Can modest Mbhele "laugh" her way to Comrades glory?

After a top-ten finish as a novice, Jenet’s showing at this year’s Two Oceans suggests she will shine in the Up Run.

Jenet Mbhele is modest. And she likes to laugh. But if those traits get you drawn to the lass from Mzimkhulu in the south of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, just wait until you see her run.

The Xcel Running Club starlet is a superb athlete who runs like the wind and shines golden in just about every race she participates in.

Get this - the 28-year-old has been South African champion in both the half marathon (2018) and the full marathon (2022). As if that was not enough, Mbhele won gold as a novice in both the Comrades Marathon (10th in 2023) and the Two Oceans Marathon (4th in 2024). Ultra-running enthusiasts will know only too well what a massive feat that double is.

Add to all that, to her other achievements - such as representing South Africa at the World Cross Country Championships, plus her many victories in domestic 10km and 21.1km races - and success on the track as well as cross-country and you have a running legend in the making.

Mbhele takes another step towards that legendary status this Sunday (June 9) when she lines up for her second Comrades Marathon at the Durban City Hall for the Up Run to Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg.

With no black female winners since they were allowed to participate in the Ultimate Human Race back in 1975, Mbhele is among those who have given hope that the status quo could change soon. She was the only black female to get gold last year and is expected by many to again make the top ten and better given her impressive run at Two Oceans in April.

One of those is the great Gerda Styen who again smashed her record at the Mother City Ultra.

“Gerda told me after Two Oceans that I can get a top three at Comrades. Iyooo,” Mbhele exclaims before bursting into an infectious laugh that seems to punctuate her very sentence “I am scared. Top three?” It’s not easy. Maybe top five. But I will be happy with the top ten.”

Such modesty! Or is it the fear that many believe is the downfall of many a black female Comrades runners?

Mbhele has shown she’s not fearful though, her brave run at Two Oceans is a case in point.

She goes into Sunday’s race sans the organised and often expensive training camps enjoyed by many of her adversaries who run for top sponsored clubs – Mbhele having trained at home under the tutelage of her less-known coach Thamsanqa Khuboni.    

“I’m not camping. I’m just training here at home, with no one to train with but my coach. He helped me do well at Two Oceans because he has run it before and he knows it very well. So for Comrades, we did a lot of gravel training and hill work so I feel ready.”

That such modest preparation can produce the kind of results it has talks to the athlete’s immense talent, surely. And it helps that she does not concern herself with what the Joneses do.

“I am just going there to run my own race and not worry about the others.”

It is a ploy that has worked for her in previous races including last year’s Down Run, so why not stick to what has worked?

That she has graduated to the ultras and Comrades, in particular, is because Mbhele discovered that she’s ‘made for longer distances’.

“I’ve always loved Comrades, from when I was young. Of course, my first inspiration in running was Mapaseka Makhanya, I always wanted to grow up to be a good runner like her,” she says, that laugh piercing through the telephone line again.

“And then when I saw Comrades, I loved those Russian twins (Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva) and later I was really impressed by Gerda. So, I knew I’d one day run Comrades, I wanted to. In any case, I realised that the other distances like the 10s and 21s were too short because the race finishes before the body has really started to respond. That’s why I love long distance because it gives me time to get into it and my body delivers properly the longer I run.”

That’s bad news for her competitors for Sunday’s Up Run which requires participants to be able to push on late in the second half having worked hard in the initial stage.

Though aware she has a good chance of shining in her back-to-back race, Mbhele modestly plays down her chances.

“Top five at Comrades is not easy,” she laughs.