Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 130, May 2020 | Page 13

THE RUNNING MANN
Enjoying the novelty
of a Welkom hill
They didn’t, but like all the support tables on route,
they did have plenty of liquids and solids to keep us
runners going.
This actually turned out to be the last weekend of
organised running before the Corona-cancellations
hit. When the announcement came through that
congregations of 100 or more people was illegal, I thought
triple-lap Free State ultras might just be immune. After all,
the best way to practise ‘social distancing,’ both literally
and figuratively, is solitary distance running – and you’re
never going to get more than 100 people voluntarily
running a triple-lap ultra in Welkom!
Meanwhile, if you want to witness mating in a more
natural environment, Welkom has saline pans to the
south-west of the city which provide the breeding
grounds for thousands of flamingos. Unfortunately,
the route sticks to the north and the closest you get to
seeing these beautiful birds are replica models in the
suburb of Flamingo Park, on the city’s northern limits.
Instead, the most exciting bird I saw along the route
was a hadeda. These ugly, noisy birds with the
uncanny ability to carpet bomb garden furniture with
military precision just before you have guests around
are detested in most parts of the country, but I guess
in Welkom anything goes. Here the hadeda is revered
to the extent that property managing agents name
their companies after them.
Sidenote: After the race, I was corrected by Izak
Venter about not seeing any flamingoes. With so few
runners in a race, you tend to remember everyone
along the route, and I recalled running past three
runners dressed in Barney the Dinosaur purple, which
turned out to be the running kit of the Flamingo
Running Club.
My tactic of running table to table (combined with the
odd strategic pit stop) got me through the second lap. I
even took a photo of the entrance to the finish, so that
I could reminisce about the time that I had run 32km
and chose to head off on a final lap around the Welkom
wilderness, instead of succumbing to the temptation of
cooling down with a dip in the public swimming baths.
The race starts outside the public pool and the flyer
promised “Free entry to all runners,” but had I stopped
I would have been sadly disappointed, as the pool
was closed indefinitely for renovations. I have written
before about the shocking state of Free State roads,
And it looks like their swimming pools have even worse
potholes than the roads.
Now 32km is a decent distance, but it doesn’t warrant
the investment of a three-hour drive and a 4:30am
wake-up call. Added to that, I was looking forward
to dropping, “I ran a triple-lap ultra in Welkom this
weekend” into as many conversations as possible
during the forthcoming week. That got me away from
the temptation of a two-lap bail.
On a related note, I have to confess that I deliberately
withheld information from my wife before this race,
only telling her later that evening (and a couple of beers
to the good) that the weekend’s run was a triple-lap
ultra in Welkom. By the incredulous look on her face,
I think she realised that I’d finally taken this running
addiction a step (or should that be a lap) too far.
Fond Mileage Memories
My wife was busy planning a family intervention when
the President stepped in that Sunday evening and
solved the problem. With the entire distance running
community having to go cold turkey until at least
June, if not longer, the future is uncertain. However,
for a handful of a hundred or so hardy ultra runners,
no matter what happens in the future, we’ll always
have Welkom.
Meanwhile, after six weeks of no marathons due to
the hard lockdown, a triple-lap ultra in Welkom sounds
pretty good to me right now. (and what I’d give right
now for one more lap around Circle City). You can
leave the cheesy “You know you’re a runner when…”
lists and the exotic big city European marathons to
the pretentious masses. If you want real street cred,
three-laps on the Welkom tarmac is how you earn it.
Table to Table
I managed to make it close to the end of the second
lap before being lapped by the winner. I am not an
envious or spiteful person by nature, but I despised
this fine bastard of an athlete as he disappeared into
the distance, and coveted the additional 16km that he
had run. Thus when I managed to get to the last table
on the lap, organised by the local Battery Centre, I
asked them if they had any jumper cables for me.
Savouring the Open Road
With two laps and close to 70% of the distance
covered, I have to admit to rather enjoying that final
lap. I did, however, take some time to stop and smell
the flowers. In retrospect, I’m glad I savoured those
final 16km, as it looks it may be a long time until we’ll
get to run another marathon.
Signing out from
Welkom’s Anco Ultra
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: The Running Mann has run over 240 marathons and ultras, and his current
mission is to run every marathon in South Africa. He recently fulfilled a lifetime goal of securing a shoe
sponsorship from The Sweatshop Broadacres and Asics South Africa (and a running kit sponsorship from
Runderwear), thus allowing him to run more races and share their stories. You can follow his adventures on
Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and on his popular blog.
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