Lockdown couldn’t stop this Iron Mom. She blazed through Ironman – in her backyard

It was 7am on Sunday morning. Charlotte Raubenheimer took a deep breath and jumped. The pool was icy and her plan was extreme.

 This was supposed to have been the start of the Ironman African Championship, which Raubenheimer had been intensely training for. But the outbreak of COVID-19 delayed it by months as a national lockdown was announced in South Africa. Raubenheimer wasn’t phased. Powering her way through the water, she was embarking on a mission of her own – completing the challenge in her backyard. “Quitting was never an option,” Raubenheimer says. 

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When her friend Phillip Jansen van Rensberg’s wheelchair broke, Raubenheimer decided to raise funds for a new one by competing in Ironman. Donations for her endeavour came flooding in, but then the event was postponed. Raubenheimer refused to let her contributors down. So when the big day should have arrived, she mapped out a course at home and didn’t look back until 13 hours later. After covering the three-kilometre swim in the pool, 180-kilometre cycle on her stationary bike, and 42-kilometre run around her garden, Raubenheimer crossed the finish line victorious. “Running a marathon in circles around my house was one of the toughest things I’ve ever endured,” she says. 

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Her two sons presented her with a homemade trophy – an ice-cream tub and plastic bottle plastered with Ironman stickers. But Raubenheimer had earned a greater reward. Exceeding the target she set for the wheelchair, she raised over R100 000 for Jansen van Rensberg. The excess funds enable Raubenheimer to continue supporting him, and the results of her commitment have surpassed her own expectations. “With determination, strength, and a goal, we are all capable of absolutely anything,” Raubenheimer says.