Galaletsang Ready to go for Comrades Gold

She is over a miserable 2023 and in great shape for a top-10 finish like in 2022.

Galaletsang Mekgoe will do this year after finishing 5th in 2022 Comrades Marathon

The year 2023 was a rather painful one for Galaletsang Mekgoe and she will be looking to make up for it with a fantastic run at this weekend’s Comrades Marathon.

A gold medalist as a novice in the Ultimate Human Race back in 2022, the Nedbank Running Club athlete raised hopes that she could go on to become the first black female to win Comrades with that fifth-place finish.

After all, Mekgoe was training with the champions – Tete Dijana and Edward Mothibi being her teammates and mentors under the tutelage of the somewhat reticent yet brilliant coach Dave Adams. Reason enough to expect great things from her, right?

Yet when she ran her second Comrades last year, the then 27-year-old missed out on the top ten as she came in at that most unenviable of positions – 11th.

Not that she had regressed, far from it for she actually ran a faster time on the same route that she came fifth on – last year’s Comrades being a Down Run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban just like it was in 2022. But she was struggling with a hip injury and had to suck the pain up to get to the finish line.

It was an overall bad year for her, with other races also going awry.

She had struggled at the Nedbank 50km in Gqeberha before the Comrades disappointment and then missed out on running at her maiden international event before injury struck again at what should have been her first standard marathon race.

“Last year was very bad for me,” she reflected “I had a lot of anger after the Nedbank 50km in Gqeberha where I got a hip injury. But I made a mistake because instead of resting so I could heal, I lied to myself and trained with the injury.”

It was a decision that came to haunt her in KwaZulu/Natal last June.

“The day before the race (Comrades) I felt pain, but I tried to push it out of my mind. But it did not go away and at 45km when I was climbing the hill I could feel that I would not make it.”

But she pressed on to complete the race in a time of 6:31:18 – a time much quicker than when she finished fifth the previous year. Yet, such was the frenetic pace of the race that saw Gerda Steyn set a new Down Run best time, that Mekgoe got to the finish line battered and tearful yet stubbornly refusing to get help until yours truly called the medical team to put her on a stretcher so she could get help.

As if that was not bad enough, the lass from Luka in Rustenburg endured further heartbreak late in the year at the hands of Athletics South Africa (ASA) who botched Team South Africa’s trip to the World 50km Championships in India. Mekgoe then opted to run the Soweto Marathon that weekend, but she broke down at 18km where I found her helpless with the marshals not in a position to call for aid. I got an ambulance to come to her rescue before continuing with my run.

She has put it all behind her though and will toe the start line at the Durban City Hall on June 9 confident he can challenge for glory.

“I have wiped off my tears from last year and started over. Anger won’t bring back everything that I lost in 2023. I started picking up the pieces and worked on my strength and when I began jogging in January I felt confident.”

Such is her talent and the work that she put in under the watchful eye of champion-producing coach Adams and his Happy Bunch training group which includes Dijana and Mothibi as well as other gold medalists in Dan Matshailwe, Joseph Manyedi, Johannes Makgetla,  that Mekgoe had a splendid run at the Nedbank 50km at the end of February.

“I ran Gqeerha in a time of three hours and 35 minutes (3:35:56) and finished in position three. I was very happy with my run. We did Om Die Dam 50 as well but that was just a training run and I followed the time that the coach gave me. I did not experience any pain. I worked hard during camp in Rustenburg and now we are finishing up here in Dullstroom. The weather has not been as bad as it was last year and I am feeling very strong this year.

What excites Mekgoe for this year’s race is the fact that she now has a training partner.

In the past two years, she was the rose among the thorns in camp, being the only female runner among very powerful running men. Though advantageous as it got her to push herself more, it was also strenuous.

“In the past, I was the only female here. The guys were helping each other and because they are stronger it was tough for me in the 50km plus training sessions which I ran mostly alone trying to chase them. This year has been good for me. Camp was not as hard and stressful because I had a training partner. Slindile (Chili) is in camp with me, and she has been pushing me and we are encouraging each other. We ran the Nedbank Runified 50 together earlier this year.”

Mekgoe has only done the two Down Runs and will be making her maiden appearance in the run-up from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. But she is not intimidated, far from it.

“It will be the first time I am doing the Up-Run. But I love it, I enjoy running up hills.”

Her mind now right and her physical fitness is sure to be at its peak on race day, the 28-year-old is confident she will be back among the gold medalists, and possibly on the podium too.

"For me, the key is that I should not lose my confidence. I must just believe in myself and because I have put in the hard work, anything is possible.”

It might be too early to expect her to achieve what most thought she would go on to following her fifth-place finish on debut. But a podium finish on Sunday will resurrect the belief that Galaletsang Mekgoe could become the first black woman to win the Comrades Marathon.