MARK ETHERIDGE: Glenrose blossoms in record-busting run

In 2001, when the then-queen of SA running, Elana Meyer ran a national 10km road running record in Budapest, Hungary... the seeds of her record successor were already taking root in a dusty Mpumalanga township called eMbalenhle.

That township near Secunda, and translated from Nguni as “pretty flower”, produced an athlete aptly named Glenrose Xaba, who was just six years-old at the time of Meyer’s SA record run, and who earlier in July blossomed to her true potential as she clocked 31min 12sec in the Absa RUN YOUR CITY 10km event in Durban.

Her time was 1sec quicker than the previous mark.

Of course it’s natural to associate charges with banks, but Xaba’s nickname of Supercharge has a totally different connotation.

She explains: “When I was still training with Michael ‘Sponge’ Seme... one of his athletes named Benny, said I was moving as fast as a Range Rover and my name should be Supercharge. Even growing up one of my teachers said I was as fast as a Range Rover.”

Xaba was raised in a religious family by mom Tryphine and stepfather Elvis (both are pastors), and the young Glenrose played soccer, netball and did a bit of running.

“I’m definitely a child of God and I call myself a ‘Miracle Child’ because I was born two months premature.

“In high school I focused on running, but was very shy, to such an extent that I trained on my own. When I was out jogging and came across people I’d slow to a walk until they had passed me as I was scared of what they’d say about my running.”

Now 29, and a member of the Boxer Club since 2017, she needn’t have worried — the SA road running fraternity is shouting her name from the rooftops right now.

First developed by Mpumalanga development coach Peter Makgato and assistant Leonard Makhanya, they told her to run with the boys as she was too quick for her female counterparts.

“One day I won the first cross-country event I ever entered and that gave me the encouragement to carry on.”

Inspired as a youngster by the likes of Meyer and fellow Olympian Caster Semenya, Xaba found herself in Pretoria training with Semenya’s former coach, Seme.

This was after a spell with Meyer’s Endurocad group.

“It was back in 2016/17... they helped a lot and I learnt so much... Elana was a big motivation for me.”

For her part the 2001 record-setter has only praise for Xaba. Says Meyer: “She attended our Endurocad camp in 2016 and ranked No 1 of all athletes tested. I really appreciate the performances of athletes where you can see it has been a journey of gradually getting better.

“That record time is well deserved, and I’m happy I could give athletes a decent target to chase.”

Xaba continues: “Sponge told me that he’d noticed my results from a distance and welcomed me to his group. I was with him for five years during which I won many titles, including a 33:24 in the 10,000m track event, the first time I’d raced that distance on track.”

She went on to win the Spar Grand Prix 10km series title and decided to move up to the half-marathon distance, before injuries derailed her 2019 season.

“Then there was Covid-19 and at the end of 2020 I decided to take a leap of faith and join Caster and Ledile Semenya, just for a change of environment and even though I picked up a knee injury soon after joining them they were both super encouraging.

“I also signed with shoe company Puma in 2021 and immediately found that their shoes suited me very well.

She went into this year’s Absa RUN YOUR CITY Durban 10km with mixed feelings.

“In the same race last year I wasn’t feeling 100% and the weather didn’t suit me,” she says. “I finished ninth even though I’d been expected to do well.

“This year I had to fight my mind, tell my body to heal and achieve all those dreams I’d had of greatness, and make a strong Glenrose again.”

The full realisation of her new SA mark (still to be officially ratified) hasn’t sunk in yet.

“I’m still pretty speechless almost two weeks later. Strangely enough though, when I get a certain pain in my legs then I know I’m in good form and when I ran 31:57 at Spar in Durban late in June, I knew I had good form.

“I started to visualise the race and told myself: ‘You’ve got this, Glenrose’ and I also wanted to do it for Michael Meyer, whose team puts together the Absa series. The race went smoothly, I had a lot of energy, but still didn’t know I’d beaten Elana’s record until sometime after I’d crossed the finish line.”

Ledile Semenya added some coaching context to the record run: “We saw it [the record] coming but weren’t sure when it would happen. Two weeks before, she ran a great race at the Spar ladies race. Back in training the week after we decreased her quantity of training and gave her five repeats of 1,000m and asked her to run them at a pace of 3:10-15 — she ran an average of 3:03 for all of them and said she was feeling good and relaxed, so we knew something good was coming. She’s capable of going even closer to 31min flat very soon though.”

Talking of flat, Xaba flattens shoes at an alarming rate and is very grateful of her footwear sponsorship.

“I’ll go through about eight pairs of shoes a year. My training shoes are good for about two months each and if I’m racing a 10km, the racing shoes will last for five or six times and if I’m racing a half-marathon, I can do about three races in a pair.”

There’s also a bright head on Xaba’s shoulders. “An athletics career is not a long one so I’m busy studying for a higher certificate in marketing at Boston College. Having another career is vital for one day when you can’t run any more and need a job.

“For now though I’m looking forward to being an even better athlete and when I retire, I want to be a legend, like Elana Meyer.

“I want to be a world record-holder one day, in whatever distance or discipline.

“And it’s very important to stay healthy and injury-free, but most of all I want to be humble and be a good example to young and upcoming stars — just like Caster and Elana were to me all those years ago.”

Michael Meyer is the founder of the Absa RUN YOUR CITY concept/event and his Stillwater Sports team started the series back in 2014.

“We started with one city in Cape Town and now we’re in five major cities across SA. We have 50,000 competitors across the series and the unique element is that we combine mass participation with absolutely elite performance.

“It’s a fun, excitingly vibrant day for everyone and vitally important is that we give athletes the opportunity to produce world-class times on SA soil. We’ve brought some of the world’s finest athletes to SA which has helped the depth increase tremendously. The Durban leg saw four South Africans breaking the 28min barrier in one race.

“The value experience of the events is second to none and the team is very proud of the series. In my opinion it’s one of the premier road running series in the world and has a very strong charity and social contribution to each city. CANSA is the official charity of the series and we also have cleanup initiatives in each city that we stage a race in.”

Final word goes to the man who probably knows Xaba best and that’s Rhyn Swanepoel, her manager. Swanepoel has been with the Boxer group for 30 years now, starting off as a store manager, and has been involved with group’s athlete management for 20 years.

“We have 22 elite athletes who report to me and I create the platform for them to perform to their best.

“Glenrose and I have a very special connection and she always finds time to meet and talk about her running, her plans and her goals.

“She calls me her personal Uber driver because I’m always taking her to and fetching her from the airport for her many races.

“Her SA record came as no surprise to me... she’s always told me that mark was a big goal and it’s now hers. Her next target is to run another SA record in the half-marathon distance [another one of Elana’s records].”