THE RUNNING
MANN
By Stuart Mann
MY MOST EXPENSIVE RACE
With the South African marathon running scene pretty much on Comrades hiatus from 1 May until the end of July, I had to look further afield to find marathons to keep my“ marathon-a-week” training programme going. Luckily one of our neighbours obliged with the Diacore Gaborone Marathon on 13 May.
South Africa is marathon running bedonnered( crazy) and we have hundreds of local marathons to choose from, but when we travel to run, we tend to go run marathon majors overseas and seem to neglect the opportunities on our doorstep. Hence, at the time of writing I had run 188 marathons, of which 159 had been in Africa, but none had been outside the confines of South Africa’ s borders. That is no longer the case.
The drive from Johannesburg to Gaborone is about 4.5 hours, but you need to factor in a border crossing, which will add another 30 to 60 minutes to your journey. Fortunately, the Batswana are the friendliest people you’ ll find and we were warmly welcomed. I was travelling with my friend Julian Karp and they were even too polite to question or comment on his choice of Polly Shorts!
Images: Courtesy Stuart Mann
Gaborone is just a short drive from the border post, but progress into town is slow, as there are antisynchronised traffic lights every few hundred metres. We eventually arrived at the Peermont Grand Palm Resort, where the race starts and finishes, and as our race numbers were handed over, we were proudly told that if we ran under 2:08 we would take home 1 million Pula( about R1.3 million). I reassured the young gentleman that their money was safe, because I would be lucky to crack 2:08 on the first lap!
Most enjoyable Run
It’ s a pleasure staying so close to the start – no traffic, no toilet queues and no time pressure – and by the time we made it down to the start area, a large crowd had already gathered around the elegant fountains. There was a buzz of activity, complete with thousands of flailing arms and legs. It appears that the warmup technique of choice in Botswana is a ferocious aerobics routine.
Gaborone is about 1000m above sea level and incredibly flat – the only elevation you do are a couple of bridge crossings, and the local runners told me that if they want to do any hill training, they have to drive out of town or find a long flight of stairs! The city streets are also remarkably clean. I can’ t remember seeing litter anywhere, and instead of the graffiti you see in most cities, the paintwork here is the light blue, black and white of the Botswana national flag.
The pluses of this race are that it’ s really well organised, an easy route and the event itself is a cultural extravaganza with stage performances and fun family activities. The marathon is also a great excuse to explore Botswana’ s world famous wildlife parks( discounted runner rates are available). The downside is that it’ s a double-lapper and some stretches can get monotonous – I would have loved to have seen a bit more of the city. The support tables are frequent, but they could probably do a bit more to add to the atmosphere one expects from a capital city marathon. In summary, I would definitely recommend this marathon, but would probably not return to run it every year. Actually, that is a moot point, because I am not allowed to ever run this race again …
The Expensive Part!
It costs R700 to run the marathon, and you’ ll earn one million Pula for finishing the race in under 128 minutes, but arrive home 16 hours into Mother’ s Day and you’ ll pay for the rest of your life! In my defence, I did get my permission slip signed early in the year when I was doing my marathon planning, but my wife will argue that I failed to disclose that the Gaborone Marathon was to be held on Mothers’ Day. I was found guilty without leave to appeal, and my plea bargain has resulted in me waiving the right to ever run a marathon on Mother’ s Day weekend again. I also received a lifetime suspended sentence, which basically means that the,“ Like the time you ran a marathon on Mother’ s Day” trump card will be brought up in awkward situations for the rest of my life.
And lest I should ever forget, my wife booked out my calendar for next year’ s Mother’ s Day a year in advance. I’ ve been married long enough to know that the suggestion of a romantic trip to Botswana is right out of the question, but at least I can console myself that there are 51 other weekends in the year on which to run marathons!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Stuart’ s lifetime goal is to attract a beer sponsor with his running blogs, but he will settle for a travel sponsor so that he can run more marathons and share their stories. Read his full blogs at http:// runningmann. co. za, and follow him @ runningmann100.
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