Moses Mabhida Archives - The Running Mann

30th May 202330th May 2023

Comrades 2018 (Full statistical analysis)

How The 2018 Men’s Comrades Down Run Was Won

In the men’s race, it’s all fun and games until well after the halfway mark at split five, the Winston Park – Pinetown split. This is where all eventual top five finishers run their fastest segment and sorts out the real contenders for the Comrades crown from the pretenders.

From Pinetown there are just five real challengers for the win (with Steven Way behind as a possible sixth). Bongmusa Mthembu turns on the gas and no one else comes close to match him over the last 21km – where he runs the fastest final two splits in the field.

There was a lot of talk about Steven Way’s strong finish but interesting to note that Bongmusa Mthembu was faster than him in all seven splits (and still significantly so over last two splits).

29th April 2022

Durban City Marathon (Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink)

[MARATHON #248 / UNIQUE MARATHON #146 / 10 April 2022]

In writing my monthly marathon articles, I normally find that there is high correlation between the responsiveness of race organisers and the overall organisational quality of their race. When I get no response to my enquiries the alarm bells go off.

The organisers of the Durban City Marathon are the Durban City Multi Sport Club. This club seems to have successfully avoided leaving any digital footprint, with a Google search producing zero hits. The club had no entrants at this year’s Two Oceans Marathon and only three finishers at the last Comrades Marathon.

On face value this does not seem like the kind of club that would be given the organisation rights to the flagship marathon in South Africa’s third largest city. However, this is the club that most of the technical officials in KZN Athletics belong to. I am not sure if they have a club motto but if they do, I would not be surprised if it’s, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Things you don’t need to bring to the Durban City Marathon: Fishing rods
Things you do: A straw to suck up some delicious rain water (#CarryYourOwn KZN-style)
There was definitely something fishy with this race…

Continue reading “Durban City Marathon (Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink)”

26th April 2022

Best of the Best Marathon (Surviving Shark country)

[MARATHON #246 / UNIQUE MARATHON #145 / 27 FEBRUARY 2022]

With bad traffic and a lack of local knowledge, I started the Best of the Best Marathon ten minutes late and two poos short of an empty stomach. It wasn’t for lack of trying either. I had allowed more than enough time to get through to King’s Park from our holiday accommodation in Salt Rock (this particular marathon was sold on the pretext using my daughters’ mid-term break as a long weekend at the beach and a chance for my wife to visit her mom and gran in Pinetown).

I had been assured that there was ample parking and, having joined the queue of cars with about 50 minutes to spare, I thought I was safe. Rookie error number one was following a convoy that split to the right towards a large parking garage – only to be informed that this was for Virgin Active members only. The security guard was in no mood for the “I forgot my card at home” excuse so, after 15-minutes of backtracking, I rejoined the slow-moving queue which was now pretty much at a standstill. Continue reading “Best of the Best Marathon (Surviving Shark country)”

24th August 201819th May 2023

Comrades Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run

[MARATHON #190 / Comrades #9 / 10 June 2018]

The human brain is a complex network of neural circuits. The two most intense emotions humans can experience are ‘love’ and ‘hate’. Many people think that ‘love’ is the opposite of ‘hate’ but recent neurological studies have shown that the two are so closely related that they even run on the same neural circuits. A better opposite for both ‘love’ and ‘hate’ is apathy. Apathy is not a word one associates with running Comrades – but wild bouts of love and hate are likely to flow through the neurological pathways of one’s brain over the course of a very long day.

The scientific studies did determine one key difference: The cerebral cortex – this is the part of the brain associated with logic, judgement and reasoning – becomes largely deactivated during bouts of love but remains fully functional during hate. I am a rational, lucid and objective human being which explains why I seem to hate Comrades so much more than I love it.

Continue reading “Comrades Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run”

Tag: Moses Mabhida