All about family, says mom Broodryk, first SA woman home in Comrades

Adele Broodryk has credited her fantastic Comrades Marathon debut run to the great support she enjoys from her family.

The 31-year-old Murray & Roberts runner finished third in an impressive 6 hrs 26 min 34 sec that far belied that she was tackling the gruelling 89.5km run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban for the first time.

In finishing third behind Russian Alexandra Morozova and Pole Dominika Stelmach, Broodryk was the first South African home.

“They are my everything,” she said of her family who were at the finish line to share her incredible moment of her running career with her.

“When I go through the long runs with my husband driving, my children shout to me through the window ‘hou bene, hou’ [hold legs, hold].

“My husband supports me so much. I am a full-time worker and a full-time mom as well as a runner. Juggling all those is not easy, and I am lucky to have them with me and their love.”

The Comrades run capped a fantastic year for Broodryk after she won the 50km Om Die Dam Marathon in near-record time, finished sixth at the Two Oceans Marathon and ran a 10km personal best at the Spar Ladies Race in Gqeberha.

Based on that, she feels the time could be right for her to focus solely on the sport.

“I’d love to be a full-time athlete. But I am a mom first and a wife and those are my pillars. They are making it possible for me. As long as they are on board and dreaming with me, the sky is the limit.”

Broodryk said she enjoyed the race and has learnt a lot of lessons that she will take into the next race.

“I will definitely be coming back next year. There are lots of lessons that I took from this race today. My main concern was that being August, we would run into a head wind. But the weather was perfect.”

And so was her maiden Comrades Marathon run.