There is a distinct charm to running marathons in Kimberley
discussion , Louis neglected to mention that he is a past winner of the Diamond Marathon ( 1983 , in a time of 2:41 ).
A short while later , sports lawyer , Farai Razano , pulled up alongside me . He is part of a group of runners , most of whom are originally from Zimbabwe , who are on a mission to run 100 marathons before turning 40 . Farai has been lagging behind his compatriots after being laid low with a back injury , and after a year ’ s ‘ abstinence ,’ this was his comeback marathon .
We chatted away , covering a diverse range of topics , one of which was me throwing out a bit of Kimberley trivia , namely that Kimberley was the second city in the world to get electric street lighting . The first was Philadelphia in the USA . It turns out that Farai has run the Philadelphia Marathon , so when he crossed the finish line a few hours later , he probably became the first person in the world to run marathons in the first two cities to have electric lights … a very modest but nevertheless commendable claim to fame that not even Eskom can dim !
Modest Numbers , Old Records
The running community in Kimberley is small , but exceptionally friendly , making their marathons feel more like long club runs than races . In these parts , marathon field sizes do well to hit triple figures , and this year the Diamond Marathon had 152 finishers , while the 2019 edition had 156 ( which is the biggest Northern Cape marathon I have on record in recent years ), but just 50 runners completed the race in 2018 . Back in the 1990s , when there were far fewer Northern Cape and Free State races , and the mines would pay the entry fee and bus their employees to races , there were significantly larger fields . However , no Northern Cape marathon has ever broken 300 finishers . birthday with a marathon . That first edition of the Diamond in 1970 had just 12 finishers – and then only because eight Bloemfontein runners were imported to give the four local runners some competition . The first winner was founding member Sarge Ball in 2:45:00 . He would eventually run 23 consecutive Comrades in the colours of Kimberley Harriers , from 1969 to 1991 , with a personal best of 6:58:00 on the 1980 Down run .
The race also has one of the longest standing men ’ s course records in the country , the 2:19:05 set 30 years ago in 1990 by a very young Gert Thys , who was running as a junior ! Gert went on to enjoy a distinguished running career with a number of international marathon wins , the highlight of which was his 2:06:33 in 1999 at the Tokyo International Marathon . Gert was obviously good at setting longstanding records , as that 2:06:33 is still the South African marathon record ( and was the African record when it was originally set ).
Speaking of long-standing records , the women ’ s course record is 3:07:06 , set by Wendy Shaw in 1988 , and I would be surprised if there is a bigger difference than 48 minutes ( and one second ) between the male and female marathon course records in the country . I ’ d also be surprised if there is a marathon that ’ s achieved a 50-year golden jubilee with fewer total finishers – 5213 runners over the race ’ s history .
Interesting Landmarks
Chatting away with Farai , the first half flew past . Just after the half / full marathon split , we passed the appropriately named Halfway House Hotel , with its accompanying ‘ The Half ’ pub that dates back to 1872 . This watering hole has the distinction of having the only licensed ‘ drive-in ’ bar in the world , the origin of which is Cecil John Rhodes ’ insistence on being served beer without dismounting from his horse .
Fortunately , I am not someone who likes to approach life in such half measures , but I did have to show great resilience to resist the temptation to add a few hundred metres to the route by doing a run through of the drive-in service . Instead , I chose to push on and work up a proper thirst with another 21km in the Kimberley heat .
The second half continued with a thorough exploration of the city centre , where there are many beautiful old historic buildings to break the monotony of urban sprawl . Farai and I were both starting to tire , but since we were both armed with phone cameras , we kept our sharp eyes peeled for anything pictureworthy , knowing that stopping for a snapshot would allow a brief period of running respite .
At one point , Farai pointed out a church building that was probably only a 5 out of 10 on the ‘ interest scale ,’ but I was happy to oblige a photo-stop for a quick rest . After seeing that the name of the church was Potter ’ s House , he tried to up it to a 6 out of 10 , mumbling something about “ Harry ,” and I confirmed it as being worthy of a stop with a chirp that , “ I don ’ t know why they didn ’ t just call it Gryffindor ?”
Sidenote : In my house , humour is rigorously scrutinised and swiftly evaluated by my daughters . Anything that does not pass their stringent quality control measures is labelled an ‘ uncle joke ,’ which I understand is an even lower form of wit than a ‘ dad joke .’ I am pleased to say that the Gryffindor joke is one of the few that has passed the grade .
Kimberley Harriers was founded in 1969 by Sarge Ball , George MacCallum and Jimmy Glover because they needed club affiliation to run the Comrades Marathon . Whilst most humans learn to walk when they are one year old , Kimberley Harriers celebrated its first
Local hero , Gert Thys , set the course record of 2:19:05 in 1990 as a junior
Potter ’ s House Church – I don ’ t know why they didn ’ t just call it Gryffindor ?
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