Even on her darkest days in a hospital bed, Colleen McNally was still smiling. Picture: Melissa Sinclair/Facebook
If you’re a social road runner, there will be people you spot at races who you might not know by name, and you might not even know what they do, but they seem to be everywhere.
Colleen McNally was one of those people.
As ubiquitous a feature at road races as water sachets and red paper cups, McNally was at just about every race I covered in and around Johannesburg through most of my career.
Though she was not a runner herself, she cemented herself within the fabric of road running in the region as an experienced and well-respected race referee.
McNally was a workhorse who sacrificed a great deal of her personal time to the sport she loved.
And her influence in road running extended far beyond her position as a referee. She sat on the Athletics South Africa road running commission and was a committee member of the International Association of Ultrarunners. She was also an influential figure in her province as a long-serving committee member of Central Gauteng Athletics.
A schoolteacher by profession, she had the stern features of a strict principal, but her character was the opposite of what you might have expected upon first meeting.
Friendly, kind, caring, she was a wonderful person and we became close enough that she reached out to me to assist with problems in my personal life when I was going through slumps. And she made more of a difference than she knew.
She also played a key role in my career, keeping me up to date with some of the latest happenings behind the scenes in South African athletics.
McNally helped me so much we had a running joke that the only way I could pay her back was to buy her a wine farm.
Last year we travelled together to the SA 10km Championships in Mbombela, and I was fighting back tears as she explained in some detail the seemingly endless battle she had faced in recent years.
Tackling persistent loops of chemo treatments, Colleen kept fighting, but it was clear the battle against cancer was starting to take its toll.
Nonetheless, throughout our conversation, she didn’t stop smiling, radiating positive energy even in her darkest hour. And that’s how I will remember her.
A servant to the sport of road running and one of the most amazing people I’ve had the pleasure to know, I will miss her deeply.
Rest peacefully my friend. If I see you on the other side, we’ll get that wine farm going.
Download our app and read this and other great stories on the move. Available for Android and iOS.
