Mapungubwe Marathon (off with their heads)

[MARATHON #262 / UNIQUE MARATHON #158 / 2 March 2024]

These days the Limpopo running scene is a bit like Hydra from the Marvel universe: Every time you knock the head off the “final” Limpopo marathon on your list, two more pop up. And so it was that I returned to Polokwane for the inaugural Mapungubwe Marathon.

I got hold of race director Phateng Kgomo to check the details I was missing on my March monthly marathons article and he had a very short and simple route description for me, “Out-and-back. Hard.” Polokwane routes tend to be very hot but fairly flat (and I’ve run over most parts of the city in the various marathons I’ve done) so I was intrigued to see what the race would offer in terms of hills.

The event uses the local cricket club as the race venue with several hundred runners gathering for the 6am start. This was the first weekend of March as well as the first weekend that the new 2024 license numbers came into effect. I expect that these two factors combined resulting in the referees ensuring that the start was directly in front of the sight screen so that they could check that everyone was wearing the correct license (not sure how effective this was as I did spot one runner wearing a 2019 license).

The route accomplishes the marathon distance with two separate out-and-back sections. The first is a “baby tooth” that sends you in easterly direction for 5km of gentle climbing before summitting and heading north to the intersection of Thabo Mbeki Drive. From here. there is a policy U-turn and one heads back towards the start with a slight deviation past the Peter Mokaba Stadium before the segment is completed around the 13.5km mark.

There was some minor controversy with the water tables along this section. There were a couple of points where lone volunteer was handing out water sachets from a cooler box. I assumed this was just some cost containment measures as the later tables were much fancier and better stocked (you don’t really need anything other than water at the beginning of a marathon and a lot of marathons I’ve run take a ‘water only’ approach over the first few tables).

However, Phateng Kgomo confirmed that one corporate table did not arrive on race morning and the other had just one lonely volunteer. A plan was quickly made to get more water onto the route and I was not impacted but at least one vocal runner missed the lowkey water points.

Polokwane sunrises are always spectacular and I took frequent stops to try an ensure I got a photo that did justice to the aesthetic ambiance. During one of my photographic bursts a small group from the Mzansi Athletics Club passed and Mathibela Mamabolo shouted out, “You’d better put this picture on your page!”. I replied, “It depends on how it turns out.”

Turns out it turned out pretty well! I took a lot of pictures of the picturesque Polokwane sunrise but the one below showing the partial eclipse of the sun courtesy of the hand of Mamabolo is by far the best.

The second out-and-back section is like a big molar with a nasty cavity – but we’ll get to unscrupulous dental practices later in this report. This segment runs entirely on Silicon Road, initially alongside the border fence of the Polokwane Game Reserve before hitting the unfenced countryside. This is only broken by the large industrial plant that produces metallurgical and chemical silicon which gives the road its name.

The Polokwane Game Reserve is well stocked with giraffe and various antelope (including the impressive sable and eland) as well as abundant bird life and I have marked this down for a proper visit the next time I come through for a marathon. Despite keeping my eyes peeled at the boundary fence of the reserve, the only stampeding herd I managed to spot along the route was Lucas Seleke’s bus.

However, there was plenty of company along this part of the race as the half marathon route only uses the Silicon Road section so you get to see them returning home – and it also wasn’t long before the lead marathoners were spotted on the horizon.

The Mapungubwe Marathon gets its name from the ancient heritage of the local people. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was a medieval state that existed from about 1030 to 1290 and preceded the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe. The Mapungubwe civilisation provided the origins of the Sotho-Tswana, Shona and Venda peoples.

A distinctive race shirt is included in your R326 entry fee. I thought I’d investigate the significance of the golden rhinoceros which lead me down a wonderful rabbit hole. The Mapungubwe archaeological site was rediscovered in 1932 which led to a number of excavations under the auspices of the University of Pretoria. One of the 1934 excavations on Mapungubwe Hill uncovered a golden rhinoceros (which is a wooden carving with gold plating) in a royal tomb. The area became a World Heritage Site in 2003 and I’ve added the Mapungubwe National Park onto my “places to visit” list.

READ MORE: I thought this article was particularly interesting – Meet the 800-year-old golden rhinoceros that challenged apartheid South Africa

Post-apartheid the tiny golden rhino, which can fit into the palm of your hand, became the symbol for the highest civilian honour that one can earn in South Africa, appropriately called the Order of Mapungubwe. There are four levels to the award platinum, gold, silver and bronze. To date, there have been just 55 recipients with Nelson Mandela receiving the inaugural award (platinum status of course) in 2002. The majority of the recipients are science, medicine and literature related and a full list of honourees can be found here.

On the subject of heritage, one thing that has puzzled me for some time is why the Venda men are tall and lanky (the fast-bowling cricketer Kagiso Rabada is a prime example) whereas the women tend to be short and squat. I think I managed to figure out this mystery whilst struggling up Silicon Road – it’s because the ladies do all the heavy lifting in this society.

I did not have a scale (or the energy to try and lift it myself) but the bundle the makhulu was carrying looked really heavy. I am now tempted to learn how to run with a cooler box on my head (and if trail runners wanted to really impress me this is how they should ‘carry their own’) but I am worried about the potential breakages*.

* A risk easily mitigated by practicing with water bottles instead of more valuable cargo.

As previously mentioned, if you look at the route profile (or should that be root profile), it does look a little bit like a dental x-ray. By the time we hit the halfway mark it was getting hot and I can tell you that the climb up to the 25km mark was about as pleasant as a root canal. From there you drop to the turnaround point and then have one final extraction to get back to the top of the hill again at the 30km mark.

Now, if you were a complete sadist, you would ask to operate a support table at the top of the biggest mountain in Polokwane so that you can see the marathon field at the point of maximum pain and agony twice. Therefore, I don’t think it was coincidence that this was exactly where the “Your Local Dentist” table was positioned.

The brace of dentists* had put on very fine spread of food and drink that was good enough to have enticed Hansel and Gretal away from the wicked witch’s cottage. However, when I observed to our friendly group of dentists that I was concerned about the potential conflict of interest with the number of sweets they were dishing out, one of them told me, “Take 5 packs and a business card!” (which I thought was a pretty good chirp).

* Yes, that is the correct collective known for them although ‘wince’ is also acceptable.

I found the organisation of the event excellent, especially considering that this is an inaugural event (the same team organises the Seshego 50k which I also thoroughly enjoyed). I also appreciated the low fuss (but effective) turnaround technology to make sure there were no “fun runners” on the marathon (see photo below). As a bonus this also tops up my stationery supply with a couple of elastic bands to go with the abundance of safety pins I have collected over the years.

We had passed many of the iconic acacia trees that characterise the region along the route. The acacia tree logo is well known across the country as this was the symbol chosen when Barclays transitioned to First National Bank (which was subsequentially abbreviated to FNB). Conspiracy theories around secret messages hidden within the branches of FNB’s logo formed the basis for the title of Arthur Goldstuck’s book on South African urban legends called, ‘The Rabbit in the Thorn Tree’.

However, I noticed at the FNB table just before the finish that they’ve changed their logo from a hand-drawn acacia tree to something that looks like a Wi-Fi signal pylon. I would have announced this change with, “We’ve removed all the pricks from our branches.” which is probably why marketing departments refuse to talk to me.

READ MORE: Here are a couple of other interesting article about the FNB logo – The US firm behind FNB’s first logo ‘plagiarised’ a local artist and A designer who helped roll out FNB’s first logo still thinks the ‘AK-47’ was deliberate

The last item of note before completing the marathon was the Polokwane Golf Club which is the “home” of local lad Retief Goosen (according to the signpost but I expect in reality that he lives somewhere fancier now) and it is a short drive (pun intended) from the golf course to the finish line at the cricket club.

I like to think I made one fast final burst from the golf course end to finish off the tail end of the Mapungubwe Marathon with a Kagiso Rabada-like ferocity but it’s more likely that I looked like a lumbering rhinoceros to any curious onlooker (and I can’t even claim a golden hue as my skin was more of a pasty white with all the sunscreen).

Limpopo has unearthed another prize artefact with the Mapungubwe Marathon – and that’s one more head knocked off the Limpopo hydra. Super, Spider and Bat might be much more menacing superhero names than the Running Mann but, the next time the “Entries Open” sign flashes up, I look forward to thwarting the next marathon that pops up around Polokwane.

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