Beekeeper runs backwards into Guinness World Records
A Glenhazel resident finds himself a record holder after completing an 87,72km Comrades Marathon in just over 11 hours.
A Glenhazel resident made it into the Guinness World Records as the first man to run the 87,72km Comrades Marathon backward in 2015. Elias Farai Chinomwe achieved the record in a time of 11:51:00. The beekeeper, however, said that running the marathon was more about raising awareness of the plight of bees for him, not fame. The athlete wanted to raise awareness about how human activities such as clearing tracts of land for development and other environmental factors have resulted in the devastation of bee colonies around the world.
“As a beekeeper, I have learned that there is much more to bees than just making honey. Honey is food for the bees so we’re actually stealing their food when we collect honey. Let’s rather plant more flowers and supplement them with bee food when we can,” said Chinomwe.
He received a random call this year from a Guinness World Records representative who said she had read about his achievement and requested he repeat the backward run again for record purposes. Chinomwe told the representative that he would consider repeating the backward run routine if he received enough sponsorship to be able to participate. “Then they said they retrospectively considered my first attempt and therefore couriered me the Guinness World Record Certificate.”
Chinomwe said to participate in such big events as the Comrades Marathon is costly as one has to buy running shoes, pay for a training car, pay for accommodation while at the marathon venue where they stay for about a week and one has to qualify by passing a four-hour running test.
“We lose time with family while training because training takes so much time. Some people die during Comrades Marathon. You run among 25 000 people but you will be doing this for yourself,” Chinomwe said. He also said running backwards for him symbolised looking back to where we come from and learning from our backgrounds as we go forward into the future.
Chinomwe’s coach Tshepo Khoza said he was inspired by what ‘Farai’ had achieved as it gives hope to anyone whether young or old that, “as long as you have a vision, you can achieve your goals.” Khoza said when Chinomwe first mentioned that he wanted to run backwards, he couldn’t understand because he imagined what such an exercise could do to the body and mind.
Khoza said, “I have learnt to value the producers of honey more and also that nothing is humanly impossible as Farai achieved something that was presumably impossible. I learnt that we as humans can always do something challenging for a good cause. Farai’s is a unique story that needs to be told and celebrated.”
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