Running peacefully

The Two Oceans Marathon, which takes place in Cape Town on Saturday, was first staged 40 years ago. Duane Heath recalls the runner who put the world-famous race on the map — and whom the sport has forgotten

Earlier this month, road-running websites reported that Gabashane "Vincent" Rakabaele, the former Two Oceans and SA marathon champion, had died in his native Lesotho "on an unspecified date in 2009".

Rakabaele, who in 1975 became the first black man to officially finish the Comrades, is dead. I know because, one year ago today, my search for a man I met only once ended on a green hill in the Lesotho highlands, at the foot of a modest grave.

But the heart-shaped headstone revealed that Rakabaele did not die a few days, or even weeks, before my arrival. I was six years, four months and 26 days too late to ask him if he remembered that Sunday in March 1978, when he and my Uncle Lionel, who ran for the same Welkom club, stopped at our Bloemfontein home on their way home from the Two Oceans. For lunch, Vincent and I shared a peanut-butter and jam sandwich off an enamel plate.

My memories of that day were jogged years later by a forgotten family snapshot, prompting a five-year search that ended 1300km from my Cape Town home in Ha Rakabaele.

It is where Rakabaele was buried on 2 November 2003 by his brother Michael, a Two Oceans gold medallist and owner of the Rakabaele Café.

Michael sketched a tragic picture of Vincent's final years: of suddenly giving up running to return to his family, only for his wife to leave him and his only daughter to disappear to Maseru, never to return. But what I couldn't figure out was how a man who had won nine ultra-marathon gold medals had no one to turn to when he fell ill. Neighbours spoke of debilitating knee and joint pain; others, of fever, and of the life-saving pills from the local clinic that neither Vincent nor Michael could afford.

But it doesn't really matter how Rakabaele died. What matters is that when he needed help, no one in the road running community listened. Or, perhaps even sadder, that he never asked.

Rakabaele ran the marathon at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, although he is synonymous with the Two Oceans. In 1976, he outsprinted the great Alan Robb to win by six seconds to set a new record of 3:18:05 and raise the profile of an event first staged in 1970 with a field of 26. On Saturday, 8700 runners will start the 56km race.

Rakabaele was second in 1978 - the day before he and I met - and then won the 1979 race in 3:08:56. It was a record only bettered in 1987 by the late Thompson Magawana.

"In those days, you started on the Villagers rugby field before getting to a fence, where you turned right into the main road," said Harold Berman, the race announcer since 1972 and president of organisers Celtic Harriers.

"So who gets to the fence first? Rakabaele. But he turns left! Only later did he realise nobody was behind him. He turned around, went through the field, and won."

Incredibly, Rakabaele's 1979 time was a minute faster than that of 2009 winner John Wachira of Kenya.

"Vincent was a 2:12 marathoner in the days of no drugs," said Comrades legend Bruce Fordyce. "It's sad that particularly some of the pioneering black runners vanished once their running days were over.

"I've continued to run even though I'm not winning, but for a lot of ageing black runners it's no longer viable. I can imagine how Vincent would never be heard from again."

Fordyce said it was "terribly sad" that Rakabaele had been dead for years without hardly anyone knowing. "The last time I saw him was in 1997 at a half-marathon between Ladybrand and Maseru. I thought I'd won the veterans' until I saw Vincent sitting on the grass at the finish. He'd beaten me by 10 minutes!"

Robb, whose duels with Rakabaele in the Comrades, Two Oceans and the defunct Korkie ultra-marathon are legendary, agreed. "Everybody just assumed he'd gone back to Lesotho. It's what happened to a lot of good black runners from those years, guys like Johannes Thobejane. I don't know why, but they all seemed to disappear and no one kept in touch."

Rakabaele's finishes

• 1975: Comrades (up) 20th 6:27:00
• 1976: Two Oceans 1st 3:18:05 (record)
• Comrades (down) 7th 5:59:00
• 1977: Two Oceans 43rd 3:51:13
• Comrades (up) 4th 6:03:00
• 1978: Two Oceans 2nd 3:18:19
• 1979: Two Oceans 1st 3:08:56 (record)
• 1980: Two Oceans 17th 3:33:32
• 1981: Two Oceans 2nd 3:09:17
• 1982: Two Oceans 119th 3:51:34
• 1983: Two Oceans 25th 3:33:51
• 1984: Two Oceans 3rd 3:15:40
• 1987: Two Oceans 3rd 3:10:03
• 1990: Two Oceans 5th 3:18:10
• 1991: Two Oceans 442nd 4:06:01

Saturday's race will be broadcast on SABC2 from 5.30am