'I'm a beast right now': how running changed Cassper Nyovest's life

For civilians, getting into running is intimidating. Just the thought of lugging your jiggly bits down the street for 5km is tiring. Then there is all that designer kit you have to buy: stretchy pants with giant ticks on them that make your bum look nice, luminous shoes made from a material designed by marketing specialists and, of course, a tracking device.

So why do it at all? Why spend hours each week speed-shuffling to no destination in particular dressed like a clingwrapped kaleidoscope? According to rapper and self-proclaimed "sexy chubby ni**a" Cassper Nyovest, because it makes everything better.

"On stage I was starting to struggle with breathing. When I was younger I could do so many things with my body and I wasn't able to do it any more," he says about his pre-workout body.

PERFORMING IS INTENSE

Nursing a bit of flu, Nyovest speaks with a contained excitement. His appearance on a Sunday morning at the Nike Football Centre in Soweto is part of a campaign that he and the sports brand are involved in together. Called #GoJoburg, it encourages people to get running. On this particular day it involves sending a bunch of people on an obstacle course through Soweto followed by a performance by Cassper.

To hear him tell it, performing is an intense sport. Maintaining good breath control - which is pivotal if you don't want to sound like a deflating basketball - while dancing and traipsing around the stage takes a lot out of someone. So to improve his shows, his physique and his overall life, Nyovest decided to add a bit of exercise to his daily routine.

"I started doing the physical training thing for my first show at The Dome. It was just mad cardio at the time and then I got better at it when I did Orlando Stadium. I'm a beast right now. Even at my worst I'm able to get on stage and get the crowd going because I'm fitter and stronger than I used to be," he says.

The strange thing about running is that once you get over the initial torture of your first couple of runs, you start getting ambitious. Your dream of running 5km grows into a desire to do 15 and next thing you know you're signing up for half marathons. At least that's what happened with Nyovest.

'I WANTED TO CRY'

"My first run was 2km and it was bad. I wanted to cry. They [Nike] challenged me to do the Berlin Half Marathon at first. It sounded crazy at the time and I was like, "Yeah, I would if you pay me a crazy amount of money" and they laughed. But ... I didn't want to shy away from the challenge because I always tell people anything is possible if you believe it."

Nyovest went on to complete the 21km race in a little over two hours and 20 minutes, an impressive feat for someone who started out being defeated by a 2km run.

"It took me six weeks to prepare for the Berlin Half Marathon. About three days before, I had done my second 15km, so I was pretty confident. I was very happy with my time because I just wanted to do like a 2 hour 55 because I didn't think three hours something sounded dope."

Having graduated from the school of short runs, Nyovest now regularly clocks 10 to 15km with ease but that kind of improvement is obviously the result of hard work. He says he is in the gym more often than not and can sometimes clock 12 sessions per week on top of his runs.

Most of us don't have that kind of time or inclination but Nyovest's story does reiterate a rather clichéd but sage piece of advice about 1,000-mile journeys needing one step.

You don't need R900 pants with a jungle cat near the crotch or a pair of ultra fly weave dry stitch mercurial cotton-titanium shoes either. You just need to go outside, run as far as you can then rinse and repeat. There is a good chance that along the way you'll find yourself having fun and before you know it, you will just be the sexy ni**a.