Runners of all kinds, from amateurs to professionals, both young and old, turned out to support Andrea Ranger’s Family Fun Run and Walk at the Beacon Bay Country Club on August 28.
Many families took part in the 4km event, pledging between R30-R50 towards Ranger’s travel expenses to compete in the World Championships for Biathlon in Portugal from October 26 to 31.
Ranger is set to compete in the Master 40+ category.
The Clarendon Prep School teacher, who has taught physical education for years, and has been a marathon runner for more than 20 years, never considered taking part in biathle tournaments before this year.
She has been coaching biathlon for years but never participated competitively until this year.
To her surprise, she won the Eastern Championships and the Somerset West South African Biathle championships on her first attempts.
She is now off to represent SA at the World Championships.
In preparation for the championships, Ranger is running and swimming daily.
On average, she completes 10km of running and 1.5km of swimming every day.
With the World Championships course being flat, Ranger has to incorporate a lot of speedwork in her training.
She says she keeps motivated knowing that her children and those she teaches look up to her as a role model.
“I want to be on the podium, it’s truly just go big or go home because I would be really disappointed if I worked so hard to go all the way over there not to finish on the podium,” Ranger said.
“Biathlon has been good to me because I don’t have time any more to do these four- and five-hour runs but with biathlon you squeeze these high-intensity exercises into a short amount of time.
“Biathlon is just more practical now for where I am at in my life with kids and other commitments,” she said.
The main sponsors of the Beacon Bay fun run, East London company HERA Sportswear, are thrilled to be supporting Ranger, who has long supported their brand.
HERA hopes to assist more athletes, as well as host an annual event and outreach programmes in the area.
For anyone interested in supporting Ranger, she is also hosting a lucky draw with the chance to win prizes ranging from a Rangerton sheep to 30 bags of wood.
Raffle tickets are R50 each and the draw will be held on September 15.
Please contact Ranger on 083- 599-7325 for more information.
