Running legend Zola Budd was back on the road this month after her disappointing withdrawal from the Comrades marathon due to illness. Budd tackled The Unlimited 10km Challenge along the Durban beach front together with over 40 employees from the financial services provider.
For many of the contenders, running with an iconic athlete such as Zola was not only an amazing opportunity but the fulfilment of a personal challenge too. More than half of the 42 runners admitted that they had not even considered running before the challenge and most believed they would never be able to complete 10km. Their motivation to take up the challenge came from The Unlimited wellness programme, which is committed to promoting a healthy life-work balance for all the company’s employees.
According to CEO Steph Bester, the challenge has been an amazing opportunity. “Part of our business ethos is that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things and no one has proven this more than Zola Budd. As her official sponsor and a sponsor of the Comrades marathon, we issued a challenge to encourage our employees to take up road running and this was the culmination of the eight-week campaign. Obviously, it was a chance of a lifetime to run alongside such an amazing athlete and it has been a truly inspirational event for our staff,” mentions Bester.
The Durban-based company implemented a comprehensive wellness programme in 2009. The programme includes a fully functional training gym on site, two exercise classes per day, ranging from yoga to spinning, Taibo, Abs and core class, boxercise, Pilates or Zumba, as well as regular fitness assessments and access to health and nutritional information as well as 24-hour ICAS support.
The most recent addition to the programme was the establishment of The Unlimited Running Club of which Zola is a proud member.
“Our Wellness Programme is definitely cutting-edge and it has been encouraging to see how enthusiastically our employees have embraced the programme. With a full-time wellness manager steering the project, the emphasis on emotional and physical wellness have become entrenched into the fabric of our corporate culture,” explains Bester.