Prodigal looks to return to the top of Comrades
PRODIGAL Khumalo’s name was not among those on the list of the top contenders released by the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) for this year’s edition of the ultimate human race.
Perhaps rightly so! Khumalo has had a lukewarm showing in the race.
His best was his ninth-place finish in 2014 when he ran a Comrades personal best of 5:39.
Thereafter he failed to make the top 10 in the last two editions leaving the Zimbabwe -born Khumalo eager to have a good run come June 4. “I got silver in 2015 but last year I had it bad and did not finish because of injuries,” Khumalo reflects. Comrades disappointment is something the 35-year-old is familiar with. He has had no less than five DNFs (did not finish) . Yet, instead of breaking him, those failures – mainly due to injuries – have made him stronger and more determined to do better. “I want to improve my time from 2014. I believe that can happen because of the way I am training.”
It was hard not to agree. After all, he is in the camp of champions, the Maxed Athletic Club runner training with champion-maker John Hamlett in Dullstroom out in Mpumalanga.
On the day of our interview, Khumalo and the rest of the Tom Tom Athletic Club runners had just returned from a six-hour LSD (Long Slow Distance). Khumalo was not about to declare himself a potential champion though, not in the presence of last year’s record winner David Gatebe or defending up-run champion Gift Kelehe.
But he is in no doubt he will be there or thereabout when the first man enters the Scottsville Race Course in Pietermaritzburg. His sense of self-belief has a lot to do with Hamlett.
“I started working with John two years ago. I like him because he is the Comrades Marathon ‘kingmaker’. He specialises in Comrades..”
The trail runner has another source of confidence in the form of his win at the 100km Ultra-Trail Cape Town last year.
“That win made me realise that I have what it takes to do well at Comrades even though we were running on the mountains and not on the road. I really think I have a chance to make the top-five at Comrades.”
For someone who took to Comrades by chance back in 2008, the man popularly known as PK has done pretty well.
“I started running Comrades in a funny way,” he laughs. “I was told that I was going to be the pacemaker. But at the 50km mark, my coach told me to keep going because I was still going strong. I ended up finishing in 16th position and that made me believe I can compete in Comrades.”
He has more than competed, albeit somewhat inconsistently. He is looking to change all that on June 4 and stun the organisers while at it.