THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
Sean Falconer
THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
Comrades Memories
I
reckon I must have been round about eight or nine years old the first time I watched the Comrades Marathon on television , in the mid- 1980s . I remember my sister and I being woken up by our parents on race morning , so that we could watch the start , and then sitting glued to the television for hours on end as we waited for Bruce Fordyce to make his move and sweep into the lead once again . I grew up in the heyday of the Fordyce era , watching him win the race year after year , followed by all the drama of the finish line , and like so many South Africans of my generation , the race made a huge impression on me .
It was only later , once I had become a road runner myself and then gone on to study journalism and land myself a job at a running mag , that I got to experience the race myself . The first Comrades I attended was in the year 2000 – the millennium race that attracted
The Ed creating some vibe at Tollgate in the Comrades Down Run some 25,000 entries – and I will never forget standing on the start line in Durban , taking in all that vibe and nervous tension . I will also never forget the route tour we organised , with Bruce Fordyce as one of the guides , and listening to that poor bus labouring up those monster hills !
In the years since then , I have attended the Comrades most years , often working at the finish to get stories and take pics . I also covered the race from the press truck several years , and remember how we cracked a first beer before sunrise on the Up Run , whereas on the Down Run , it was so freezing on that truck that I just hunkered down and prayed for the sun to come up !
Probably the funniest memory , though , was the year a whole bunch of media people did the BodyIQ fitness challenge at the Expo . It was so intense that I was looking for a bucket by the time I finished . Now , I had taken the Comrades train from Cape Town that year , to do a story about the trip , and it was a wee bit embarrassing that when we travelled back after the race , my legs were actually stiffer from that insane challenge than many of the Comrades runners ! Let ’ s just say that I was on the receiving end of a lot of ribbing all the way home .
Doing My Part to Help
Then my commentary career began and soon I found myself on the mic on the Comrades route , creating vibe . It was such a privilege to be out there to entertain and motivate the runners , especially when I was stationed at the bottom of Polly Shortts on the Up Run , or at Tollgate on the Down Run . In both cases , it was the last big hill of the day for the weary runners , and I must have said , “ Just keep going , and get up that hill !” literally thousands of times . I remember coming off the route with no voice left and feeling shattered , like I had run the race myself , and I ’ d like to think I left it all out on the road , as they say .
But best of all through the years was being involved in the organisation of the official Comrades Pacesetters , starting with the first ‘ bus drivers ’ in 2002 , including Bruce Fordyce . I have met some of the very best people through this initiative , and it remains a privilege to contribute to the race in this way . As I write on page 21 , in our Special Comrades section , “ Goosebumps the size of golf balls !”
So , to all our readers that will be running Comrades , or supporting clubmates or loved ones along the route , I wish you all the best for Comrades 2023 . This is it … this is what you have been training for all these months , and now it ’ s time to put one foot in front of the other and get from Maritzburg to Durban before that final cut-off gun is fired and the Last Post rings out . I hope you have a great run , and I look forward to all the stories that will come out of this 96th edition of the Ultimate Human Race .
Sean Falconer
Image : Chris Hitchcock , Action Photo SA
4 ISSUE 159 | www . modernathlete . co . za