South Africa's most famous road runner‚ Bruce Fordyce‚ is looking for a rematch with the gun-toting attacker who knocked him off his feet while he was out on his morning run on Friday.
"The odds were stacked against me because he had a gun and‚ if I could‚ I would want a rematch‚" an upbeat Fordyce told TimesLIVE just hours after two gunmen robbed him of his shoes while out for a run in a Johannesburg surburb.
"The ordeal was quite scary at the time‚ but now I am fine. I am not hurt badly. I have a severely bruised ego because I lost the knockout match and went down in the first 30 seconds‚ but it was an unfair fight."
Fordyce was on his daily run at about 5.30am when he noticed two men cruising the streets in their car. They then slowed down their car alongside him. He said he approached them‚ thinking they were lost‚ but seconds later he found himself face to face with two guns.
"The one kept the gun to my head while the other kicked and hit me until I fell to the ground so that he could pull off my shoes. But actually they are quite welcome to it. It was an old pair of shoes that had done a 1000km and smelled like Camembert‚" he said.
The men also ripped off his plastic watch and one cotton glove.
"I must have looked like Michael Jackson in one glove and‚ because I was barefoot‚ and had to walk on the stones‚ I must have looked like I was doing the Michael Jackson shuffle."
He said he was attacked about 500m away from his home.
"I got home‚ put on a new pair of running shoes and finished my run. I have the toughest coach‚ and that coach is me. I set myself a 10km and had only done 5km‚ so I had to finish. Actually‚ though‚ running is the best thing to calm my mind. The sunrise that I saw this morning was probably one of the best‚ because it put things in perspective. I actually was alive to see the sun rise."
Fordyce said he was anxious to get his hands on CCTV footage outside the home where he was attacked.
"That is actually the most embarrassing thing about this whole incident. When the one man was hitting me and kicking me to the floor‚ he pulled down my pants‚ exposing my white butt for all to see. I want to get my hands on that footage and destroy it."
He said while it was the first time he was attacked or robbed while running‚ he was not going to let the incident deter him.
"If we give in to the criminals then they will win. I will be back again on the roads tomorrow morning."
Fordyce has won the Comrades a record nine times‚ of which eight wins were consecutive.
-TimesLIVE
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