[MARATHON #267 / UNIQUE MARATHON #162 / 28 April 2024]
A lot can change in a few months. On the last weekend of April, I attended the Durban International Marathon (which doubles as the South African Marathon Championships), as the guest of Steve Mkasi and KwaZulu Natal Athletics. Before accepting the invitation, I did double-check that he was happy that I would be writing things “as I saw it” and Mkasi graciously agreed, “Regarding coverage, please be as brutally frank with your experience. We need you to be as objective as possible. Therefore, we are happy for you to play your role unscripted.”
I arrived at the Riverside Hotel, which serves as the registration and host venue for most of the elite provincial athlete teams and dignitaries, on the Friday afternoon and enjoyed some food and drink at the evening function attended by most of the athletics administrators from the various provinces. This was a good opportunity to meet and chat face-to-face for the first time with several people I have interacted with extensively electronically. I am pleased to report that, like a bottle of Rose’s Passion Fruit, everything was cordial.
At Saturday morning’s breakfast, I ended up with the North West Province team sitting directly behind me and eavesdropped as much as I could on the advice eventual winner Elroy Galant was giving to his teammates. However, the most pertinent guidance came from the team manager who issued the stern edict, “No chillies!”, to his athletes as they got up for the cooked breakfast. The manager then positioned himself with a bird’s eye view of the egg station to make sure no stray chillies entered anyone’s omelette (and cast me a disdainful look when I asked for a healthy dose of chillies in mine – the joys of being a recreational runner).
I am happy to roll the dice at breakfast but do adopt a more cautious approach at supper time. The hotel restaurant specialises in curries (which was above my level of risk tolerance) so I settled for a 300g sirloin steak. Any chances of overeating were prevented after being served the worst piece of meat my molars have ever encountered. In hindsight I can confirm that the meat was much tougher than the marathon.
However, any fears that I would go hungry were allayed by the really impressive goodie bag, so I had plenty to snack on in the comfort of my hotel room. In fact I had a double helping of Oreos since I had collected Julian Karp’s race number (as he was flying in late after running a warm-up marathon in Polokwane that morning) and he doesn’t pollute his body with refined sugar.
As race morning rolled around, I waited in the front of the hotel with the KZNA team for the bus to the start. However, a car pulled into the forecourt, the window slid open and the friendly face of Coach Andrew Booyens (who was collecting one of his athletes) asked me if I wanted a lift – an offer that I gratefully accepted.
The start venue is in Prospecton Road outside the Toyota factory. However, there is a bit of trickery as they don’t want anyone pushing in from the front so you have to take the long way around which turned into a 3km detour on foot. This resulted in a late start for me but I was in no rush and it had the benefit of ensuring that there was no queue for the impressive row of porterloos.
The DIM team engaged Norrie Williamson to design and certify a route that would meet World Athletics regulations with the aspiration, “We aim to be a stepping stone for athletes who intend concentrating their focus on the world of standard marathons. Our focus is to build a premium brand standard marathon that every marathon runner in the country and on the African continent wants to run.”
The race starts close to the old Durban International Airport and one is soon running along the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Freeway (M4). The freeway running continues until after the 17km mark when you take the Margaret Mncadi offramp and drop to the coastline. You head past the Port of Durban, around the quay and then run the length of the Durban promenade, at which point you hit the 30km mark. From here there is a 10km dog’s leg on the Ruth First Highway with the turnaround point at Virginia Airport. The final 2km are run along Masabalala Yengwa Avenue around the Durban Country Club Golf Course and then into the finish area at People’s Park, adjacent to the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
The route is really flat. The only part even approaching a ‘real’ hill is the first 4km of the dog’s leg at 30km where one rises from -1m below sea level to an altitude of 35m. Of course you get to enjoy the same gentle downhill on the way home.
Here are my route and race highlights in photos and captions:
READ MORE: The Lunatics are Ruining the Asylum (the fight against idiotic athletics officialdom)
* After posting this picture on social media several other people reported sightings and interactions with this runner and his tire at various races. To date, no one has been able to get a coherent response as to the reason for the companionship.
As for me, there was one further race highlight. Everything is relative in running. Many Durban International Marathon runners were looking for a last minute sub 4:50 Comrades qualifier whilst others (an admittedly far smaller cohort) were aiming for a last minute sub 2:08:10 Olympic qualifier. Therefore, it was great to bump into the man who came closest to achieving the latter – race winner and two-time SA marathon champ Elroy Galant (2:09:32) in the hotel after the race (Galant got to the Olympics on World Ranking points and finished slightly faster, 2:09:07, for 11th place in Paris).
And if it’s fast times you want, the Durban International Marathon delivers. All the previous men’s winners of the event went to the Paris Olympics – joining Galant were Isaac Mpofu of Zimbabwe and Tebello Ramakhongwane from Lesotho, as well as this year’s female winner Cian Oldknow (who won in a time of 2:29:47).
Overall this was a pleasant and professional race which also has the drawcard of being a World Marathon Majors qualifier for those who are ‘good for age’ and blessed with plenty of disposable income to chase a Six Star Medal.
As a point of comparison, the event is definitely a cut above your average KZN marathon but is not in the league of Cape Town Marathon. However, the race is on an upward trend and does have ambition of joining the aspirant World Marathon Major as a tier one event, “We have a burning desire to join the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon as two of Africa’s premium marathons based on times.”
On that note, Joma were the technical sponsor of the Durban International Marathon and released a special “We Run Durban” shoe for the event. If they make it to Cape Town Marathon, hopefully they’ll release a special “Joma se shoes” edition (I would definitely buy myself a pair).
I worked out that Galant covered the course ‘just’ 2h40 minutes faster than I did. Another benefit of being relatively much faster is that you don’t need to negotiate a late checkout to secure a shower before flying back home. Fortunately for my fellow plane passengers, I was able to get a late checkout / quick shower and was fast enough to enjoy a much better dining experience than that of the previous night in the airport lounge.
Very enjoyable read, and great photos Stuart. Keep up the good work, just love your stories.