Mekgoe's amazing journey from tears and nowhere to a Comrades contender

It is a long way from crying yourself silly after finishing last in the elites-only Spar Ladies 10km race to being the best black female Comrades Marathon finisher ever. But Galaletsang Mekgoe has made that journey in style.

Hers is a true pauper-to-princess tale that even she could never have imagined not long ago. Yet such are the rewards of taking advice from experts and being disciplined, committed and working hard at your craft that Mekgoe goes into this year’s edition of The Ultimate Human Race on Sunday as one of the favourites.

Before last August, Mekgoe was a virtual unknown in the running community except for those she worked with. She had never run a full marathon, the lass from Luka in Phokeng, North West, having only done the Soweto Half-Marathon in a pedestrian 85 minutes. Thereafter she went straight to the Nedbank Runified 50km in Gqeberha, where she finished seventh in 3 hrs 30 min 24 sec behind winner Anelework Bosho, whom she trailed by a huge 25 minutes and some change.

That she was running an ultra-marathon was because her coach, Nedbank Running Club guru Dave Adams, had quickly figured out that the scrawny lass who worked as a firefighter just did not have the speed to make it big in the shorter distances. Besides, Adams is an ultra-marathon coach and works for, plotting the success of, a club that is crazy over the Comrades Marathon.

Now, a week before her second Comrades as we sit out at the Fairstreams mini-housing estate that has been home to her and her male Nedbank teammates in the quaint, high-altitude town of Dullstroom, Mpumalanga, Mekgoe chuckles as she reflects on just how fast she has progressed to being a proper elite.

“It is still a little unbelievable how I’ve improved. During Covid, I went to run the elites-only Spar Ladies race in Pietermaritzburg and I finished last, number zero,” she laughs before taking a sip of her protein recovery shake.

“Even [47-year-old veteran] Charne Bosman beat me — the old lady beat me. I cried. When the coach came to fetch me from the airport, I was still crying. I just threw myself into his arms and cried.”

Adams takes up the story.

“She was heartbroken. Her 10km time was not improving that much, I’d got her to 38 minutes. But she got a new lease of life when she trained with the guys. I then said to her, let’s give Comrades a go.”

To prepare for Comrades, Mekgoe ran the Nedbank Runified 5km ultra in Gqeberha in March last year. But she was not fully fit.

“I went there with an injury and I ran slower than expected. It was hard, it took a lot to finish that race, but I was not going to quit. When you are fit, you are aggressive and you don’t listen [to your coach and body].”

She listened to her coach’s advice at training afterwards and the result was a fifth-place finish 6:42:53 on debut at the 2022 Comrades Marathon. Before her, no black woman had ever finished that high, with only three others having made the top 10, the best of them having run 6:53:41 for a seventh-place finish.

“Last year I was new. I was running cautiously so that I would not blow. Coach Dave had given me splits to run and I ran based on those. But I could have done better than fifth place. I still had the energy to run even after the finish.

“My mistake was I stopped on the road for a pee. It cost me some time. Now I know that it is OK to pee into my shorts during the race, it will dry out as I run,” she said, chuckling.

Mekgoe is the only woman in Adams’ training group and working with champions and gold medallists such as Edward Mothibi and Joseph Manyedi is notably beneficial for her, the fact that they often leave her trailing in their wake notwithstanding.

“I am now training on top of experience compared to last year. I am no longer crying or moaning. Seeing these guys being way ahead of me during training runs does not discourage me any more. I do not give up, in any case it is too late to give up now — I am committed to this.

“When I see them ahead, I remind myself my competition at the race will not be as strong as these guys are. These guys are pulling me to give my best.”

During the morning session I watched from Adams’ car as he followed his racers on their training route. Mekgoe stuck with the men for a while as they performed “fartleks” — a session that involves a continuous run in which periods of faster running are mixed with periods of easy or moderate paces. When they eventually left her behind, the 28-year-old proceeded to do her own session, seemingly determined to finish what she had started.

“She’s a tough cookie,” Adams said as we drove past Mekgoe. “She will not give up.”

And she did not, Mekgoe arriving back at their home a few minutes after the likes of champion Tete Dijana and Dan Matshailwe. She looked knackered as she bent over hands on her hips and struggling for air. “These guys left me behind,” she lamented, prompting laughs from her teammates.

They will, however, be cheering her come Sunday, Mekgoe sure to again be among the female gold medallists.

“The thing is to believe in yourself. I am lucky coach Dave and the guys here have helped me. They’ve given me confidence to believe I can achieve everything I set my mind on.”

What she wants to achieve in the immediate future — on Sunday — is to improve on her 6:42:53. Of course she will rush into Adams’ arms crying, but those will be tears of joy and not heartbreak as was the case after that embarrassment at the Spar Ladies.

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