Going the Distance
Border roadrunning returns to action in Gonubie
The long-awaited return of road races to the Border region will become a reality next Sunday morning when the Ocean 10 takes place on the sea frontage of Gonubie.
The last official road race in the province took place on March 16 2020 when the same Ocean 10 snuck in ahead of the national lockdown that followed.
More recently, numerous trail runs have taken advantage of a less rigid system and there are many new ones popping up around South Africa.
Last weekend Border runners were able to race in Gqeberha at the South African Half-Marathon Championships with some pleasing results. They will likely be one up on folk coming into a race for the first time in 14 months as nerves are palpable after such a lay-off.
At the other end of the running fraternity the Washie 100 Miler is being planned for July under the traditional full moon.
Winter was once a meaningful crosscountry season when both running clubs and schools presented fixtures on diverse, challenging and interesting courses.
During this time of year road races were fewer in number and the sport was dominated by the Comrades Marathon, which incidentally celebrates its centenary on May 24.
The demise of regular and competitive cross-country running has had a detrimental effect on the standard of athletics at all levels. One only had to evaluate the results of the SA Half Marathon last weekend to realise this.
In the era of Matthews Temane, Xolile Yawa, Mark Plaatjies, Colleen de Reuck (Lindeque), Blanche Moila and Elana Meyer, to name but a handful of world-class athletes who graced both the roads and the turf, the times recorded were phenomenal.
They were also astute track athletes. Not one of them was a Comrades or ultramarathon runner, although both Moila and De Reuck have, in their twilight years, run the KwaZulu-Natal epic.
From a Border point of view the province was at the heart of great performances.
Using just those few names for example, Temane and Yawa were integral to the record-breaking performances over the half-marathon and 15km distances in East London, while Plaatjies won the SA crosscountry title on a tough course at Buffalo Park.
It was one of the best such championships and was followed a few years later with a similar one at Hudson Park and Port Rex schools.
The three women, too, were prominent on both the road and turf in the city.
The times last weekend could not meet the winning times set in East London in 1987 or 1991 despite unusually windless conditions down west of us.
The winning times were 1:06 and 1:20 slower than the world-best times set on the Esplanade by Temane and Meyer.
Overall however, the results were comparable, albeit it on a par rather than showing meaningful progress.
On Sunday, starting on Oceanway in Gonubie, two strong fields of mostly local runners will have an opportunity to show their paces at the Ocean 10, on a course certified by World Athletics for record purposes.
The men and women start an hour apart, which is a first in the city and in line with major international races.