No one-hit wonder: Mudzinganyama’s long run to Two Oceans glory

To the uninitiated, Givemore Mudzinganyama is a Two Oceans Marathon winner who simply “got it all right on the day” last weekend. The discerning road running follower will know, however, that while the organisers had not counted him among their top 10 pre-race favourites, the Zimbabwean’s pedigree spoke to him being a potential winner.

Before the 56km ultra aptly called “the world’s most beautiful marathon”, Mudzinganyama, 32, ran one of the fastest preparation marathons, winning Botswana’s Kazungula Bridge Marathon in 2:17:10. The Entsika Athletic Club runner notched his 42.2km personal best with an impressive 2:14:11 in the 2021 Cape Town Marathon.

“I knew I was going to be the favourite to win the race because I had one of the fastest preparation marathon times. Also, on the starting line, in terms of marathon PBs I was among the five-fastest. So I was confident,” Mudziganyama said in an interview with TimesLIVE Premium in a humble back room abode in Thembisa, days after his breakout victory.

Wife Nobukhosi Tshuma, who finished an impressive fourth place in the women’s Two Oceans 56km, chimed in. “The day before the race, when we were having dinner, I told our teammates [at Entsika] that Givemore was going to win it. I’d seen how he had trained and knowing how good he was on the hills, I was confident he would be the champion,” she said, her eyes glued to her husband as their one-year-old son cried for their attention.

Though a debutant at Two Oceans, Mudzinganyama had had some impressive runs in the ultras — his victory at the 50km Seshego Marathon last year was a sign he was cut out for the longer distances. He also finished third in the N12 50km race, though they had run 3km less due to poor marshalling. The year before he tested himself against the country’s elites at the inaugural Nedbank Runified 50km in Gqeberha, where he ran “a slow 2:50” because “we had just come out of the Covid pandemic, and I was not fit”.

He was running for social club Waterfall AC then and did not have the requisite professional training and support he now enjoys at Entsika, where he calls revered former two Oceans and New York Marathon winner Hendrick Ramaala his coach.

Mudzinganyama, though, had been on a journey to the road running glory he finally attained last weekend from much earlier.

It started at school in Zimbabwe. The young athlete ran on the track with the aim of travelling the length and breadth of his country.

“When we ran at school, those who did well used to travel to other regions and sometimes provinces for bigger competitions. I ran because it provided me with a chance to see the country, to go to places I otherwise would not have gone to. I ran for the trips — it was not really about winning back then.”

By high school, he was good enough in the middle distances to represent Zimbabwe in the Southern African regional competition. When he trekked to South Africa after high school to stay with older brother Gift in Cape Town, Givemore had his sights set on making a career out of running.

No sooner had he settled in Mzansi than he realised the running glory he dreamt of was not going to come easily. Mudzinganyama found himself being beaten by faster runners.

“I was running 32 minutes in the 10km, and it just was not good enough.”

Frustrated, he discovered trail running and scored some good wins there. But it soon dawned on him he was not going to make a good living out of that sport — at least not in his chosen short distances.

When I was still in Zimbabwe, my brother knew [three-time Comrades Marathon champion] Stephen Muzhingi and he asked him for a training programme for me. I was still a teenager then, and that programme required me to do some long, two-hour runs. It was very tough, and I thought it was crazy for people to run that much. But in recent years, I came to see the value of it.

—  Givemore Mudzinganyama

“I did not want to run the longer distances. I liked the shorter ones — nothing more than 40km. But the good money in trail is in the ultras. So I had to go back to road.”

It took him long to build the speed to be competitive, and even then, juggling a full-time job at a sports retailer made it hard to reach the levels he wanted.

The successes from last year did not help much immediately. Mudzinganyama secured a good contract with an elite club, but he had learnt enough in his early years to know he had to be patient and keep working hard.

“When I was still in Zimbabwe, my brother knew [three-time Comrades Marathon champion] Stephen Muzhingi and he asked him for a training programme for me. I was still a teenager then, and that programme required me to do some long, two-hour runs. It was very tough, and I said it was crazy for people to run that much. But in recent years, I came to see the value of it.”

He also invested a lot into studying the sport upon his arrival in Cape Town as a 19-year-old in 2010.

“I found a shop in Cape Town that sold old running magazines, most of them international, like Runner's World, very cheap and I bought lots of those. I found training programmes that I tried even though they left me a bit confused, and there were articles about how to prevent injuries.

“I also read stories about some of the world’s best athletes. I was particularly inspired by Ryan Hall. I read about Hendrick Ramaala and how he was doing well in overseas races. Back then I had no clue I would end up being coached by such a great.”

All that experience came in handy as he gained confidence with some good runs in key races. He had a particularly good 2019, where he finished third at the Harry Gwala Marathon, seventh at the Petro SA Marathon and even ran a 2:18 at the Schneider Electric Paris Marathon.

“I wanted to run a 2:16 in Paris. But it was a very lonely race for me because the elite guys ran a 2:09 to 2:10s and I was in no-man’s-land behind them and in front of the other runners. But I gained confidence from managing to stay on my target pace for 35km. I knew then that with good training I could run under 2:16.”

He did that in Cape Town two years later, and his dream of running Two Oceans grew.

“I wanted to run Two Oceans long ago, but I never had the opportunity. I was not really exposed to it and did not have better concentration and training and perhaps the support to do it.”

But hearing Entsika Club boss Zakhele Mkhize encourage his runners to try to “catch” one of SA road running’s big fish because “it will change your career for the better”, Mudzinganyama got the motivation he needed.

Last Saturday, he ran the race of his life, finally making good on a dream he nursed as a teenager when he trekked south from Zimbabwe.