Going The Distance

To lap or not to lap during a marathon

The 40th London Marathon, one of the greatest city marathons and mostwatched events in the athletic world, with the largest participation and fastest elite, takes place on Sunday.

Those who know and love the pomp and ceremony, the large crowds and overall appeal that London has always produced, will find the 2020 race unrecognisable.

In 2019, 42,485 runners finished the race through the historic streets of London.

In 2020, there will be less than 100 eliteonly runners, no crowds and a 20-lap course around St James Park, the roads of which were already closed off on Thursday.

It is the lap nature that I would like to focus on, given that our city has a great tradition of highly successful halfmarathon lap races, both elite in respect of South African Championships and open club events.

The first of those was a seven-lap beachfront course back in 1981.

Designed and organised by the then chairperson of the Border Marathon Runners Association, Kenny Wilkinson, it delivered a South African record.

It was an incredibly exciting race with four male athletes sprinting to the finish over the final 500m.

In 1984, the route was modified to five laps and was run in less than ideal conditions but again produced numerous SA records and was won by the tough Gibeon Moshaba in 62.37.

In 1987, I had taken over as chairperson of local road running from first Tony Viljoen and then Peter Darroll.

We put together a strong cross club organising team and set up a half marathon course starting on the corner of Oxford and

North Streets, running down 2.3km to the Esplanade and then about four laps of the seafront with a final 200m dash down to Orient Beach. The result was dramatic, with a world best time of 60:11.

In 1991, a further course modification resulted in another world best.

This time, the route was run entirely on the Esplanade, with Elana Meyer running 67:59 over laps of 4.23km and the same 200m finish.

The World 100km Championships that takes place in Winschoten, in the Netherlands, every few years and to which I managed South African teams in 1995, is run over a 10 by 10km route. That is tough racing.

It has been a tough sell to the average runner that they are being given the opportunity to run a personal best 21km, but on a lap course, even with the superb backdrop that the seafront offers.

The truth is, when running laps there is no need to count them as you run 1km at a time, exactly as at any other race.

Will London produce the race the athletic world is clambering for after months of no racing?

Eliud Kipchoge is the fastest man over 42.2km in history and he is there, as is Keninina Bekele, who is only two seconds slower in a formal race. The ingredients are all in place.

Meanwhile, three South Africans are in the elite fields of men and women, with Elroy Gallant, Melikaya Frans and Gerda Steyn all chasing personal bests and in the case of Gallant and Steyn, possible South African records.

Those records are held by Colleen de Reuck and Gert Thys and were set 24 and 21 years ago respectively.

De Reuck ran 2:26:35 in Berlin and Thys 2:06:33 in Japan.