Johannesburg - In the midst of the excitement around Nedbank Running Club’s clean sweep of the men’s podium positions at the Comrades Marathon, a massive achievement by a member of coach Dave Adams’ ‘Happy Bunch’ has sadly gone somewhat unnoticed.
Perhaps rightly so though. For how else could anyone be “side-tracked” from the one-two-three feat accomplished by dow- run debutant Tete Dijana, 2019 up-run champion Edward Mothibi and Comrades novice Dan Moselakwe?
The discerning Comrades Marathon follower would, however, have taken note that the sole woman in Adams’ six-member team set a record of sorts at last week’s 95th running of the Ultimate Human Race.
That not much noise has been made about Galaletsang Mekgoe’s fifth-place finish is because there were “bigger” tales about those who got to Moses Mabhida Stadium ahead of her.
Alexandra Morozova having had to earn her spot on the starting line via the legal route meant her victory became even more newsworthy. Adele Broodryk’s third-place finish to become the first South African home could not be ignored. And then there was fourth-placed Jenna Challenor who crawled to the finish line after her legs went all jelly on her. That’s the stuff of Comrades tales right there.
And so it was that Mekgoe became nothing more than a footnote to the story of the
47th edition of the gruelling trek down from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.
Yet that’s not how it should be. Not when the 26-year-old novice’s feat was the best by a black South African woman since women and black people were officially allowed to participate in the race in 1975.
Mekgoe crossed the line behind Challenor, clocking in at 6hr 42min 53sec and thus becoming only the fourth black SA woman to finish in the top 10.
Before her, only Nhlanhla Hlengwa, Sarah Mahlangu and Fikile Mbuthuma had attained gold. But none of this trio had shone as bright as Mekgoe did.
Hlengwa finished ninth in 1993 with a time of 7:21:22; Mahlangu clocked 6:53:41to finish seventh in 2002 and Mbuthuma ran a 6:56:32 for eighth spot in 2016.
Mekgoe was not aware of this, but her face beamed upon being made aware of it during our interview the day after the race during the champions’ breakfast.
“Oh wow, really,” Mekgoe said. “I did not know. That’s nice.
“I am very excited, I still can’t believe I did it. But I was not surprised. After the kind of camp we had, I knew I was going to do well.”
Mekgoe was part of Adams’ team that spent two weeks in Dullstroom, having also spent time together training in Rustenburg. The rigorous training was a shock to the system for the young athlete.
Granted she had done well in the 50km Nedbank Runified race in Gqeberha earlier in the year, where she finished in seventh place. But Mekgoe was not ready for what she had signed up for.
Mekgoe remembers how she would sometimes feel a bit isolated when she trailed her male teammates during long runs.
“It was a bit hard to find myself at the back and seeing them in front of me. But I developed a system that worked for me. During those runs I started to imagine myself running against the other ladies. Before we knew that Gerda (Steyn) would not be running, I envisioned myself running with her and taking her on in the race. I thought of the other women too and thought of myself leading them in the race,” Mekgoe said.
It's a ploy that worked because on race day, Mekgoe found herself hardly intimated at the start line – her lack of experience notwithstanding.
“I was very happy to have the top runners near me. I was not scared … because I did not know where I was going. I trusted myself. I’d come a long way to get to this and had run some crazy runs with the ‘Happy Bunch’.
Those guys made me believe in myself,” Mekgoe said.
And when the race started, she stuck to her race plan and hardly got carried away.
“I wanted a top 10 from this race and to finish number five was amazing. Iyoo, when I was running into the stadium it was unbelievable. I am used to seeing that mat and the Comrades decorations on TV. I could not imagine that one day I would see those things so close, so live.
“It was such a beautiful carpet and I was wondering, am I going to run over those beautiful decorations? But I had to,” Mekgoe said.
What stood out for her was getting the rose given to the finishers.
“No one has ever given me a flower. I have always believed that when you want something, you must go for it and I am glad that the first rose I ever got, I earned it. I got it using my feet,” Mekgoe said.