We have had numerous superb races in Border already this year and it is a reasonable bet that many more will follow.
Some are well established in the history of our sport, and each year they rise to ensure they remain at the top of their game, which is not always easy to do. Occasionally there is the odd hiccup.
More interesting, perhaps, are those races that are still in their infancy and reaching milestones that will define them or not.
One of those events is a teenager in the gang, the Brac Half-Marathon and 10km this weekend, with updates having been fed through by dedicated club spokesperson Ayanda Jam.
Another is the Real Gijimas 50km ultra from Zwelitsha to Mdantsane in just 10 days’ time, which is the first ultramarathon to whet the appetite of local runners in 2026, and will certainly test stamina, along with speed and endurance.
Looking for hills? — then this is as good as it gets.
The start has been modified due to road works between Ndevana and Ilitaha, but what got me going was communication from Real Gijimas’ race convening mogul, Alex Kambule, asking about one of the courses previously used by Elac Marathon, sponsored by the then PG Bison, which was run from the early 1980s to 1993.
The discussion has had the effect, always intended, of Kambule making changes for the ultra-marathon.
A flash of memory darted back immediately to a marathon in which the late Diane Sandford, former Springbok cross-country runner at the time of Zola Budd’s rise, wanted to run her first sub-three-hour marathon.
Sandford, incidentally, beat both Budd and Blanche Moila in a 10km championship race, being a superb athlete in her early days.
She approached me to assist on the run.
It was to be run on February 7 1987, exactly one month before Buffs, which was always a marathon of choice, and thus the race would need to be carefully monitored.
We ran with a good seconding team and paced every kilometre carefully, ensuring we were on schedule most of the way. The women’s record was held by Liesbet Ntozini at 3:20:22.
Towards the end of the race, Gordon Shaw, Border’s top marathoner of the time, joined us over the hills into Woolwash Road.
Sandford clocked 2:59:17, setting a new Border record in the process, and she never looked back in terms of the marathon.
Thinking back, it was a very special, though hot and humid, day and certainly one for the memory bank.
Not every runner gets to run and nurture a record-breaking marathon performance with the likes of Sandford and a tail-end finish with Shaw.
In the same race, Tony Viljoen, then Sandford’s boss as she taught at Cambridge High School where he was headmaster, won the male masters category in 3:07:00.
Two weeks lie ahead with options of a 10km, a half-marathon and a 50km ensuring that variety is at play and runners of all persuasions have races to choose from.
In the build-up to the Two Oceans 56km in 28 days, there are races to tag onto the Real Gijimas 50km.
Meanwhile, the 99th Comrades Marathon has its formidable organising team hard at work ensuring that the road between Durban and Pietermaritzburg is prepared for the 22,000 runners hoping to run the world’s largest and most prestigious ultra-marathon on June 14.
That is in a mere 94 days.
Thereafter, runners’ sights are sure to begin to focus on the 100th Comrades Marathon in 2027.
It’s bigger for the possible 32,000 runners and their families than even the men’s Rugby World Cup, scheduled to kick off on October 1 of the same year.
It will be the 11th edition of the event that began for the Springboks in 1995 with a first win that surprised the world.
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