The Dolphin Coast Striders’ oldest member, Harry Botha, has run into legend at the ripe old age of 83, the Ballito stalwart recorded his 30 000th kilometre as a Dolphin Strider during last week’s club time trial.

Harry completed the 4km route to cheers from fellow Striders in recognition of his remarkable consistency in the yellow and black.

Making the feat more remarkable still is that Harry only began running regularly upon retirement at 65, joining the club in January 2007. His running journey has been almost entirely in Striders colours, while keeping a meticulous record of his time on the road over 18 years.

“The 30 000 kilometres includes all training and competitive runs since joining the club and excludes the distance I have logged on the treadmill or elliptical,” said Harry.

He has run at least 1 000 km a year since 2007, reaching over 2 000 km in both 2010 and 2017.

Such is the sheer weight of that distance that a printout of Harry’s 89 recorded races reached 13 pages alone. It would take a small forest to print the training runs as well.

“I think it’s very unlikely that I am the first Strider to have reached 30 000km, with all the training the legendary Comrades runners have done, but I am certainly the first to be able to prove it!” he said.

Since Harry’s first race – a 16km run in Tongaat in February 2007 – he has run marathons on all seven continents. This earned him the prestigious Abbott World Marathon Majors six star medal in 2019.

Qualifying runners must have completed the Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York marathons. The Sydney Marathon was added to that list for 2025, and Harry is back in training to ensure he earns a seventh star when it is held in August.

“At my age, maintenance of fitness is the most important thing. My fitness is like a bucket of water with holes in it and consistency is the only way to plug the leaks.”

“As much as it disappoints me that I cannot keep up with the pace of club runs anymore, I have made sure to do the training on my own time and will be ready for Sydney.”

There are currently talks for the Cape Town Marathon to become an 8th major in 2026 – which is luckily a race Harry already ticked off in 2016.

Any extra stars beyond that might be out of reach, but you would be foolish to doubt Harry’s willpower.

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