Durban - Collectively, the oldest man and woman participating in this year’s Comrades Marathon have won 57 medals and they aim to make it 59 on the down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban tomorrow.
Durban’s Patricia Fisher, who turned 70 in January, has 31 Comrades medals from the 35 races she has entered.
Motlogelwa Khoele, from Tembisa on the East Rand, who celebrated his 81st birthday in May, has 26 medals.
“I’ve been there for half of my life,” said Fisher, who lives in Manor Gardens.
She says in 1985 she was a spectator, sitting on the side of the road while breastfeeding her daughter.
She turned to her husband Roland and said: “Next year I’m going to run this race.”
She stuck to her guns and a year later she finished the Comrades but missed the cut-off time by five minutes.
She went back in 1987 and picked up 26 consecutive medals in the years that followed.
In 2017 when Fisher was aiming for her triple green number, she fell into a refuse bin at Polly Shorts which meant she missed the cut-off by seconds.
“I’m running and then I thought let me just stretch and there was a big plasticky dustbin and I used it to stretch and the next minute I fell in.”
She said a security official who saw what happened kept on encouraging her to get out and continue running,
When he asked if she needed a hand Fisher said: “I’m so comfy, just leave me here.”
However, he pulled her out, but when she got to the top of Polly Shorts, race officials had already put up the yellow emergency tape indicating that she had narrowly missed one of the cut-off times to finish the race within the allotted 12 hours.
This week, wearing mismatched takkies to honour her two sponsors, the Comrades logo tattoo on her arm to celebrate her 30th medal and belly ring and nose rings sparkling in the sun, Fisher regaled the Independent on Saturday with her Comrades memories.
In the past month, she has participated in five races and picked up five wins in her race category.
She said there was no secret to her success, although the ten cans of Coca Cola she drank every day possibly helped.
Her husband Roland said although he was surrounded by several family members who participated in the Comrades, running was not in his “horoscope” but he was “incredibly proud” of his wife.
“She has a mind that just won’t quit.”
He said Fisher had collected dozens of medals over the years and many of them were on her dressing table.
“What motivates her is that she is quite successful at what she does,” said Roland.
He said the day Fisher completed her first race but missed the cut-off time to receive a medal, she bought herself a trophy because she managed to complete the route “on her feet”.
At 70 she is still fully employed, transporting school children every day.
Meanwhile, instead of relaxing in preparation for the big day, Khoele, the oldest male runner, was still hard at work at his bottle store in Tembisa this week.
He told the Independent on Saturday he was excited to travel to Durban and meet up with his eight friends who were also running the Comrades.
“It's like my holiday. I come to Durban and relax in a hotel for two days with my friends and then we run the Comrades,” he said.
Khoele, who enjoys keeping fit, used to do karate and then weightlifting before he was bitten by the running bug.
In 1982, he ran his first 42km race and continued to do various races until he saw his friend finish the Comrades in 1987 and knew that he could also do it.
He ran his first Comrades in 1988 and this year will be his 30th.
So far, he has earned 26 Comrades medals from the races he finished.
He has also completed seven Two Oceans marathons in Cape Town.
“I’ve got some pains but I will only retire from races if I can’t run anymore. But this is my last Comrades – I’m getting old now,” Khoele said.
The grandfather has inspired his 57-year-old son, Charles, who is tackling his third Comrades this year.
Khoele said they would “stick together” until he got tired and then Charles will run ahead of him.
He clocked his fastest time of 7:50 in 1990 but said this year he wouldn’t set a time limit.
“I’m aiming just to get to the finish,” he said.
He said his training had gone ahead as usual this year and that he ran three days a week and then tried to do 50km or more over the weekend.
And while there’s still hours to go before the Comrades, Khoele is already thinking about his next race, the Soweto marathon on November 6.
An ardent Orlando Pirates and Tottenham Hotspur fan, he said his late wife used to think he was crazy for running all the time.
However, she enjoyed the fact that he only left home to train but spent the rest of the time watching football and being with the family.
Khoele is the chairman of the Rainbow Athletics club which he established in Tembisa in 1986. This year, 36 of the club’s members will participate in the Ultimate Human Race.
The Independent on Saturday