A group of local runners took it upon themselves to go the distance during the lockdown after three ultra-marathons were postponed. About 30 people from various running clubs, all connected through their favourite sport, challenged one another in the first weeks of lockdown to run ultra-marathon distances at home.
Many of the runners are from Greymont, Northcliff and Greenside but they were joined by friends in Australia and Italy, and a team made up of doctors in Manguzi, KwaZulu-Natal, who ran in their compound.
In total, there were three teams and they competed in a relay – first running the Two Oceans distance (58.2km) and then the Loskop Marathon (50km) on the days these races were supposed to take place.
“We started at the time that the races would have started and the challenge to each team was to complete the distance within the cut-off time,” explained Bridget Hunter, who was one of the runners.
All teams finished within cut-off time.”The last week was a biathlon of 10km garden run, 40km stationery bike ride and another 5km run.”
Runner Noeleen McCallum described the experience as fantastic.”Normally Bridget and I run marathons together so when Comrades was postponed, we said we would not miss out,” said McCallum. “Some people ran in their gardens, some people on treadmills. The lockdown can be astronimically fun if you have a positive attitude.”
Hunter agreed the competitions were a success, with one runner, Linda Icely even making cardboard cutouts of former Springboks Francois Pienaar and Chester Williams to cheer her on along the route. She said the challenge was to make running these distances at home as interesting as possible, without causing injury to themselves.
“I put it together, mainly because as runners we felt a little lost without being able to train for Comrades and because we had fomo [fear of missing out] at not being able to take part in our annual ultras.
“As much as we love running, it’s mostly the social aspect that we miss so this was an opportunity to do our thing and have a laugh.”The group is planning to run the Comrades Marathon distance (90km) on 14 June.
