“The Ultimate Human Race starts at 60KM into the race”

Office of the Premier’s Departmental IT Office (DGITO) Deputy Director Mogolongwane Eddy Lerobane completed his first ever Ultimate Human Race in 9 hours and 55 minutes bagging the Robert Mtshali medal. Lerobane who is a member of Polokwane Athletics Club ran his maiden down run marathon in Durban on the 28th August which took him 7 months of intensive preparations.

He ran a total of 2 100 KM between January and August 2022 before the comrades marathon race. The social runner started running in 2009 and qualified for his first comrades race in 2019 but could not participate due to injuries.

“I started my comrades race one minute 35 seconds later because I was in D category. The categories are from A to H and your completed qualification race determines where are you going to start, the are those that started 35 minutes later because they were on G and H categories”.

To qualify for D category you have to finish 42 KM qualification race in less than 4 hours and I qualified in 3 hours 42 minutes and 59 seconds at Mokopane in May 2022.
“The actual comrades race starts at 60KM, the last 30KM is the most hardest for most runners, all my life problems started kicking in and how I resolved them carried me on, that’s how you conquer comrades marathon, solutions on the table and keep going. This is where your physical and mental strength are tested, if your feet can no longer carry you, the mind plays a crucial role in finishing the race, spirituality plays an important role”.

Lerobane’s strategy was divided into 3 phases of each 30KM, dehydrate, keep minimal pace of 6 minutes and reserve the last stretch of the remaining 30KM while cruising and enjoying the race until the finish line.

As it was his first experience to run the comrades, Lerobane made sure that he stopped at every 40KM for medical attention.

“It was very important that I stopped for medical assessment because this was my first experience at the comrades which I wanted to finish in a good shape without necessarily concentrating on the cut off time. My plan was to run the race in 12 hours but I did not experience any difficulties hence I completed in 9 hours”.

Lerobane will be getting back to training in few months in preparation for the back to back race in June 2023 and retire from running ultra-marathons.

By: Emmaculate Cindi