The 2026 chapter of the East London Day Hospital Laser 10km Challenge will be run starting from the Beacon Bay Country Club on Saturday at 6.15am.
It is not a race for the faint-hearted, but it does set up the programme of road races that augment the 2026 road race calendar in the Border region and South Africa as a whole.
The race is organised by East London Athletic Club on a fairly testing, if not out-and-out tough, course, which introduces runners to the notorious Batting Road climb within the first 2km.
Circumspect pacing in the early stages will, however, usher in fast running down Bonza Bay Main Road and into Coad Road.
A sharp left turn at the Mopani Drive intersection ushers in another meaningful climb to Goukam Avenue, and then another left into Hillcrest Drive delivers a fast downhill section to the Blue Lagoon Hotel.
The old adage in running circles that what goes down must go up again is pertinent in this case with a long climb up Blue Bend Place and a section of Hillcrest Drive until the Engen filling station on the corner of Beaconhurst Drive delivers another left turn, which will test the strength of the legs as they race over another fast downhill section on the way to the finish at the country club.
Not surprisingly, the 31-minute barrier has never been broken on the route, let alone the magical sub-30 being realised.
In 2017, Luthando Hejana, now in the colours of the Original Mambas Athletic Club, won in 31:29, and a year later was three seconds adrift of that time.
The fastest time to date appears to be that of Gift Chigomararwa, when he registered 31:21, beating Hejana by 13 seconds.
A young Yanga Malusi of Zwelonke AC made a first appearance, finishing third in 31:45.
He improved by just one second a year later, and though he has not run the race since and is now based in Cape Town, he went on to dominate middle-distance road races in Border in 2022 and 2023, along with Malixole Kalideni of Old Selbornians, who won the race in 2023.
Being so early in the year, numerous top runners have yet to make their mark on the race, though 2025 delivered a “new star” in the form of Sinethemba Jilingisi of Haven Hills, who won in 31:30.
In the women’s race, Hanlie Botha of Easy Equities Born2Run has enjoyed wins in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2024.
Her fastest time has been a 35:46 recorded in 2017 when she enjoyed a comfortable win over her Born2Run clubmate Stephanie Smith.
A year later that result was reversed by the narrowest of margins when Botha went out much slower and Smith, on a new training regimen, finished just two seconds ahead in 36:48.
That was the last time the two women came head-to-head at the race.
It could be a big year for many athletes, and while form will become more predictable by March and April, these early indications will at the least be of academic interest.
Last year Andrea Ranger of Born2Run won in 42:28, about 58 seconds ahead of Old Selbornian’s runner Caroline Toich.
The race peaked with 1,283 runners in 2020 before the Covid-19 lockdown, started up again in 2022 with 772 and last year returned 765.
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