Mekgoe’s journey from tears to Comrades contender
It is a long way from crying after finishing last in the elites-only Spar Ladies 10km race to being the best black female Comrades Marathon finisher. But Galaletsang Mekgoe has made that journey in style.
Hers is a tale that she could not have imagined not long ago. Yet such are the rewards of taking advice from experts, being disciplined and working hard that Mekgoe goes into Sunday’s race as one of the favourites.
Before last August, Mekgoe, from Luka in Phokeng, North West, was unknown in the running community. She had never run a full marathon, having only done the Soweto half-marathon in a pedestrian 85 minutes. After that she went straight to the Nedbank Runified 50km in Gqeberha, where she finished seventh in 3hr 30 min 24 sec behind winner Anelework Bosho, who she trailed by 25 minutes.
That she was running an ultra-marathon was because her coach, Nedbank Running Club’s Dave Adams, had figured out that the scrawny runner who worked as a firefighter did not have the speed to do well over shorter distances.
Now, days before her second Comrades Marathon as we sit outside at the Fairstreams mini-housing estate that has been home to her and her Nedbank teammates in the high-altitude town of Dullstroom, Mpumalanga, Mekgoe chuckles as she reflects on how quickly she has progressed to being a proper elite.
“It is still a little unbelievable how I’ve improved. During Covid-19, I went to run the elites-only Spar Ladies race in Pietermaritzburg and finished last,” she laughs.
“Even [47-year-old veteran] Charne Bosman beat me. I cried. When my coach came to fetch me from the airport, I was still crying. I just threw myself into his arms and cried.”
Adams takes up the story.
“She was heartbroken. Her 10km time was not improving that much, I’d got her to 38 minutes. But she got a new lease of life when she trained with the guys. I then said to her, let’s give Comrades a go.”
To prepare for Comrades, Mekgoe ran the Runified 50km ultra in Gqeberha in March last year. But she was not fully fit.
“I went there with an injury and I ran slower than expected. It was hard, it took a lot to finish that race, but I was not going to quit. When you are fit, you are aggressive and you don’t listen [to your coach and body].”
But she did listen to her coach’s advice afterwards and the result was a fifth-place finish in 6:42:53 on debut at the 2022 Comrades Marathon. Before her, no black woman had finished that high, with only three others having made the top 10, the best of them having run 6:53:41 for a seventh-place finish.
“Last year I was new. I was running cautiously so that I would not blow. Coach Dave had given me splits to run and I ran based on those. But I could have done better than fifth place. I still had the energy to run even after the finish. My mistake was I stopped on the road for a pee. It cost me some time,” she said.
Mekgoe is the only woman in Adams’ training group and she benefits from working with champions and gold medallists Edward Mothibi and Joseph Manyedi.
“I am now training on top of experience compared with last year. I am no longer crying or moaning. Seeing these guys being way ahead of me on training runs does not discourage me any more. I do not give up. In any case it is too late to give up now — I am committed to this.”
Come Sunday Mekgoe is aiming to again be among the female gold medallists. “I am lucky coach Dave and the guys here have helped me. They’ve given me confidence to believe I can achieve everything I set my mind on.”
On Sunday she wants to improve on her 6:42:53. If she does, she will afterwards run into Adams’ arms crying, but this time it will be tears of joy.