Dean Wight runs a lot and now he’s turning that passion into making a positive difference in the lives of people around him
Running 15 to 32km every Saturday and completing 27 Comrades is no small feat. Raising over R100 000 for charity is huge. Dean has done all that and more and this year he’s going for a personal best to raise R350 000 for the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust (HACT).
When he completes his 28th Comrades on June 9, Dean hopes to have achieved this record target, collecting another medal as Comrades Marathon Top Charity fundraiser.
His story goes back several decades when his neighbour “Uncle Tony” invited him along for a run. The 11-year-old boy was hooked and started running marathons when he was just 16.
In the early 2000s he moved to Queensburgh with his “lovely wife Des” and joined Queensburgh Harriers Athletic Club where he soon became chairman, or as he was fondly known “Our Beloved Chairman”.
It was here that he came up with the idea of setting up long training runs to help people achieve their dream of running a marathon.
“They were unorganised, organised runs from between 15 to 32km,” laughs Dean. “We’d run to Pinetown and Hillcrest and I’d get up really early on run days and hide refreshments in the bushes along the way.”
When he had to resign as chairman because of a move to Kloof, Dean created a group he called Beloved Long Runs in 2016. “It started really small with a Facebook page which gave runners a race calendar and all the necessary information on the runs, which were then starting out from coffee shops, petrol garages and the like all over the greater Durban area.”
In 2017 he was approached to partner with various running clubs in Durban and outer areas such as Pietermaritzurg, Port Shepstone and even Winterton. “So, the runs would alternate starting and ending at these various clubs throughout the year with the club coming on board with refreshments,” said Dean.
“I started off with about 80 runners and now we average about 250 every Saturday. By far my most popular event is the Comrades in Three Days where we run the whole Comrades route in three days to give entrants a feel for the ultimate human race.
“This is usually held a few months before Comrades and the runs attract up to 600 runners a day. There’s such a great community spirit with the clubs on the route helping out with refreshment tables.”
It’s this community spirit that encouraged Dean to reach out to the people around him. “I’ve always loved helping runners achieve their goals but being able to help charities through running is equally rewarding,” says Dean.
His first attempt was raising a very worthy R40 000 for the Ingane Yami children’s home in Dassenhoek in 2016, followed by donations to Durban North charity Project Loo, and then the Hillcrest Aids Centre Trust.
Previously relying on donations from the generous running community, taking on the Comrades fundraising challenge for the first time in 2017 for HACT was a humbling experience.
I set myself a target of R10 000, but then I decided to be more ambitious and go for R100 000, which I figured I could get if 1 000 people each gave me R100. I posted my story and pledged my goal on my social media and the official Comrades website page.
“I then got a call from long-lost childhood friend, Estelle Morck, who said that if I was serious about reaching my goal, she would match it with R100 000 from her company, Jubane Petroleum.
Dean’s final total for 2018 was a whopping R327 000, winning him a Spirit of Comrades medal and the kickstart he needed to take the challenge on again this year, with a goal of R350 000.
At the time of our interview he was sitting at R219 000 and climbing.
“Like you’ll find me running every Saturday come hell or high water, I am singularly focused on hitting my Comrades fundraising goal again this year.” *
You can donate to Dean’s cause at: http://bit.ly/DeanWight