Sunday 26 April, 2009

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UK
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Sport

With millions tuning in to Sunday’s London Marathon – a truly magnificent spectacle I’m sure you’ll agree – it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t that long ago when long distance running in Britain was regarded as something strictly reserved for specialist athletes – or lunatics.

But it was long before the recent explosion of interest in marathon running that a South African doctor was prescribing it to his patients. And the doctor’s son – Lifebite editor Charles Gardner – has written a book all about his extraordinary father.

Doctor on the Run is the story of much-loved GP Dave Gardner who, at the same time as working day and night for those in his care, somehow found the time to engage upon virtually every form of sport and recreation known to man.

While also a moving account of one with a bedside manner second to none, the book – published by Sable Publishing and also available from www.Amazon.co.uk – records his many mad-cap adventures, from stock-car racing to parachute jumping, and how he took up running to improve his golf.

Practising for half-a-century in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Ladysmith – famous for its 120-day siege during the Anglo-Boer War – the 41-year-old local golf champion was persuaded that running would improve his fitness, and thus make him an even better golfer.

Whether it did is open to conjecture, but he subsequently covered some 50,000 miles on the road (the equivalent of twice around the world) as he inspired many others to take up the sport to ward off the onset of heart disease and obesity and, in the case of his asthma-suffering son Charles, to expand his lungs.

The annual race he particularly loved was the Comrades Marathon, a gruelling 56-mile run between Pietermaritzburg, the Natal capital, and the sprawling port city of Durban. He completed the event on 29 consecutive occasions while also setting a world record for completing as many as ten 100-mile races – track events held at various South African stadiums.

Full of both sporting and medical anecdotes, the book is laced with romance and humour, and includes bonus material from the author about how his own marathon exploits turned into something of a spiritual journey for him.

Charles in fact covered some 10,000 miles himself over a five-year period from 1968-72, during which he completed one 100-miler, three Comrades’ events and numerous standard (26-mile) marathons – and it certainly did cure his asthma.

And for Charles there was also a spiritual dimension as, in May 1972, some 18 months after moving to England, he took part in the Scottish Marathon where, for the first time ever, he was unable to finish a race. After 22 miles, right opposite the famous Muirfield golf links where they were holding the Open Championship that year, he ‘hit a wall’ as they say, in the same way – and at exactly the same stage – that Paula Radcliffe did in the Athens Olympics.

His legs simply wouldn’t carry him any further, despite supreme fitness and bags of training. And because running had become so important to him, he was devastated by his failure. It was as if he had been ‘stopped in his tracks’, forced to face up to the reality that his young life was going nowhere in particular.

And within days a friend he had made at university in South Africa – a top athlete himself – was having a serious talk with him, during which he explained that God had a purpose for our lives and that Jesus had come to give us life in all its fullness. And that night – at about 10.30pm on May 20, 1972 – Charles invited Christ into his life.

It was very real, and changed his life forever. “Life is indeed a marathon,” he writes. “There are times when it’s tough, but you keep going because the prize is worth it. I have experienced the heartbreak of divorce and later widowhood after watching my second wife Irene suffer a long and painful illness. But Christ has been my strength, my rock and my fortress. I have experienced a deep and unshakeable joy even in times of great sorrow, most recently with the death of my dear dad.”

Charles is now married to Linda, who teaches Christianity at 21 different primary schools in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster. Doctor on the Run (ISBN No 978-1-9062-55-10-7) is available (£10 plus postage & packing) direct from the publishers at www.Sable-Publishing-House.com or from www.Amazon.co.uk