Fitness From Africa expected Comrade Marathon cancellation

The founder and running coach of Lonehill-based runners club Fitness From Africa (FFA), Marcel Viljoen, said a decision to cancel this year’s Comrades Marathon was expected and did not come as a surprise to club members.

This was after the Comrades Marathon Association Board recently announced its decision to cancel this year’s marathon that was scheduled to take place on 13 June this year in Durban.

Viljoen said FFA usually has 30 to 35 members participating in this prestigious marathon event that attracted thousands of athletes from different parts of the world. He said, “The announcement regarding cancelling the 2021 Comrades Marathon was expected but disappointing nonetheless. A few of our members have been training for it specifically but did anticipate it either not happening in June but rather later in the year, or not at all.

“The fact that no races longer than 10km have been allowed, was also an indicator that marathon and ultra-marathon preparations might be in vain.”

He added that the outbreak of Covid-19 had taught them to live with the new normal. “Over the past year, runners have learnt to expect the unexpected and although disappointing, we all want to do the right thing and rather wait for the race to be hosted at its normal magnitude. Meanwhile, we have been advising runners to use this year to tick a few other boxes rather than sit back and wait for more certainty,” Viljoen explained.

He concluded, “We all have areas requiring attention, whether poor flexibility, untapped strength abilities, niggles, imbalances and perhaps even an underdeveloped aerobic fitness base. So we have been encouraging and offering our runners fitness evaluation to help them identify weaknesses so that they may be addressed.”