MARK ETHERIDGE: Lucille Damon’s a ‘good egg’ when it comes to Two Oceans history

Life is literally a numbers game in born-and-bred Capetonian Lucille Damon’s day, at work and at play.

Working hours see her passing on her considerable number-crunching accounting skills to generation after generation of pupils at Wynberg Girls’ High School.     

After hours, one is likely to find this durable runner’s feet crunching through the soft sands of the southern suburbs vineyards as well as the green belts and roads of the area.

Traditionally run over the Easter weekend, 2023’s 56km Totalsports Two Oceans ultra-marathon has been staged on an alternative weekend for only the second time in its history (1974 was the other occasion).

But despite Oceans being run a week later than the Easter weekend, it does not change the fact that Damon is still “a good egg” when it comes to Two Oceans history.

She holds the feat of being the first, and still the only woman, to complete 30 of the gruelling ultra-marathon events. What is more, she has reeled them off consecutively, between the years of 1990 and 2019.

So when she lines up in Main Road, Newlands next Saturday, she will be the only woman sporting a permanent blue number with three laurels (one for each of her 10 completed events).

It is not that the Claremont resident ever set out to run her way into history though.

“My sister Gillian and I first started running in 1989, but that was just to stay in shape while I was studying at UCT and Cape Technikon. I had done an aerobics instructor’s course so we just used to jog a bit to warm up and warm down before and after,” she recalls.

“But then we entered a few fun runs and in 1990 everything happened at once.”

That year saw the sisters — Lucille is three years the senior — run their debut 15km, the Table Bay 15km in the Waterfront area, the Federated Timbers half-marathon in Green Point and the Peninsula marathon between Green Point and Simon’s Town.

“And then the natural thing to do was run Two Oceans,” she says.

“If I recall correctly, it cost about R100 to enter. These days, the entry is around R700, but once you’ve run 25 ultras the entry fee is waived.”

For the record, the entry fee of the inaugural Two Oceans back in 1970 was 50c, doubling to R1 the next year.

“I remember we started opposite the old cinema in Main Road, Claremont. That was before the start was moved closer to town to its present position.

“I can vividly remember the steep downhill section in Klaasens Road, Bishopscourt, about 5km from the finish and I was really struggling with ITB [knee pain] and Gillian grabbed a hose at the water-point and hosed me down to cool the knee off.”

The sisters went on to finish their debut Oceans in a credible time of 5hr 21min, though Lucille’s best of her 30 attempts has been an impressive 4:27 effort. Her sister has a time just six minutes quicker than her.

All these years later and she still rates that first Oceans as her toughest to date.

The thought of running her way into history did not enter her head as she slowly accumulated medal after medal. “It was only when I got to about 26 consecutive Oceans that I started doing some research and realised I could make my own bit of history.”

Meanwhile, Oceans was not the only bug that had bitten her and she also went on to complete 15 Comrades Marathons in KwaZulu-Natal.

“But I think I’m done on that front now ... it’s just too long!”

A sucker for punishment, she also ran two Puffer ultra-trail events “and I even ended up winning one of them in 2000, I think”.

These days things have changed. Sister Gillian has lived in the Netherlands for more than 20 years now and most of Damon’s training runs are done with Tonni Upham. “We’ve been running together for about four years now but I don’t do any hectic trail running stuff [Tonni does though]. I find my knees take too much strain!”

Still with the numbers game, this year will see Damon being in the teaching game for 40 years, the bulk of which has been spent at Wynberg Girls after a stint at Gardens Commercial High School.

“It may sound funny, but being a teacher has probably been a big part of the reason I was able to string 30 consecutive Oceans together. Being in class all day with so many pupils means you’re exposed to so many cold and flu bugs that I guess your body naturally develops a strong immune system.”

During her 30-year Oceans journey she has represented a variety of clubs and shoe brands. “My first club was Celtic Harriers, then Varsity Old Boys, back to Celtic, then to Foresters for a long time, then to Spartan Harriers and then finally back to Foresters by the time I did my 30th.

“It was a conscious decision to run my 30th in Foresters colours because they’d been so good to me and I had great memories with them.”

In terms of shoes, she has come full circle. “I started in Saucony, then on to Reebok, Asics and Nike and then back to Saucony.”

In 2022, as the race resumed after the Covid-19 pandemic, Damon did something completely different and ran her first Oceans half-marathon.

But this year she is back to her beloved ultra, a race that is now undoubtedly part and parcel of her DNA.

And she does not have any expectations, except to avoid a dreaded DNF (did not finish) next to her name.

Looking at the numbers game, you would not bet on her not making it Two Oceans ultra No 31 for the athletic accounting teacher.