Feature: Run the country to the top

After months of living like a turtle withdrawn into its shell, most of us are now slowly returning to normality. Either through a hybrid return-to-work policy or full-time back at the office, many of us are now having to re-adapt to life before COVID-19. While COVID restrictions became the new normal to most, we were all anxiously waiting for the day to get back to society and human interactions. Many of us avoided or are still unsure about going to the gym and joining in other activities that involve group classes, but there is a magnitude of ways in which one can remain safe, socially distant and compliant with COVID restrictions.

One of these is the world’s largest mass participation, free to enter running event introduced by Discovery three years ago, called the Vitality Running World Cup challenge. The more kilometres run, the higher ranking your country will achieve. This can be broken down into smaller groups, which allows for intercompany competitions where individuals try to outrun each other. This has been in play at my company as well and let me tell you, those enlisted for the challenge are constantly striving to not only beat each other, but also their previous runs.

How does it work? An individual uploads their distance run through the Discovery Running World Cup app. The competition is open to all individuals in the company and their families to ensure fairness and more intense levels of competition.

I have not enlisted in the challenge as I am not a runner, but the more I hear about it, the more I am inspired to take it up! Individuals competing in a race remotely require a high level of honesty and ethical behaviour. And ethical behaviour is top of the leader board − to remain honest in loading your runs to reflect your true position. When incorrect data is loaded, it can provide false information to the rest of the group, which can dampen the team spirit.

While listening to the banter accompanying the competition, I have secretly been attempting to run. For beginners, running does not come easy − I speak from experience. However, one of my team members has been reinforcing me positively to start, even if it is just a walk a day. By taking her advice I am trying to get myself in a position where I too can compete in the team challenges.

To the individuals at my company and nationally who have entered this competition, I have immense respect for you. You have managed to get South Africa to the top and you have inspired all of us around you to start taking part. Teamwork does make the dream work, and in this year’s competition South Africa took the win, with 134 000 runners participating.1 Our CEO, who is an avid runner and cyclist, has also participated: a great way to lead by example.

My challenge to myself for the next few months is going to be to get myself to a level where I am able to participate in such challenges in the coming year. Great job to all runners who participated in the challenge and good luck to the rest of us who strive to be like them.

Note
1 More information on this virtual race can be found here:

Author
Sheran Reddy CA(SA) is a Financial Manger at Bombela Concession Company (RF)(Pty) Ltd