Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 76, November 2015 | Page 14

Ma Feature

Panda’ s
LUCKY YEAR
the ‘Midas
ata of Cape Town has
It seems Panda Qam
etitions,
to running-related comp
Touch’ when it comes
ing for Paris next year.
which will see him pack
ER
– BY SEAN FALCON

Then a few months ago he heard that he was one of 10 finalists in the
competition to win a trip for two to the 2016 Paris Marathon, thanks
to having entered the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, but at first Panda
thought it just sounded too good to be true. “When I entered the
marathon, I entered for myself and four other club members who do not
have a credit card, so when the organisers contacted me to say I was a
finalist, I still asked if they were sure it was actually me… Then on the
Thursday night before the race I received a call from organiser Janet
Wellham, asking me to come to the pre-race media conference on the
Friday. Disbelief, shock… I didn’t sleep much that night, because I was so
excited! Also, I was planning to chase a sub-four in the race that Sunday,
because I had been struggling to get there, with a 4:12 at Soweto and
4:15 in the Peninsula, but the sheer joy of winning that prize carried me
to a new PB of 3:56!”

EXCITEMENT BUILDING
“My wife Abongile and I are so very
excited about this trip, because
Paris is on a Sunday, which means
we can run it. We are Seventh
Day Adventists, so we don’t run
on Saturdays, our Sabbath… I was
actually going to decline the prize
if the race was on a Saturday.
Even better, the race will be at the
same time as our tenth wedding
anniversary in April. We were
planning an overseas running
holiday later in 2016, so winning

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ISSUE 76 NOVEMBER 2015 / www.modernathlete.co.za

this trip to France will save us a lot of money while still giving us an
overseas anniversary holiday.”
When asked about race-day plans for Paris, Panda says it will definitely
be more sight-seeing than racing. “The Two Oceans is just a week before
Paris, so I just want to run a sub-five-hour with my wife in Paris. She is
normally 30 to 40 minutes behind me in marathons, so we’ll just take
it easy and treat it like a honeymoon race, and then we’re planning to
extend the trip a bit and also go run a marathon in Rome a week after
Paris.”

GETTING INTO RUNNING
Born in Port St Johns, Panda studied mechanical engineering in Cape
Town and then worked in various locations around South Africa, including
Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth. In 2006 he married Abongile, having met
her through the SDA Church in Umtata, and in 2012 they moved back to
Cape Town, now with two young kids, and he took up the position as Facilities
Manager at Artscape. He started his athletic career with various walking
events in 2004 and 2005, then upgraded to running. By 2007 he was regularly
running half marathons, and then in 2010 he stepped up to 30km, then the
marathon in 2011, with the aim to do the Two Oceans and Comrades in 2014.
He has now done two of each. Meanwhile, Abongile ran her first marathon last
year in Cape Town, then completed the Two Oceans and Comrades this year.
Both are avid runners, but due to
their religion it has not always been
easy to find races to run. “We run
the Two Oceans on the Friday, and
Comrades is fine as it is on a Sunday.
It was easier when we lived in
Gauteng, where most of the races in
Johannesburg are on Sundays, and it
is okay in the Cape, but it was terrib B