Four Charterhouse educators ride for a good cause

Four Charterhouse Preschool educators recently competed and completed the 94.7 Cycle Challenge on 16 November.

Emma Nell, Kezia Botha, Chloe Godwin and Niki Macnamara all braved the chilly breeze to join thousands of cyclist from South Africa and abroad for the annual Momentum Cycle Challenge.

The women were not just riding for great legs and better health but were doing it to raise awareness for Craniokids, a charity for children born with craniosynotosis, a condition that causes the infant skull to prematurely fuse into bone.

The condition can interfere with brain growth and can ultimately lead to visual and mental impairment.

The four educators ditched their chalkboards and looked to conquer the 95km route around Johannesburg. Macnamara said, “The last three hills were excruciatingly painful but the philosophy ‘mind over matter’ or, in our case, mind over hills, really carried us to the finish line.”

Crossing the finish line in six hours and six minutes, the women certainly surprised everyone, including themselves. Chloe Godwin added, “We signed up for the challenge six weeks before the actual race and we crossed the finish line, we just felt so proud. A lot of people were surprised that we even finished and we proved a couple of others wrong too.”

For the four educators, the reason they chose to ride for Craniokids hit closer to home. Godwin said there was a family that had a child with craniosynostosis who used to go to Charter House and felt closer to that particular cause.

The first-timers are, of course, already looking forward to taking part in the cycle challenge next year and beating their current time.

“We are looking forward to doing this again and training much harder, we didn’t really train as hard because we signed so late this year. The last hill was very tough and you experience such mixed emotions during the race but we are very proud of ourselves,” concluded Godwin.