MANN the running mann by STUART MANN
THE RUNNING
MANN the running mann by STUART MANN
Channelle began her Comrades career with an 11:43:20 Vic Clapham finish in 2019 , then upgraded to an impressive post-Covid 9:55:24 Robert Mtshali medal in 2022 . Keen to keep the momentum going , she began her serious Comrades 2023 training directly after the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in October 2022 and ran an impressive 1500km in preparation for June 11 . She therefore arrived at Comrades with eight months of hard training in the legs , and big plans to go still faster .
Channelle runs for the vibrant Fat Cats Athletics Club and joined the ‘ Skhindi Gang ,’ a group of athletes from different clubs that have put together special medal programmes to help achieve targets . She did everything right in training and , after a 3:47 qualifier at the Kosmos Marathon , lined up in D batch on 11 June confident of achieving her goal of a Bill Rowan medal , with a sub-9-hour finish . “ I started focusing on Comrades in November and trained harder than I ever had in my life . I made a lot of sacrifices , and spent a lot of blood , sweat , tears and money to get to the start ,” she says .
Ed ’ s Note : So much has been written , said and posted about the cut-off times at the 2023 Comrades Marathon , but in my opinion , the concerns about safety expressed before and after the race are a far more important story , hence the decision to use this blog from The Running Mann this month .
NIGHTMARE ON EPWORTH STREET
Channelle Makhele started the 2023 Comrades Marathon with the dream of earning a Bill Rowan medal , but that dream was shattered before the 5km mark . She was looking to break her best Comrades time , but all she broke was her leg , due to the apparent negligence of safety concerns by the event organisers .
Best Laid Plans …
Knowing that the start is always congested , she began the race cautiously , and had factored this into her planning . Approaching the highway just after 3km , she was surprised when the runners were directed to take a sharp right into a dark , narrow side-street , instead of staying on the wide access roads leading to the highway that were used during the 2022 event . And it was down this dark , narrow alleyway that Channelle ’ s Comrades dream died . “ Everyone was running fast on the slight downhill , and some people were flying down the pavement because of the congestion ,” she recounts . “ Then , suddenly , we came to a dead stop and all we saw was people crashing into each other and shoving to try and keep balance .”
In the chaos , Channelle was clipped from behind by another runner . “ My first thought was that if I fall , the people behind will
Images : Lesley Shaw , Norrie Williamson & courtesy Channelle Makhele
The congestion caused by trying to squeeze over 16,000 runners through a narrow road
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