Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 120, July 2019 | Página 70

THE RUNNING
MANN
By Stuart Mann
Mekler’s Memoir
Jackie Mekler is a name familiar to most South Africans, because winning the Comrades Marathon five times guarantees
your elevation to ‘legend’ status. However, very few of us know much about Jackie the man, or his achievements outside
of Comrades. Running Alone captures his story beautifully, providing fascinating insights into the spirit and ethos of
distance running in the 1950s and 1960s through the eyes of one of our greatest ultra runners. (Ed’s note: Sadly, Jackie
passed away the day before this edition was published. We dedicate this article to his memory.)
A
Jackie found solace on the
roads surrounding the orphanage. He loved to run alone, and the space he found
out there allowed him to fill his head with fantasies of becoming a champion
athlete. From that very first run he knew he had found his life’s passion and started
capturing each daring escape from the orphanage in his “Diary of Running.”
Jackie was an intensely private person – one of the reasons his autobiography
took 45 years to be published – and whilst he shared very little of his hardships
growing up, even with his closest friends, he poured his soul into those running
diaries. He logged every single run he ever did, both his training runs and the 403
competitive races he participated in – an amazing 66,870 miles (106,992km) until
he retired from competitive running in 1969. The quality of his running data is such
that Professor Tim Noakes, who writes one of the book’s forewords, even used the
logbooks in his research into distance running.
Down Memory Lane
Whilst a scientist like Noakes gets his kicks from the data, it is the stories behind
them that feed the richness of the book. Jackie extracts and condenses those
66,870 miles of raw data into a wonderful 400-page autobiography jam-packed
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ISSUE 120 JULY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
with enthralling accounts and
anecdotes. The book is an
historic trip down memory lane
as Jackie describes memorable
runs, the build-up to big events,
successes and failures on the
road, and reminisces on the
international tours he did to
the United Kingdom, Greece
and Finland. The storytelling is
engaging, and I found myself
willing him on to his Comrades
victories as well as feeling the
pain of his failures.
Jackie’s Comrades record is
remarkable. He won the race
five times (becoming the fourth
man to achieve this milestone),
broke both the Up and Down Run
records, was the first person to
finish under six hours on the Up
Run, and was the first man to run under six hours in both directions. The descriptions
of each of his Comrades races make wonderful reading, but I enjoyed his 1963
triumph the most. The build-up involved finishing fourth at the highly competitive
Athens Marathon, flying back to South Africa the day before Comrades, and only
getting to Durban because they delayed the connecting flight especially for him.
He then ran 10 miles after landing in Durban to ‘loosen up,’ and started the race
completely exhausted, being relentlessly pursued after taking the lead, but pushing
on and eventually beating Wally Hayward’s Down Run record.
Jackie running alongside
Arthur Newton in
London in 1955.
(Newton’s famous bike
is now on display at
Comrades House in
Pietermaritzburg)
t the age of nine,
Jackie Mekler was
placed in an orphanage
in Johannesburg. He was a
caged bird who hated the rules,
regulations and discipline within
the institution, and so on the 26th
of December 1945, the diminutive
13-year-old boy bunked out
of the orphanage to go for his
first run. As his mop of bright
ginger hair bobbed up and down
Valley Street, Jackie had finally
found the means to escape the
constraints that had been thrust
upon him. “My frustration led me
to explore ways of loosening the
shackles of confinement. The
best and easiest way was to start
running.”