Tag: Pietermaritzburg

In May 1921 one man with a somewhat crazy idea saw his dream of a foot race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban become reality and at the end May every year we see the running of the Comrades Marathon. 90 of them are behind us now and we look ahead to 2025 to the 100^th race, something that the man who came up with this crazy idea could not possibly have dreamt about.

That man in 1921 was Vic Clapham

It’s the road followed by the runners that I want to more or less look at. Comrades is run in alternate directions each year unless there’s a reason to change that and have two races in the same direction in successive years but this is not all that usual but as the original race was a “down run” I’ll look at that direction and as the next race we have in 2016 is a Down Run that’s another good reason to look at the Down Run in this chapter of The Marathon.

The “down run” starts outside the Pietermaritzburg City Hall which still claims to be the biggest red brick building in the southern hemisphere. Originally built in 1893, the Pietermaritzburg City Hall was badly damaged by fire in 1895 but rebuilt to its former glory in 1901.

The city hall organ is one of the largest pipe organs in the southern hemisphere. It has 3806 pipes ranging in size from 11 metres down to the thickness of a knitting needle.

If you look carefully at the photograph of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall you will see towards the left, the permanent structure that marks the start of the first Comrades in 1921.

Most people believe that the city got its name from two famous Voortrekker leaders, Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz but there is another thinking that it was named after Piet Retief alone.  Retief’s middle name was Maurits and there is therefore some who think that the city started off as Pieter Maurits Burg – but who knows? However in 1938 the city fathers took the decision that the second part of the city’s name should honour Gert Maritz. Interestingly, history tells us that neither Retief nor Maritz ever actually got to the city. Retief killed by Dingane and Maritz died of an illness in the Estcourt area.

We leave Pietermaritzburg and make our way onto the “old road” which until the new highway was built, carried the traffic to Durban. Perhaps one of the most famous – or is that notorious – landmarks on the road must be “Polly Shortts” which – particularly on the Up Run – has been the undoing of many a runner. Polly Shortts is named after a farmer who lived nearby in years gone by, and whose help was often sought when, after heavy rain, the road up the hill became muddy and impassable and one can imagine that, when you consider almost 2km of an extremely steep hill in the days before tarred roads that Mr. Shortts’ tractor was needed.

Not too far after Polly Shortts we dip down to a little river and we find the Tumble Inn and in the days when Comrades started at 6am it wasn’t uncommon to see spectators having dragged double beds onto the route and would be watching the race as the runners went by, from the comfort of their beds, glass of champagne in hand. Naturally very warmly dressed as at that time on a winter’s morning it was very “fresh” in that part of the world.

Tumble Inn Teapot is situated on a Stud Farm in Ashburton. It’s a quaint little farmhouse offering a relaxed atmosphere to enjoy a timeout with the girls, a quick snack with hubby or a get together with the moms group! It sits at the bottom of a little hill that runners in the “old days” used to incorrectly call Mkondeni which is actually a suburb of Pietermaritzburg. The modern runner calls it “Little Polly’s” and again, on the Up Run, not a very pleasant little climb.

Nothing much to see as we climb up through suburbs to reach the N3 as it’s still dark on the Down Run and to the turnoff to the Lion Park and apart from the game that obviously includes lions you will find elephant and various antelope and certainly worth a visit.

But let’s move along the road back onto the Comrades route as we head to the highest point between Pietermaritzburg and Durban at Umlaas Road we get to the highest point on the route between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

That’s right. You have been running for 20kms UPHILL to reach the highest point on the route of the DOWN RUN! You have been warned and it’s mainly in the dark so you can’t clearly see that it’s uphill.

After that it’s on through to Camperdown and

then to Cato Ridge and then onto the “old road” proper and the crowds start to gather to give you that much needed encouragement.

Along what is known as “Harrison Flats” and the turnoff to Nagel Dam and into the start of the Valley of 1000 Hills but for a better view of the Valley we need to travel a bit further along the route and to resist the temptation to stop on Comrades Day to look at the view which is really quite spectacular.

On from the turnoff to Nagel Dam a few kilometres further we reach the Entambeni School for the Disabled who have long been recipients of part of the charity from Comrades for many years. The children are out in numbers at the side of the road cheering the runners on race day.

Another couple of kilometres and we get to Inchanga. At the top more fantastic views this time towards the N3 down far below with scenic KZN in the background and ahead lies the little village of Drummond that is the official half way in Comrades and the point where the dreams of many runners are shattered when they are pulled off the road because they couldn’t make the cut off in the required time. Drummond comes alive on Comrades day as hundreds of spectators gather to see the runners and that dreadful gun the signals the half way cut off time.

But Drummond hasn’t always had its tarred roads for runners to use.

About a kilometre on the Durban side of Drummond, a couple of really important things.  Firstly a really nasty little climb out of Drummond that doesn’t really have a name that can be mentioned in polite circles and at the top of that is the famed “Arthur’s Seat” a seat carved out of the bank which is reputed to be the spot where the great Arthur Newton took a breather every year during his races in the 1920’s and runners are encouraged to stop and put a flower on the seat and greet the “spirit of the great man” with “Morning Arthur” if they want him to help them in the second half of the race. You can laugh about this if you wish but even the great Alan Robb greets Arthur Newton every year!   Are you prepared to take a chance and do the second half without Arthur’s help?  I certainly wouldn’t!

A few hundred metres further is possibly the best view of the breath taking Valley of a Thousand Hills and it’s also there that we find the Comrades Wall Of Honour that any runner who finishes the race can buy a plaque and have his or her name put up of the wall for all to see for all time.

The Valley of 1000 Hills is one of those few holiday destinations that has something for everyone. Unspoilt nature, wildlife, magnificent scenery, wining and dining, and warm country hospitality just a half an hour’s drive from the centre of Durban. The area is named after the thousands of hills which tumble down to the mighty Umgeni River, which flows from the Drakensberg Mountains to the Indian Ocean.

The old joke goes about sending mother in law for a one week holiday on each hill! Unkind and old but still used by many a downtrodden son in law.

Then on, into Botha’s Hill village, and another of the “big five hills” and some famous landmarks, probably the best known is the old Rob Roy Hotel that has now become a retirement home and one can but envy the views that the residents have with a different view over the Valley of 1000 Hills.

Not much further along the road is one of KZN’s most famous boys’ school, Kearsney College that excels in virtually every area. The classroom and the sports fields.

Comrades Day and it’s usual that the boys from Kearsney will be sitting and watching the runners go by and cheering for most of the day.

The beautiful entrance to Kearsney College seen in the autumn and incidentally, Kearsney College was founded in 1921, the year in which Comrades was first run.

Down the valley and into Hillcrest which about 30 years ago was no more than a village that has exploded into a good sized town offering everything from shopping to accommodation.

Leave Hillcrest and make your way through the leafy suburb of Winston Park and through into Kloof (heaven help you if you don’t pronounce it “Clue-oof” if you visit KZN). It is here in the Old Main Road that hundreds of spectators set up their areas to watch the race and cordon them off the day before Comrades to see the runners come through. The braai and beers forming as important a part of the day as do the runners.

After Kloof, it’s the drop down Field’s Hill into Pinetown and into the Josiah Gumede Road (formerly The Old Main Road) and well known to all Comrades runners since 1921.

Pinetown was a quiet little family type town until the early eighties but over recent years has boomed into a commercial hub. It has a rich history and as one travels through the centre of the town and you reach the Municipal Buildings one will find the stumps and bails on the commonage between the Pinetown Civic Centre and the Library alongside Old Main Road (now Josiah Gumede Road) to commemorate the founding of the Pinetown Cricket Club in 1878, when the first match was played there.   Please don’t stop there on Comrades day to look at the wickets as that will serve only to waste valuable time.

The wickets are some 20kms from the finish of Comrades on the Down Run and on your left hand side!   Interesting that when they were set up such cricketing greats as the late South African and Australian captains, Jackie McGlew and Richie Benaud were at the ceremony. There was also a small boy watching all this who grew up in Pinetown and who would many years later go on to run in Comrades Green Number 482 – but that’s another story altogether!

Leave Pinetown and it’s up and over Cowies Hill where at the top there is a fantastic view back over the town. On the Down Run it’s a tough climb but once you reach the top of Cowies Hill you know that most of the really hard work has been done and now it’s just “vasbyt”.

Cowies Hill has always been a very nice suburb of Pinetown with lovely houses and gardens. A sought after suburb.

Then it’s into Westville. Westville is an area near Durban and is some 15 km from Durban itself. Formerly an independent municipality governed by a Town Council, it is now part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which also includes Durban. The town was laid out on the farm Westville (named in honour of Martin West, who was the first British lieutenant-governor of Natal) and it was formed in 1847. It developed from a settlement of German immigrants who arrived in 1848, and was proclaimed a borough in 1956.

When you get to the bottom of Cowies Hill on the Durban side the distance marker boards suddenly start to get invitingly low in terms of distance to go and it’s not long and suddenly you are into single figures as you reach 45^th Cutting and you are now on the very outskirts of Durban and home is a mere 8kms away.

From 45^th Cutting it’s a climb up from the traffic lights, over the top and down to what Durbanites call the Western Bypass and then it’s along a bit and the final little climb to the Tollgate Bridge.

Then it’s just 5kms home and it’s all downhill and flat running through the city centre to the finish at Kingsmead after you have spent the day running through some of the most beautiful parts of South Africa. A part of the country that thousands of runners who live the dream of a man who started this magical experience called The Comrades Marathon in 1921 have experienced.

It’s estimated some 300,000 runners have travelled this Old Road to Durban or from Durban over the years since 34 hardy souls set off to create history from outside the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on 24 May 1921.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t remember when I first met Bruce Fordyce. All I remember was that it was a very long time ago and I watched his career with amazement and admiration. The way he went about Comrades. The way he went about demolishing his opposition and the way in which he timed his race. There was never any panic. He was never in the lead at half way and that was always part of his plan. As part of the media I was always extremely frustrated because I simply couldn’t get to him before Comrades but that was also part of his plan. He gave away nothing and left us all guessing and as a result he had no unnecessary pressure on himself. He had enough anyway. I only had one clue and that was the year he came across to chat to me before the start in Pietermaritzburg and the clue was that he wasn’t going for a win that year although he said nothing and as a result I had the story ahead of most of the others in the media, so thank you for that Bruce.

This is the first time in all the years I have known him that I have had the opportunity to ask him these few questions. I hope you find them interesting. I have waited something like a quarter of a century to ask him some of these questions.

DJ.   The 31^st of May 1981 and South Africa was “celebrating” 20 years of the “Republic” and the winner of Comrades on Monday, the 1^st of June that year, a Wits student came across the finish line wearing a black armband in protest of the celebration. Not a very popular winner with many people but it wasn’t very long and Bruce Fordyce was everybody’s darling. Did you work hard to change that initial reaction or did it just happen because as far as I can remember you never came out apologising for that armband but yet the South African public embraced you completely and it didn’t take long.

BF.  I didn’t apologise for wearing the black armband and it actually took longer than you think because it wasn’t only the black armband that was my problem but also the fact that I had beaten the darling of Comrades, Alan Robb so the double whammy.  It even went on into 1982 which was a cold and wet year and I had one spectator shout at me “Where’s the black armband to keep you warm this year Fordyce?” but fortunately by the time I got to my third win in 1983 that was all behind me and the public seemed to have accepted me and it was time to go forward but there was really nothing I did, or could do to change that first perception. I’m just pleased it changed.

 

DJ.   You have often thanked your parents for the genes they gave you enabling you to run as you were able to do, but there was another part of your running and Comrades ability that stood you in good stead and that was your mental strength. I don’t ever remember seeing you flustered. You worked to a plan and that was it and if something did happen as it did in 1984 when you had to run like the wind to catch Bob de la Motte your incredible mind strength took over and you did what was required. I remember another time and I don’t remember the year when you were a little “ragged” and running alongside Hoseah Tjale about 25km out and he was strong but yet you beat him and that wasn’t your legs that did that but again that incredible mental strength. Did that come naturally or was it something that was part of your training?

 BF.  When things are important I have that mental strength. I would rather pay someone off the street to mow my lawn at home than have to do it myself because I hate it and I don’t have the mental strength to do that but when it came to Comrades that was different. I think the fact that I was sent to boarding school at a young age played a large part in that mental strength. I learnt endurance there to a large degree. The school where I was, was very old and had those old lead lined windows and each one in my dormitory was, for me, a week and I would tick one week off in my head before I could go home to my family so I picked up some endurance in how to “hang in when things were tough” there when I was quite young but the best advice I got was from Gordon Howie who said to me that I had to go to time trials and short races and learn to run in front and this was after I had already finished second and third in Comrades and I did that but I didn’t race long races other than those one or two crucial races a year. So I guess the mental strength was to a large degree something that I trained myself to do when things needed it.

DJ.     That handshake that became something of a trademark almost and that many thought was such a nice gesture from you as you went passed your opponents and into the lead.  Had you been a gladiator in ancient Roman times it wouldn’t have been a handshake, it would have been plunging your sword into your fallen foe to end it and I’ll never forget Mark Page surrendering to you by putting out his hand to you even before you extended your hand to him virtually saying “I’m done, take it”. When did you first decide that this was a great way to show your opposition exactly who was in charge at a crucial time.

 

BF.    Not entirely true.  The only person who could actually relate to you at that crucial time in the race was the person running alongside you and whilst you obviously wanted to beat the guy, the handshake was saying to him that whilst you were still strong it was also saying “I’m proud of you”.   Mark Page seemed to give up that day and he asked me who was behind me when I caught up to him on Polly’s.   I never saw the handshake as “I’m in charge” and I think the first time I did it was in 1986 with Bob de la Motte and it certainly wasn’t anything intentional at the time.   It was just one of those things that happened.

 

DJ.   Something I’ve wanted to ask you for the better part of 25 years. 1988 and eight    Comrades wins in a row and then came 1989 and an unofficial international 100km in Stellenbosch and you chose to run that rather than Comrades that year and what would undoubtedly have been your 9^th successive win. Then in 1990 you came back and won again to make it your 9^th win and that was it and the 10^th was gone. I still to this day believe that you could have won both Stellenbosch and Comrades in 1989 and come back in 1990 and won Comrades – as you did in 1990 – and had your 10 in a row. With the benefit of hindsight, which is the only exact science, would you agree with me, even if it’s only a tiny bit?

BF.   I don’t think so. The first five of us were on a drip after the race and only Jean-Marc Belloq refused to go onto a drip but he was broken the day after the race. It was in my head that it was never going to happen. We South Africans had been going on about the fact that we were the best in the world and this was our chance to prove it and we took that chance against the best in the world over a recognised international distance but for me with that 100km in February, Comrades was never going to be on that year.

DJ.   In the 90 Comrades we’ve had up to the 2015 race there have been 48 different men’s winners. If it were possible, which it obviously isn’t, to take those 48 athletes at their peak and line them up for a “Super Comrades” who do you think would be the top five at the finish? Fordyce would have to be one of them, and probably the winner, but who do you think would be the other four and why?

BF.   If you look at Arthur Newton his times were slow but you can only ask him to be as   good as he could be at his time. If you look at Wally Hayward and you look at what he did at 80 you realise exactly what he did and of course Alan Robb provided it was a Down Run. Jackie Mekler if it was an Up Run. The fifth is a man who is someone who was probably a lot like me and that’s Hardy Ballington.  Four wins before the war and his fifth win after the war.

DJ.   Finally, you’re still putting a lot into running and you’re very involved in the         parkruns which are gaining in popularity all around the country and in fact around the world. It’s a fantastic concept. Tell us a little about it.

BF.   parkruns were started by my old Comrades second, Paul Sinton-Hewitt. He used to   run the Rockies Time Trial at Zoo Lake and he missed this when he emigrated to the UK because time trials don’t happen there and he started what he called “UK Time Trials” in Bushy Park in London in October 2004 and 13 people came and it continued like that for a long time until a second one started in Richmond Park and then another in Leeds and so it grew. I went to London Marathon in 2011 and was invited to run in the parkrun and decided to start in Johannesburg and we had our first one in Delta Park. We now have 325,000 parkrunners in over 70 different parkruns around South Africa and growing at a rate of about 5000 a week and we estimate that by the end of 2016 we should be close to 500,000 parkrunners in South Africa and worldwide we hope to be about 20 million in the next three or four years.

 

If you want to know more about parkruns you can find all the information on http://www.parkrun.co.za. You can register online and it doesn’t cost you anything at all and with over 70 of them around the country there’s bound to be one not too far from you and they are only 5kms and they are all on a Saturday morning and most of them at 8 o’clock.

There have been many brilliant Comrades runners over the years but King of the Comrades?   Probably fair to say that title belongs to just one person although Bruce might humbly say others deserve it.

 

 

In 2015 Caroline Wostmann (pronounced Versed-man) shot to prominence when she became the first South African woman in 14 years to win Comrades and only the second South African woman to win Two Oceans and Comrades in the same year. She has an amazing story of a runner who started out as a very ordinary and average runner and became a “superstar” of Comrades.

I had never met Caroline prior to getting together for this chat and found a charming, down to earth and very together young lady who was easy to talk to and who had no airs and graces.

D.J.    How did it all start, your running career?

CW:    I battled to lose weight after the birth of my first baby. I was very unfit and      decided to attempt running as a means of weight loss. I started with a lap around my 800m block each morning and slowly built up from there.

 

DJ:      At what stage did you realise that you had that “special something” that would set you apart from the ordinary runner and take you into the category of the top runner where you are today?

CW:    I don’t think I ever thought that I had a “special something” but when I came 15^th in 2012, I did think that if I trained harder I would be able to get into the top 10. I then overdid it and got a stress fracture and had to miss 2013 which definitely made me think I lacked the “special something” that the “elites” had!   Fortunately, I had a great doctor who referred me to biokineticists who helped me a great deal in getting strong enough to handle the hard training.

 

DJ:      In Comrades last year you seemed to be running to a time rather than against anybody else. Is that the way you ran Comrades and in fact Two Oceans last year?

CW:    Two Oceans was strange because I wasn’t trying to win it and I was just so comfortable and found myself in the lead and not in any discomfort at all and went on to a very comfortable win. In Comrades I was running to a time and my plan was to try to go into the lead around 20Kms from home but I was very surprised when I found myself alongside the leading ladies very early on and I was running with them but at a pace that was uncomfortably slow and so I moved away whilst I was able to do so and was comfortable with my pace right through to the finish.

 

 DJ:      What is your training like and do you race a lot?

CW:    I generally train twice a day with an early morning session and then late afternoon session and whilst I don’t race a lot I enjoy taking part in races but as training runs where I run slower than I would if I were racing. I enjoy the camaraderie of taking part in races but I am careful not to over race.

 

DJ:      Has winning Comrades changed you?

CW:    I don’t think it has. I’m still the same person I’ve always been with the same      priorities of family and if for any reason my training started to put strain on my family then I would put competitive running aside.

 

DJ:      Have people treated you differently since you won Comrades?

CW:    I find people are wanting to take a lot of “selfies” with me and I don’t mind that at all.           

 

DJ:      What are your future goals in running?

CW:    For now, my attention is still on Comrades and concentrating on that. I have run a 2:44 marathon and I am not sure that the marathon distance is where I want to focus my attention right now. I feel more comfortable at the longer distance.

 

DJ:      What do you think you can get to time-wise in Comrades? Under 6 hours on the Down Run?

CW:    I ran 6:51 in the last Down Run in 2014 so I have a long way to go to get to 6 hours on the Down and whilst I did 6:12 on the Up Run to win in 2015 they are very different races so we’ll have to wait and see. 2016 is going to be a very exciting Comrades with the field we expect this year.

 

DJ:      In your build-up to Comrades 2015 it must have been very difficult balancing three jobs that of mother to your two daughters, lecturer at Wits and runner at the level you are at. How did you manage it?

CW:    I couldn’t possibly have done it if it hadn’t been for the enormous support I had from my family. My husband was amazing and he would handle everything at home as far as the children were concerned. I would leave home at around 4am to go through to Wits so that I could get my early morning training session in, then it would be my lectures and then after that back to Pretoria for my afternoon training session before getting back home for our family time where we sat down as a family before the children went off to bed. During that family time there was no television or anything like that. It was quality family time. It was only after Comrades that we took the decision as a family that I would stop lecturing at Wits and only focus on running so that took a lot of pressure off us all.

 

DJ:      Tell me about your decision to change running clubs

CW:    Towards the end of 2015 I heard rumours that KPMG was launching a running club. Being a chartered accountant I was naturally interested to find out more about this as KPMG is one of the largest and best firms in my profession. I found out that KPMG had been developing athletics in South Africa for the last three years through a project at Vorentoe  School called the KPMG Vorentoe Running Academy. I was amazed to discover that after such a short period of time they had managed to win 38 medals in the SA athletic and cross country championships in each of the previous two years. This enabled me to realise the extent of talent we have in our country. Being passionate about education and athletics I was eager to become a part of this initiative and was thrilled to be afforded the opportunity by KPMG. I have no doubt that future Olympians and world champs will come from this project and hope that other corporates will follow in KPMG’s footsteps in developing our country’s potential.

 

 

 If anybody deserves success, it’s this lady. She has worked very hard to get to where she is now and we can only hope that it pays off for many years to come.