Dullstroom - When Vladimir Kotov completed the 2012 Comrades Marathon in a time of 5hr 48min 12sec to break his previous masters’ (50-59 year olds) record from four years earlier by 30 seconds, it was generally agreed that the record would never be broken.
They said the time could never be bettered. They said no 50-year-old could ever run faster than that. They said the Belarusian was a machine whose achievement could never be repeated. They were not exaggerating. After all, Kotov had won the Comrades three times. And all of those victories were as a veteran (40-49 year olds).
So, after yet another splendid run to finish 28th overall in his 13th race, the former winner of both the Endhoven and Belgrade Marathons had seemingly set a mark that would outlive him. The record has stood for just over decade now with no master ever threatening it. The fastest anyone 50 and over has run since then was a 6:33:42 by Ronald Shiburi in 2018.
But that is about to change. On Sunday a Durban-born, Australia-based runner with 10 Comrades Marathon finishes to his name will be out to smash the record that was said to be unbreakable.
And Wayne Spies is in no doubt that he will get to the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in under the 5:48 time.
“When Kotov set the record they said it would never be broken. But when we did the maths and calculations we saw it could be broken. My coach showed me his calculations and we were on the same page. He believes it can be done and I believe it can be done too,” Spies said.
The coach he is talking about is the reserved, yet highly successful Dave Adams, the man who behind last year’s podium clean sweep for the Nedbank Running Club, which had five finishers in the men’s top ten.
We are in Dullstroom, sitting out in the porch of their home for the duration of the camp after Spies and his teammates had just completed a two-hour session that now sees Spies preparing a post-run drink to replenish his magnesium. They had done some fartleks – endurance training in which a runner alternates periods of sprinting with periods of jogging – and the 50-year-old had managed to hang on to the younger athletes such as Comrades champions Tete Dijana (2022) and Edward Mothibi (2019) as well as last year’s third-place finisher Dan Matshailwe.
Adams and I had driven along the road following the runners and he expressed confidence in Spies, describing the man, who moved to Australia with his wife back in 2001, as “a beast’.
Spies’ belief that he has what it takes to dip under Kotov’s time is not just wishful thinking. Spies has been on such an upward trajectory that everything points to him getting better and better.
Last year he ran a 6:01:33 to finish 22nd overall and 12th in the veterans’ category.
It is because of his continuously improving marathon times that Spies believes he will be a Comrades record holder on Sunday.
“After 2013 when I got a Bill Rowan, I wanted to get a silver medal at Comrades and I spoke to the legends – Bruce Fordyce, Shaun Meiklejohn and Willie Mtolo – and they told me that I need to improve my marathon times if I am to do well in Comrades. I got two more Bill Rowans thereafter, but I was focused on my speed work and I saw rapid improvements,” Spies said.
Spies moved from a 2:45 personal best at the Boston Marathon to a 2:37 at the Tokyo Marathon.
“I saw that I was creeping towards a 2:30 marathon and that excited me and I upped the training. And I got my real breakthrough in 2018. I ran a 2:28 at the London Marathon and I knew there and then that my Comrades had to be better. I raced the 2019 Comrades and finished in 6:21:57,” he said.
It was at that race, won by Edward Slender Mothibi, that Spies got to know about Adams, having run in the colours of Nedbank at manager Nick Bester’s invitation.
“On my way up Polly Shortts I saw a young man who was broken and about to quit, but I encouraged him and he went on to finish in about 6:25. That man was Tete Dijana and we kept in touch. Back in Australia, I ran a 2:25 at the Gold Coast Marathon and was then invited to run the 2022 Nedbank Runified 50km, which I ran in under three hours (2:59:54) and Slender saw me and asked what my age was because he felt I ran very well. I told him I wanted to improve and he invited me to join their group,” Spies said.
He trained two weeks with Adams’ group last year and ran that impressive 6:01:32 to better his previous Comrades PB of 6:21:57 from the previous year.
This year he has been training under Adam’s tutelage since March“‘when the coach gave me a programme to follow” and has been in South Africa since the Two Oceans Marathon, that he used as training.
“Everything this man says comes to pass. He has said I am going to break Kotov’s record and I believe I can achieve that,” Spies said.
He should smash Kotov’s record on Sunday and then surely go for Titus Mamabolo’s long-standing masters’ marathon world record of 2:19:29 when he races the Chicago Marathon in October.
@Tshiliboy
IOL Sport