MANN the running mann by STUART MANN
THE RUNNING
MANN the running mann by STUART MANN
I
have completed 31 international marathons amongst my current total collection of 251 marathons or ultras , and the vast majority of these were front-loaded into my running career , when I was fortunate enough to do a substantial amount of business travel and managed to work in a marathon or two around the actual work . The first was Prague in the Czech Republic , when a week of work conveniently coincided with the weekend of the Prague Marathon . Prague is a city full of beautiful Gothic architecture and Bohemian culture , but for me the biggest significance was that this was the city where Pilsner was invented ... and thirsty marathon runners will also be pleased to note that beer prices in Prague are roughly equivalent to those in South Africa !
My first international marathon in Prague in 2005 . I enjoyed the Gothic architecture , Bohemian culture and cheap Pilsner !
HOW TO BECOME AN AUTHENTIC MARATHON RUNNING TOURIST
I was recently asked to do a talk on the Best 10 Marathons in South Africa ( and how to run them ) at Sunninghill Striders Running Club , to help Mike Sewell and his MAD2Run team with their fundraising ahead of running a 1520km relay from Joburg to Cape Town , followed by a ‘ warm-down trot ’ at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon , to raise money for children ’ s education . I enjoyed the trip down memory lane and decided to adapt the talk into a blog article .
Likewise , a work trip to Rome was conveniently timed to overlap with their marathon . Having done Latin at school – I was originally planning to be a lawyer , as I enjoyed arguing with people – an on-foot tour around ancient Roman landmarks was definitely a highlight of my running career . And perhaps the most romantic thing I ’ ve ever done ( as a point of reference , my wife recently bought her own bunch of flowers , using my credit card , to celebrate our anniversary ) was use some of my air miles to fly her over to Italy so that we could run the Rome Marathon together . I should point out that , despite the flight and hotel room being “ free ,” this did turn out to be a rather expensive endeavour , since my wife went shopping every day while I was ‘ in the office ,’ and I would return to a hotel room full of that day ’ s high street fashion purchases .
A Few Misadventures
However , most international destinations did not time their marathons around my arrival on their shores . Gary Player once said , “ The harder I practice , the luckier I get .” I took the liberty of misappropriating this to , “ The further I look , the more marathons I ’ ll find .” If there was a marathon in a 1000-kilometre radius of wherever I was , then I would hunt it down and run it .
The Rome Marathon starts and finishes outside the Colosseum . My wife still has several pairs of leather boots acquired during this trip
Whilst on the topic of running mantras , one of Francis Bacon ’ s essays famously states , “ If the Mountain won ’ t go to Mohammed , then Mohammed must come to the Mountain .” This is the number one running mantra to live by if you want to level-up as an authentic marathon-hunting tourist . The rigorous ( some would say fanatical ) application of hunting down marathon start lines around the globe resulted in many marathon running adventures . Examples include :
• Routing my flight to Cleveland to run their marathon , followed by a four-hour drive around Lake Michigan directly after the race to get to Detroit for a week of work – and then driving via Canada and back into USA at the top of New York State to run the Buffalo Marathon * before flying back to Joburg straight after that marathon ( I did have a shower before getting on the plane , though , and slept for most of the 18-hour flight ).
• Driving across the length of Holland to run the Leeuwarden Marathon in Friesland on the Netherlands ’ northern extremities .
• Booking a flight , hotel and marathon in Little Rock , Arizona , only to arrive in Little Rock , Arkansas . Luckily I was consistently wrong , and the marathon
Images : Courtesy Stuart Mann
44 ISSUE 162 | www . modernathlete . co . za