Targeting an up run silver?
Comrades veteran Rogers offers wise old advice on how to get one
WOULD you have run a total of at least 2 000km this year by the time you line up at the Durban City Hall for the start of this year’s Comrades Marathon?
If not, your chances of making it to the Scottsville Racecourse in Pieter maritzburg within seven-and-a-half hours are slim to none, and slim has just left town.
So says Dave Rogers, the man with the most number of medals (45) at the ultimate human race.
“If you want to win a silver medal, you need to have at least run 2 000km between January and the end of May. Anything less than that and you will have to be content with the other medals (Bill Rowan for a sub-nine-hour finish; bronze from 9-11 hours and the Vic Clapham, or copper, from 11-12 hours).”
With 48 starts to his name and a massive 26 silver medals, Rogers should know what he is talking about.
He won silver in his maiden Comrades back in 1961 as a strapping 18-year-old and went on to add 25 more thereafter while he had his best races in the mid-70s. “I had it good then because I won three successive golds from 1974 to 1976. And then there were all those many silvers.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, though. “I had my worst Comrades in 2002,” he lamented.
“I failed to get a medal by just 11 seconds. I got to the finish 11 seconds late. That was a very sad day for me. I was really heartbroken because I was so close. I will never forget that day.”
Back then the cut-off time was still 11 hours instead of the 12 it currently is.
Rogers didn’t run the following year but got medals in the next five races. He failed to finish three other runs thereafter, one of those in 2014, which was the last time he ran the race.
Not that he has retired. Far from it, for the 74-yearold nurses ambitions of lacing up for Comrades until he has clocked 50 races.
“I’ve had a long Comrades career, but I am aiming to reach 50 finishes – only then will I call it a day,” explained the man who boasts 13 Comrades bronze medals in his cabinet.
“I would like to be the oldest Comrades runner in history.”
That honour belongs to five-time champion Wally Hayward, who ran the great race when he was 80.
“I like what I saw with Wally Hayward. Even when he ran his last Comrades, he was still going strong and ran better than many other runners in that race,” Rogers said of the man after whom one of the Comrades medals (for runners who don’t make the top 10 but still finish within six hours) is named.
He won’t be running this year, though.
“I was injured and in hospital for most of January and have been in recovery mode for the last few months. An injury takes a long time to heal if the person is old like me. I’ve started jogging now, though, and I think I will be ready for next year’s race,” said the Hillcrest, Durban, resident.
The holder of a coveted green number, given to those runners who complete 10 Comrades, says the race has changed for the better over time.
“Unlike back in the day when we started, Comrades is much bigger and there are a lot more runners participating. And because of that it has almost become a team sport. If you are having a bad day, there will be 10 other people prepared to help you out. So you don’t do it on your own.”