Those who competed in the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon had to complete the 85,91 km from Durban to Pietermaritzburg within 12 hours.
First-timers Lizette Odendaal, Bothoboile Chakanyuka and Ledile Sekele of the club were tired but thrilled to have achieved this milestone.
When Die Pos spoke to Thulani Duma on Tuesday, 11 June, he was, believe it or not, “doing a quick 15 km race”, while many others who completed the Comrades were still recovering from sore muscles and aching blistered feet. Duma had hoped to run a sub-six-hour race.
“For me, this Comrades was, once again, a reminder that with sport you don’t know what the outcome will be. I prepared well for the race but had flu when I ran to qualify and could only start in my race in the C batch, among slower runners. This meant that I had to spend lots of energy passing hundreds of runners and by the time I reached Pine Town and the front runners were in sight, I was spent,” he said. He ran a pace of just over four minutes per kilometre for the first 30 km.
Though he did not perform as he had wished, it did not diminish his love of running.
Duma already has his sights set on the Seshego Marathon, a 50 km marathon from Mankweng to Seshego Stadium in Polokwane, that takes place in September.
