Working up a sweat at Deloitte Challenge Marathon

Thousands of runners braved the scorching heat last weekend for what has been dubbed the hottest Deloitte Challenge Marathon on record.

Siyabonga Nkonde beat over 3 000 runners in the standard marathon event to clinch the podium place in a time of 2:21:07 and Janie Grundling took the women’s race in 3:00:07.

The Deloitte Cycle Challenge was won by twenty-one year old South African sprinter Ryan Harris in a time of 00:57:15.

Local cyclist Natalie Bergstrom flew the Dolphin Coast flag high by winning the women’s race in 01:57.

The annual event presented by Dolphin Coast Striders took place last Sunday amid a record field of more than 9 000 participants who battled blazing heat and high humidity for the generous prize purse of over R100 000.

Currently in its fifth year, the event has become a firm favourite with local and upcountry athletes, including a number of foreign runners.

Competitors taking part in the full marathon started at the Lifestyle Centre, running a relatively flat route that followed the M4 highway to finish at the Amphitheatre on the Durban Promenade.

The Dolphin Striders had a total of 24 members taking part – some of which were ‘bus drivers’ or ‘pacers’ and other lucky ‘lottery winners’ taking part in the race.

With temperatures tethering in the mid 30’s and humidity recorded at over 80 percent, paramedics treated a number of runners overwhelmed by heat exhaustion while the soaring temperatures during the day caused a number of people to drop out of the race completely.

Many runners were also left high and dry due to a shortage of water along the route.

Dolphin Striders chairman Paul Swainson issued a statement on Facebook, assuring all that this would not happen again.

“We initially followed the normal ratios of water per runner applied to most races, however after seeing the weather forecast additional water was ordered on the Friday prior to the race and additional water supplied on race day. Although there are a number of factors that contributed to the shortage of water, these factors do not make up for the fact that many entrants had to endure long distances without official water supply,” said Swainson.

Be the first to receive breaking news straight to your device with our newly launched push notifications! Simply visit our website and click on the icon shown above.

Do you want to receive news alerts via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 061 718 4438.

Please read our WhatsApp broadcast list disclaimer.
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram