Two Oceans qualification ‘a dream come true’
Buffs Marathon in EL earns local runners Nobi and Kingana their spot
For local runners Dumisa Kingana and Vuyisani Nobi, learning that they had qualified for the upcoming Two Oceans Marathon was an exhilarating experience.
“It was a great feeling, there was a lot of excitement because it’s like a dream come true,” Kingana said.
“It’s one of the things I’ve always wanted to do.” Nobi said he had been involved in long-distance running since 2017, with Kingana joining him last year.
Their first marathon was the Nelson Mandela Bay 1 City Marathon in December last year, but it was the Buffs Marathon held in East London in February that earned them their spot in the Two Oceans.
“A friend of ours told us we should enter because we had good times [in the Buffs], ” Kingana said.
“She entered for us and told us on February 21 that we should check our emails. That’s when we received confirmation that we had been selected.”
The two friends have been training hard to get ready for the marathon, which will be held in April.
“We train daily. We run, we cycle and we swim. Some days we will do endurance, some days we will do hills and some days we will do speed.
“We get to rest one day a week,” said Kingana. When they’re not running marathons, the pair also engage in regular charity work.
“Last year we held a fun run in June,” Kingana said. “We invited people to join us for the 5km run and they had to buy a ticket to enter. We used the funds to buy school jerseys and shoes.”
They launched another project earlier this year. “Every Sunday, we run around for maybe an hour and invite local runners as well to show the youth that weekends are not just for drinking. There are other things you can do. We spotted some local talent and recruited young people into running,” Nobi said.