THE RUNNING MANN
C o l u m n
a press release telling the clubs to let them know when and where they want to hold races for the next year .
Whilst things might work differently here , they tend to work out well in the end . The organisers figured out that they were missing a few taxi loads of runners at the proper start , and made arrangements to get everyone transported back from the other start and lined up before 6am . Whilst starting a marathon on a national road would raise eyebrows almost everywhere else , the temporary shutdown of the N2 to erect an impromptu sound stage and start banner was conducted without fuss or incident .
A Popular Highway
I had made one previous visit to Mthatha , for the Heroes Marathon , which also used the N2 for a large portion of the route , albeit in the opposite direction . As mentioned , the one other marathon in town , the Elliot Madeira , follows a similar route to Cheetahs . I ’ m not sure why Transkei race organisers don ’ t consider other routing options , but perhaps this is because the N2 is the only road in the area without major potholes . ( Sidenote : The Amathole Marathon , also run in the Eastern Cape , was cancelled this year because the potholes were too dangerous to run on !)
As a result , one does not get to explore the villages a little more , which is a great pity . There were no toilets at the start – something that I am assured will be corrected next year – which meant I did manage to do a slight village detour along the route , under the protective cover of an abandoned half-built house . Other than successfully completing this side quest , the route has no deviations off the N2 until the last few hundred metres , when you veer right onto the Mthatha sports fields .
The Cheetahs route is best described as rolling hills from start to finish . A couple of weeks before this race , I had run the LetsGo Potch Marathon in Potchefstroom , where the only hills were the ‘ speedbumps ’ over the railway line . On the road to Mthatha , the only flat stretch of road was the bridge over the railway line ! The amount of rocking thrown in with the rolling hills does vary , however . The first few kilometres are gentle soft rock and rolling hills , then there are a couple of hard rock and rolling tracks to get you to the 10km mark at Qunu ( Nelson Mandela ’ s childhood home and burial site ). Here the route goes full-on Spinal Tap and the electric guitars are cranked up to 11 on the amp !
I have no idea how many times a young Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela walked from Qunu to town , but I wouldn ’ t be surprised if the five-kilometre ascent toward Mthatha was the subliminal inspiration behind his famous autobiography , The Long Walk To Freedom . However , for this runner , there was still a lot of struggle to go before freedom could be found in Mthatha . The highest point of the route was still to come at 27km . From there , one drops 200m overall in the last 15km , but there are still plenty of uphills to counter one ’ s charge to the finish .
A long walk to freedom occurs from Qunu at 10km to the 15km mark , but the highest point of the route is at 27km
The long road to Mthatha runs past Qunu , the birthplace and burial site of Nelson Mandela
25