Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 101, December 2017 | Page 22

ROAD RUNNING
Laid Back
LEGEND
Ask Dick Welch, long-standing chairman of Johannesburg’s
Rand Athletic Club (RAC), to share some thoughts about his
more than 50 years of immersion in the world of South African
athletics, and within a few hours a file headed Tale of a
Running Fanatic appears in your inbox. – BY BLAKE WILKINS
Y
ears of dedication to running are just one facet of a man who presents an
easy-going personality to the outside world, but who can still find time to dig
out a file in the midst of intense pressure in the lead-up to RAC’s signature
Tough One 32km road race in November. Dick’s laid back image has actually
been carefully nurtured over many years to act as a foil in a smoothly functioning
partnership with his wife (and RAC club secretary) Vreni, a formidable organiser who
personifies the iron fist in counterpoint to Dick’s velvet glove.
As a recent arrival in the category of 80-year-old athletic administrator and back-in-
the-day top competitor, Dick is the epitome of the person who has seen it all in South
African athletics, having been involved in organised athletics both as a high flying
competitor and as an administrator since his 20’s. Prior to that he played fullback for
Wits University’s first rugby team and also secured provincial colours in water polo,
but found his true strength in running, representing his province more than 50 times in
cross country as well as many times on the road.
TOUGH START
Dick’s entry into the world of long distance running came in 1974 when he was out
jogging in Barberton. He met a group training for the Comrades Marathon and was
persuaded to join them on their 32km run. “It took about three weeks before I could
run properly again! This set me thinking, there must be a proper way to go about this
thing.” Comrades stalwart Bill Searle then mentored Dick as he gradually built up his
stamina and speed with a view to entering the Springs Striders 32km. He duly ran it in
1975, in the colours of the Barberton Gijimas Club, finishing in 2:26 alongside one of
his former Wits rugby team mates, Springbok centre Wilf Rosenberg.
Soon after the Striders race, the international drilling company for which Dick
worked transferred him back to Johannesburg, where he joined the new Randburg
Athletics Club in September 1976 after receiving a call from Ole Anderson, the RAC
club chairman at the time. He ran his first club run that next Sunday. “Wow, this
was hardcore! Fritz Madel – five Comrades gold medals, Caspar Greeff – multiple
Comrades silver medals, Louis van Huysteen – holder of the South African junior
marathon record, and Ole Anderson, at over two metres also known as The Great
Dane. They were doing a gentle 40km run, and halfway up Allan’s Nek in Roodepoort
I gave Ole the keys to my bakkie and asked him to come along Ontdekkers Road and
fetch me, which he did. He also suggested that the next Sunday I run with the social
group.”
MARATHON MAN
“Subsequently I have tried to count the number of marathons I have run. Not having
kept a logbook, I tried counting medals and located 263 for distances of 42km or
more. This included 11 Comrades medals, including one silver and a couple of near
misses, 20 Two Oceans, 11 London Marathons, seven Mount Aux Sources 50km trail
runs in the Drakensberg, and a mixture of all sorts such as four Paris Marathons, five
Knysna Marathons, one Athens Marathon, one Davos Mountain Challenge and one
Voet of Africa Marathon, and many others.”
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ISSUE 101 DECEMBER 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za
The first race Dick ran in RAC colours was the Jacaranda Marathon, and he went
on to finish many more marathons and ultras. “My best marathon time was 2:52 at
the old Transvaal Championships on a course that finished at the beautiful little oval
in Irene. The Town Council didn’t want to let us run in Irene on a Sunday, but we
convinced councillors that road running was not a ‘sport,’ but a ‘therapy,’ and they
relented,” recalls Dick with a chuckle.