains he had made in the US, Charl flew back to South Africa less than a week before Comrades. Spending a few days in Johannesburg, he arrived in Durban as close to race day as possible. And in keeping with his "no distractions" policy, he negotiated with his club and sponsors to give the pre-race expo a miss. And it worked. After a three-way duel with Nick Bester and the late Zithulele Sinque, Charl crossed the line at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in first place, joining a small group of runners finishing Comrades under 5 hours 30 minutes. And while he achieved his target of winning Comrades again, the whole experience formed something of a greater shift, both athletically and psychologically.
'It definitely felt like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders,' says Charl. 'Living alone up in Leadville really altered my perspective of what I was capable of. Winning Comrades also opened a lot of doors for me in terms of appearance fees and sponsorship contracts.'
Charl would return to Leadville the following year for another intense Comrades buildup. Placing second behind teammate Dimitri Grishin in the 1998 "Up Run" ('It was as good as winning.'), he had rented the same house and logged the same training as he had the year previously. But life in the United States was starting to grow on him and, as he spent more and more time there, eventually decided to make the move a more permanent one.
‘When I look back at my life now, I realise how running has allowed me an incredible amount of freedom,' he says. Growing up as a young kid with little money in a small town like Despatch, I had always wanted to see the world. And thanks to my Comrades success, my running ended up being a tool to achieve that.'
*Header image courtesy of Charl Mattheus.
