Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 129, April 2020 | Page 25

THE RUNNING MANN
Two Lions up
a Tree, artist
unknown
Graeme Fraser led
Hillcrest Villagers to the
Gunga Din Trophy home
in 1982 with a third
place 5h41 finish
Smooth Operation
Hillcrest Villagers pride themselves on their race being
a club-organised event and all the club members
play various roles in the lead-up to the race and on
race morning. Campbell is infamous for destroying
his previous club’s gazebo (after leaving it out during
a tornado) and his wife Jolene doesn’t let him carry
anything heavy anyway, so one of the challenges the
committee faced was finding a suitable role for their new
club member to play. They ended up putting him on
parking attendant duties, which meant he had to be up
at 2am to fulfil his responsibilities. Despite the influx of
3000 runners and Campbell directing traffic, parking was
efficient, and for a R10 donation I parked in the grounds
of a neighbouring school.
Durban can be incredibly hot and humid in February,
so the race has a 5am start. This is great for avoiding
the heat, but is a problem if your stomach only wakes
up at six. As a regular runner whose stomach enjoys
a bit of a lie-in on the weekend, I was very pleased to
see that if you needed to go ‘Code Brown,’ there were
plenty of ‘aBluetion Solutions’ along the route. These
blue beacons of beauty are to the runner on a high fibre
diet what safety nets are to the tight-rope walker in gale
force winds!
Run the Hillcrest
Marathon if you
want to see real
avenues
We headed out on the main road through Hillcrest and I
quickly realised that I needed to readjust my perception
of Durban. This is one of the most scenic city runs I’ve
done, and whilst I am not one to rush into definitive
statements, Hillcrest can definitely lay claim to being
the most beautiful double-lap, urban marathon in South
Africa. (That’s a slogan that is unfortunately far too long
for a Twitter hashtag.)
If you’ve ever wondered what a real avenue of trees
looks like, Hillcrest is the place to find out. And
regardless of whether you like to hug trees or just prefer
to look at them, the Hillcrest Marathon is the place to
do it. I was also impressed by how much passion the
environmentally conscious people of Hillcrest show
for their trees, regardless of whether they are dead or
alive. Possibly inspired by the tree-climbing lions of the
Serengeti, limited local artistic abilities were stretched
to the limits in creating this exquisite piece entitled “Two
Lions up a Tree.”
plastics used were collected and sent to a company
that manufactures items out of recycled plastics, with
the result that nothing ended up in landfill – definitely
something to be proud of!
There were even subtle environmental messages that
managed to work in the Code Brown theme by using
the funniest of the planet names with the message to
“Keep Earth Clean. It’s Not Uranus.” Placard-writing is
a popular pastime amongst the local ladies of Hillcrest,
it seems. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner,
one Kloof lady was looking to get “verloof.” Who needs
Tinder when you have several thousand magnificent
marathon runners to choose from? She was still there on
the second lap, so was obviously keen to see just how
hot and sweaty things got… but she did look a lot less
sure about her life choices by this stage.
I did make enquiries as to whether well-known Lion
Lager quart drinker Campbell Nel was the unidentified
artist – perhaps inspired by his daughter’s kindergarten
artwork. However, it’s extremely unlikely, as he
would have needed a long stepladder to create this
masterpiece, and he would not have been able to carry
a stepladder and two quarts of beer at the same time
(since his wife doesn’t let him carry anything heavy).
Getting the Green Message
The environmental overtones continued along the route.
This is a #runclean race and there were plenty of bins
in the clearly demarcated litter zones. I also enjoyed
the accompanying motivational messages, like the
friendly reminder not to “be a tosser.” After the race, all
In fact, it was no surprise that Kloof Athletics Club
were trying to lure some men into their lair. You see,
Hillcrest Villagers’ dress code brown has led to a serious
imbalance in the gender diversity at the club, since many
women refuse to join Villagers “because of the brown
kit.” Men are not so fickle, they know that beauty is on
the inside… which usually means the inside of the club
bar for Hillcrest Villagers. (Sidenote: If anyone is looking
for a doctoral thesis topic, a hypothesis worth testing
is that men pick their running club based on the quality
of the bar, whilst women make their selection on the
aesthetic appeal of the kit.)
Anyway, as a result of this, a plethora of small running
clubs have sprung up all around Hillcrest to cash in on
the niche market of female runners who refuse to wear
brown running kit. During the marathon, I only saw
female runners representing all the other neighbouring
clubs like Kloof, Kearsney, Forest Hills, Get Fit, Running
Kin and Highway Athletics. Ironically, fickle female
fashion sense means that most local ladies would rather
run as a DHS Old Boy than as a Hillcrest brownie.
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