Sporting action: A tale of strength, determination and teamwork

Do you enjoy running? Or would you rather be watching a movie and relaxing with friends?

While some of us will be soaking up the sun, relaxing over the weekends, enjoying good food, good friends and family, Andrew Fehrsen from our South Africa office has been on a personal mission.

Andrew Fehrsen is our Design Systems, Practice Lead at Omnia. He is the epitome of a tough, motivated and driven individual, having just taken on the extreme challenge in the? Comrades Marathon Association Marathon – The original Ultramarathon and the oldest and most famous event, which took place on Sunday, 11 June 2023 in South Africa.

It’s roughly a 90km point to point event that starts in Pietermaritzburg and ends in Durban. It’s an incredible feat of the human body, mind and spirit and qualifying is an achievement in itself, with entry times required to be under 4hour 50min for a regular marathon.?

This isn’t just running, this is extreme running and we are so incredibly proud of Andrew’s achievement. He managed the first half in fairly good condition, race drink and gel bars got him through to 30k, however the challenge started to get tougher around the 40km mark when he had to dig really deep to push on.?

By the time the 50k mark came, and the second station to top up on nutrition his stomach was struggling. Andrew couldn’t keep anything down and this would become the story of the race for the next nearly 40km.?

He pushed on as much as he could, steady and contained, and held back, in order to run fairly solidly in the latter stages of the day. This plan fell apart as not being able to get fuel onboard meant the ability to run, was severely limited. Andrew started on walk “breaks” which became more and more frequent, and his average pace got slower and slower. At around the 75km mark he became was pretty delirious and no doubt in a worrying state.

Meandering down the highway in a haze. At this point, teamwork and comradery kicked in, as his running partner, Mark, caught back up. He helped get some glucose and coke into Andrew and started pushing him further, much to Andrew’s irritation. His running partner saw the worst side of him, Irritable, rude, etc. However, after feeling sorry for himself numerous times and telling his partner to leave (which he didn’t) he suddenly reached the 2km to go point.

This is where he found a new gear, with a renewed motivation of running strong to the finish line, and they ran and ran pretty hard. Through the welcome zone to Kingsmead Stadium, and into the actual stadium, they were flying. They did the loop around the field and across the line in a time of 9 hours and 17 minutes, almost his target time of just under 9 hours. This didn’t matter, he has finished the ultramarathon and achieved what he set out to do.

Congratulations Andrew,?something you will never forget! And I am sure a journey of learning and digging deep to find what you really have inside you and can achieve if you want it badly enough.

To see what the Comrades Ultramarathon is all about click here: Comrades Marathon Association