FEATURE
Through the darkest, coldest hours of the night of 13 June, while thousands of Comrades Marathon runners are trying to get a good night’ s sleep before race day, Donovan Shirley will already be out on the road.
Starting at 5:30pm he’ ll be running the a lmost 90km“ Down Run” route from Pietermaritzburg to Durban before turning around, joining the crowds at the start, and running the official Comrades route back to Pietermaritzburg, aiming to reach the finish before the 12-hour cut-off.
It is a demanding variation on South Africa’ s most iconic ultra-marathon, and it sits at the centre of his“ Get Back Up” campaign, a fundraising and awareness drive for mental health support.
The campaign – cleverly combining this year’ s“ Up Run”( and Shirley attempting to get back up to Pietermaritzburg) with the idea of recovering and rebuilding mentally after being knocked down – is aiming to raise R250,000 for the South African Depression and Anxiety Group( SADAG) and Matthew & ME. Both organisations work in mental health advocacy, crisis support, and awareness.
Shirley is clear about what lies behind his mission.
“ Everybody should learn it ' s okay to not be okay, and that you can find the strength and the courage with the right team to get back up,” he said.
For him, the idea is not abstract. It is rooted in stories like one he once heard from Paddy Pimblett, an MMA fighter who dedicated a bout to a friend who had died by suicide just days before the fight.
Shirley’ s approach to the challenge itself is built on a combination of confidence and courage.“ You get confidence because you believe you can do something because you ' ve done it before … Courage is when you believe you can do something that you’ ve never done before,” he explained.
His own running background includes a 36- hour effort at Ultra-Trail Cape Town, a 200km Backyard Ultra, multiple 100km trail runs and two previous Comrades Marathons.
“ I’ ve run further, I’ ve run harder, I’ ve run longer,” he said.“ So I have got a quiet confidence in my ability. But I have to build the courage to know that I can do it in 24 hours.”
Negotiating that balance between preparation and uncertainty is central to how he is approaching the double Comrades attempt. The plan is deliberate and structured, with a 2000km training plan, support teams, and carefully mapped recovery stops during the race.
“ It’ s not by accident that I am where I am today and ready for this challenge,” he said.“ There’ s a plan, there’ s a strategy, there’ s a team. It’ s deliberate, it’ s intentional, as is life.”
Even the transition between the two races is accounted for. He expects roughly 45 minutes before starting the up run, time that will be used for refuelling, recovery, and physio work.
“ In that 45 minutes, plan one would be to fuel … get a massage in, have a physio on board who will be able to just help me with some hip releases and some quad massages to try and get that moving again. I ' ll change my shirt, put on some sunscreen, and head out again.”
While the physical challenge is extreme, Shirley repeatedly brings the focus back to why the campaign exists: mental health awareness and access to support.
SADAG provides nationwide counselling and crisis services, while Matthew & ME focuses on teen mental health awareness and support for families affected by suicide and depression. The fundraising target of R250,000 is intended to support both organisations in continuing that work.
Shirley’ s involvement with Matthew & ME began after a mental health run he hosted at Pirates Running Club in Johannesburg, where he met Matthew Ernstzen’ s family. The organisation was founded in memory of 16-year-old Matthew, who died by suicide after struggling with depression.
That connection, he says, deepened the purpose behind the campaign.
Shirley’ s own running journey began relatively recently, initially as a way to manage blood pressure after he forgot his medication while travelling in Mozambique. What started as a temporary fix quickly became a lasting passion.
From there, his running escalated into ultramarathons, 100km races, and multi-day events. But the focus has now narrowed again: one route, run in two directions, and a campaign using one of the toughest endurance challenges in the world to speak into something far less visible, but increasingly common.
Down. Then up. And everything that happens in between.
“ He said:‘ Come and cry on my shoulder today so I don’ t have to cry at your funeral tomorrow,’” Shirley recalled.“ That was just wow.” https:// drive. google. com / file / d / 1ORSfeggs014ZhV2 C9bYqswI4JGzDyRc9 / view? usp = drive _ link
It is that sense of urgency, of the need to speak up, that underpins this campaign. www. modernathlete. co. za 27