The Astron Sole Destroyer Half Marathon and two feeder distance races over 10km and 5km, take to the roads this weekend, with the main race dating back to its launch on September 18 1993.
Running off-road, other than at a cross-country event, was not a popular pastime back then.
For instance, the Parker Pen Half Marathon (also an Oxford Striders event) attracted 447 finishers in May and the Hi-Tec Half, as it was called back then, managed just 211.
Perseverance with the project saw the race grow and become something of a phenomenon through the farm lands of Horseshoe Valley and beyond.
Winners became known as “mountain goats”, with the toughest climb peaking at 7km, and male and female runners who crested the summit first and finished within the top 10, traditionally awarded King and Queen of the Mountain status.
The race was called the Sole Destroyer from then on, when the organising committee decided it fitted perfectly into the training regimen of Chris Sole, a former Cambridge High School pupil, athlete, teacher and coach who, in his early senior running days ran for Cambridge Harriers, UCT and later Oxford Striders.
Sole actually ran far more daunting routes, but the story fitted well.
He also won the Table Mountain Race on numerous occasions and represented both Border and/or Western Province at all three aspects of athletics.
Sole was invited to run the event, which he did on one occasion and won, though an overzealous referee attempted to disqualify him.
Sanity prevailed and he was confirmed the winner.
Few of the original Sole Destroyer participants are still running.
However, the first winner, then in Oxford Striders colours, was Makaya Masumpa, then 27, who is likely to be in the field again on Sunday.
He is now a senior member in the leadership at Easy Equities Born2Run.
Sole is heavily committed to the development of athletics in New Zealand, while Masumpa, along with Liesbet Mohutsiwa, are into junior athletics development locally.
The first two runners at the summit were Monde Tutani and Dianne Sandford, both of whom were runners with superb pedigrees in SA athletics.
Tutani, who had gone out hard, was eventually caught, paying the price at the 15km mark, where he was overtaken by Masumpa and another runner of stature, Mpumezi Bomvana.
Sandford, who taught with Sole at Cambridge High, maintained her early lead throughout and finished ahead of Bernice Fanoe.
She was joined in the team prize by Jacqui Cook and Sharon Bosch.
Only Bosch will likely be there again, along with husband Colin, who ran the first event in 92min 50sec.
There has been an inordinate amount of club changing over the years, some of it based on ethics, others on personal ambition, change of domicile or opportunities offered, in particular of team achievement.
In more recent years, winners have come from the following packs of both men and women in faster, flatter racing events and that could well happen again at 2025’s fixture, with many having raced hard last weekend on a downhill course, leaving stiffness of muscles.
That would be especially true of the marathon distance.
Daily Dispatch
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