Comrades veterans raring to go
COLLECTIVELY, the oldest man and woman participating in this year’s Comrades Marathon have won 57 medals and they aim to make it 59 on the down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban tomorrow.
Durban’s Patricia Fisher, who turned 70 in January, has 31 Comrades medals from the 35 races she has entered.
Motlogelwa Khoele, from Tembisa on the East Rand, who celebrated his 81st birthday in May, has 26 medals.
“I’ve been there for half of my life,” said Fisher, of Manor Gardens.
She says in 1985 she was a spectator, sitting on the side of the road while breast-feeding her daughter.
She turned to her husband Roland and said: “Next year I’m going to run this race.”
She stuck to her guns and a year later finished the Comrades but missed the cut-off time by five minutes.
She went back in 1987 and picked up 26 consecutive medals in the years that followed.
In 2017 when Fisher was aiming for her triple green number, she fell into a plastic refuse bin at Polly Shorts while stretching against it, which meant she missed the cut-off by seconds.
This week, wearing mismatched takkies to honour her two sponsors, the Comrades logo tattoo on her arm to celebrate her 30th medal, and belly ring and nose rings sparkling in the sun, Fisher regaled the Independent on Saturday with her Comrades memories.
In the past month, she has participated in five races and picked up five wins in her race category.
At 70, she is still fully employed, transporting schoolchildren every day.
Meanwhile, instead of relaxing in preparation for the big day, Khoele, the oldest male runner, was hard at work at his bottle store in Tembisa this week.
He told the Saturday Star he was excited to travel to Durban and meet up with his eight friends who were also running the Comrades.
“It’s like my holiday. I come to Durban and relax in a hotel for two days with my friends and then we run the Comrades,” he said.
Khoele, who enjoys keeping fit, used to do karate and then weightlifting before he was bitten by the running bug.
In 1982, he ran his first 42km race and continued to do various races until he saw his friend finish the Comrades in 1987, and knew that he could too.
He ran his first Comrades in 1988 and this year will be his 30th, earning him 26 Comrades medals.
He has also completed seven Two Oceans marathons in Cape Town.
“I’ve got some pains, but I will only retire from races if I can’t run anymore. But this is my last Comrades – I’m getting old now,” Khoele said.
Khoele is the chairperson of the Rainbow Athletics club which he established in Tembisa in 1986. This year, 36 of the club’s members will participate in the Ultimate Human Race.