I (quite literally) caught up with Luc Quevauvilliers, the “man in a can”, along the Comrades route. I’d written about Luc’s exploits after the 2025 event where he ran large sections of the Comrades route dressed up in a Rexona deodorant fancy dress outfit. This year Luc was in for the full canned hunting experience and ran the entire race in his remodelled Rexona outfit with trimmings and improvements for comfort and durability.
When I spoke to him afterwards he proudly told me, “Yes, I ran 100% of this year’s race in the Rexona outfit!” I didn’t want to open a can of worms and ask about toilet breaks but Luc happily volunteered, “Even when I peed, I was happy to realise I just could aim carefully and make sure I kept the outfit smelling good.”
It’s good to know that Luc is accurate when spraying as he came armed with holsters of deodorant this year. This proved a popular addition to his accessories and many arms were raised for a quick refreshing spritz, “It was a ridiculous day spraying deodorant on people on parts of the route where I had the energy to. I also had to aim low so that I didn’t blind any children. That would have been a horrible PR exercise.”
Luc did have one bad fall just before the halfway mark, “I don’t even know if I kicked a cat’s eye. I just went down, like literally fell over, landed on my chest, scraped up my hands and then lay there for a bit.” That was when Luc realised that he was tortoised on his back with his little Tyrannosaurus Rexona arms poking out the side of the outfit and he could get back on his feet again. Fortunately no one decided to kick the can down the road and some other runners came to his aid and pulled him back upright again.
As for the reason behind Luc’s can-do attitude, that’s easy. Rexona, as one of the Comrades sponsors, pledged to donate R80,000 for the CHOC charity this year following on from the R80,000 that they donated to the SANParks Honorary Rangers last year. Comrades do not pay elite athletes appearance fees so I guess you could say that Luc is the highest paid athlete on the start line.
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I can personally attest to the power of the Rexona effect. I was still looking and smelling great when I saw my daughters in Kloof and even much later around Ashburton. So much so that I had no problem getting a hug from my daughters on both occasions but they recoiled in horror at the suggestion of any bodily contact when their sweaty mother came past.
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Luc was not left to carry the can on his way to Pietermaritzburg and was full of praise for the Rexona support team, “I got awesome support from Rexona. They had five sets of seconds along the way looking after me. They got me to the start, they got me to the finish, they really looked after me well.”
“It got a bit rough in the second half.” admits Luc who drew on a stoic quote, “If you can endure it, then endure it.” to get him through the difficult patches. By the time he got to Scottsville, our man in the can was running on fumes, eventually crossing the finish line in a commendable 11:39:31 for the 6th Comrades finish.
Rexona are signed up for another year of Comrades sponsorship begging the question, “What about next year?” Luc ponders for a moment before answering, “During the race I definitely thought I’d never do this again. But when you get to the finish, you realise you want to do it again. It’s the standard issue response for a Comrades runner. So yeah, I’ll be back!” Smell you later Luc!
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I chased this oke from the top of Nchanga all the way to Camperdown. I thought that I had been whipped by the racing can but it appears I just pipped him. Hats off to him coz I probably would not have made it in that can outfit.