Local ultra-marathon athlete to run in aid of animals
Primrose Hill resident Hazel Möller is running the Ten 10 in support of animal charities.
She has been hard at training and the time is now when Hazel Möller, a resident of Primrose Hill, takes to the road in the Ten 10.
This year Möller, a member of the Bedfordview Athletics Club, will be running in aid of and raising funds for the Germiston SPCA and Pet Empowerment in Townships (Pets).
The Ten 10 (ten Comrades in ten days) is a fund-raising initiative founded by Möller which sees her, and this year another athlete Tumelo Mokobane, running nine “Comrades” marathons of 90km a day (starting 10 days before the Comrades Marathon), through the country, before reaching the starting point of the Comrades Marathon and participating in that.
Each marathon must be completed in less than 12 hours.
This year the Comrades takes place on May 29.
Now in its 91st year, the Comrades Marathon is the world’s largest and most prestigious ultra-marathon, with this year’s “down run” taking runners along an epic 89-km route across KwaZulu-Natal’s unrelenting mountainous terrain, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.
Möller told the GCN she was in two minds about doing the Ten 10 this year but something changed her mind.
“I was supposed to be taking part in a marathon one Saturday morning but when I woke up I decided not to participate but rather go for a run on my usual route.
“As I was running along Roberts Avenue in Kensington I found a dog.
“He was so emancipated and his front paws were extremely infected.
“I think he had been chucked out of a car and left to die and you could see he had been used as a fighting dog,” Möller said.
“I didn’t want to leave him there so I went looking for help and luckily just around the corner there was a group of people holding a CPF meeting.
“One of the people at the meeting was from a local veterinary clinic and the dog was taken for treatment.
“He is now at a rehabilitation centre for fighting dogs.”
As Möller runs through the country she will be dropping off pet food at all the animal shelters in the towns she travels through.
Möller starts her epic marathon this Friday where she will be setting out from Underdogs (a pitbull rehabilitation centre) in Pretoria.
This first run will end in Boksburg and then, on Saturday, she will be starting off in Bedfordview and running to Vanderbijlpark, and then from there it’s into the rest of the country.
Food will be donated to the Germiston SPCA during this run.
Möller is looking forward to the marathons and hopes to make a difference in the lives of many animals during the course of the Ten 10.
If you would like to donate to the cause visit www.ten10.co.za.
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