Comrades volunteers are honoured
Bernard and Joy Murphy had been volunteers for 46 years at the same spot at the 65km-mark of this marathon.
Two residents of Springs were recently honoured by the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA).
Bernard Murphy (80) and his wife, Joy (76) received one of this year’s Spirit of Comrades Awards for their 46 years of serving athletes who are running this marathon.
They received a one-ounce, 24 carat gold medallion, with the courtesy of CATHSSETA (Culture, Arts, Tourism, Hospitality & Sports Sector Education & Training Authority) at a gala evening in Durban on Friday, October 24.
They were nominated by their daughter, Sharon Pyle, who had been running the Comrades Marathon for 17 years.
Both Bernard and Joy had been volunteers for 46 years at the same spot at the 65km-mark of this marathon.
They say this volunteering began by seconding their neighbour, Mike Hay in the Comrades and helping him with the Springs Striders marathon events.
They used to follow Mike by car at the Comrades, but when the committee stopped this custom, they got their spot where they all these years erected a table to serve the runners.
They have all sorts of goodies for the runners, which include fruit, sweets, several types of cool drink, biscuits and even boiled potatoes.
Every runner wants something different and some have the strangest requests.
Some want to sleep for 3 minutes, before they continue their run.
On the up run they set their table on the top of Fields Hill and on the down run the table is at Cato Ridge.
Joy says their five children they tagged along when they were small.
They usually stay in Umhlanga Rocks during the time of the Comrades Marathon and get up as early as all the runners, because after watching the start on TV they rush to their spot before the roads are closed.
There they sit until the last runner passes, accompanied with the back-up car.
