One more medal under his belt for Ballito’s Harry Botha

Ballito’s Harry Botha is one of only seven South Africans – and by far the oldest – to have been awarded the coveted Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star medal.

After having completed marathons in Berlin, London, New York, Boston and Chicago, the 77 year old tackled the Tokyo Marathon last week with 38 000 runners to receive the Abbott award.

“I have completed the first five marathons over the past 10 years. Finishing the marathon is not nearly as difficult as it is to gain entry to each of the races, the Boston Marathon being the most difficult.”

Botha nearly lost his golden opportunity to take part in the Tokyo Marathon due to an injury.

“I was supposed to run the marathon last year but had to cancel a month before due to a stress fracture of my heel bone which resulted in me being on crutches for 10 weeks. Then I had plantar fasciitis which was so painful I was hardly able to walk.

“For six months I could not run at all, but fortunately, since I started training again for the event I have managed 35 weeks without breaking down.”

He said the training was particularly tough as he had to do most of it on his own, in the dreaded gym.

“As I have aged, my running pace has slowed which has meant no running partners for me. The thought of an Abbott World Marathon Majors medal has been sufficient incentive for me to keep to the training programme regardless how terribly boring the hills and speed training on the stepping and elliptical machines was,” said Botha, who has run a marathon on each of the seven continents, the North and South Poles, Mt Everest Base Camp Marathon and the Great Wall of China.

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The actual marathon was quite a gruelling affair, as it was not only raining and windy, but freezing too.

“It was the coldest ever Tokyo marathon at about four degrees. I was in one of the last batches to start and we had a two-hour wait.

“Everyone was standing huddled together, shivering. I saw a warm opportunity in a nearby telephone booth and managed to climb over the barrier and sat in this booth which was quite comfortable.”

When the starting shot was finally fired, Botha said it took 23 minutes just to cross the start line – a time difference that nearly cost him the entire marathon.

“I knew there was a cut off at 5,9 kilometres and 10 kilometres. I made both, but at about 25 kilometres, I noticed an elderly Japanese lady on the side of the road pointing down the road saying ten minutes. I didn’t understand what she meant. Then I saw about eight runners with these great big balloons and I asked them if it was the cutoff. They did not understand me.”

Stressing that he might be too slow, Botha said he was running much faster than he should have.

“I decided to keep in front of the runners with the balloons but did not know how I would keep up that pace for another 14 kilometres. I had to keep going.”

When he finally got to the finish line and got his results, he saw he missed the earlier cutoff point by three minutes.

“At that moment I realised what a fine line there is between success and failure. I could have wasted two years in the waiting, 35 weeks training and all the finances involved by three minutes.”

He completed the 42 kilometres in a comfortable six hours and four minutes including six pit stops.

Harry only started running when he retired to Ballito and loves every minute of the sport.

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