Inspirational Mbuthuma After Comrades Double Green Number

No more chasing gold for veteran KZN runner who just wants to get to number 20.

Fikile Mbuthuma is a seasoned Comrades Marathon runner who is now simply looking to clock up her double green number before she bids the Ultimate Human Race goodbye.

A one-time gold medalist in the Ultimate Human Race, the athlete from Harding on the South Coast is just five races from achieving this amazing feat. To the uninitiated, a Comrades Marathon green number is awarded to anyone who successfully completes the gruelling race of about 90km between the KwaZulu/Natal cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg on ten occasions. A double green number is thus, you guessed it, 20 races.

Mbuthuma is on 15 and will on Sunday be going for her 16th.

“I love Comrades. From when I was young, I got hooked to it, listening to the commentary on the radio when the likes of ubab’ Willie Mtolo had that great run (finishing a runner-up in 1989 to the first black male winner the late Sam Tshabalala). And the woman who inspired me to take up Comrades was Farwa Mentoor. And once I started running it, there was no looking back – even though I failed to finish my first race (in 2005).”

Heartbreaking as that experience was, Mbuthuma was not dissuaded. And she has since had some fantastic runs since, the best of which came in 2016 when she finished in 8th place for her sole gold medal (given to those finishing in the top 10).

And now, she is looking to become the first one of very few black women to have ever run the races on 20 occasions. The legendary Blanche Moila has completed the most (18) races while Mentoor has 11 medals.

“I just hope to get the double green number and then I am done. I am getting older now so I am not even looking for a faster time this year and I am definitely not going there to compete with the younger one,” Mbuthuma, now a mother chuckles.

Now running for a new club, Phantane AC having for years been a member of the famed Nedbank Running Club, Mbuthuma says the switch has been positive.

“I ran for Nedbank for more than 15 years and they say change is good – right? I made the change just to see how this will help me and I must say I am very happy where I am now. I am enjoying my running in the green and gold (colours of the club formed and owned by the renowned coach Mdu Khumalo).”

For Sunday’s race, Mbuthuma has no target: “Of course, I am ready. I am prepared. I have trained for it. But I don’t really have a goal when it comes to the Up Run. Well I just want to run seven hours,” she giggles, as though seven hours is a walk in the park. 

She knows though that it will not be good enough to get her anywhere near the gold medal positions. But Mbuthuma is not a big fan of the run-up from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in any case.

“I love the Down Run (Maritzburg to Durban). The Up, no,” she says of the race she has completed on seven occasions with her best time being a 7:14;34 that earned her 14th position in 2017.

It was in the Down Run that she ran that impressive race which led to many a young girl wanting to emulate her and making her their role model. 

The memory of that run swells her heart: “Oh 2016 was a great year for me. That was when I got my first and only Comrades gold. I was the first black female after 12 years to be in the top ten. Even now when I think of Comrades 2016 I get goosebumps. I remember getting into Kingsmead Stadium and feeling like a queen, it was an incredible achievement.”

Upon reflection though, Mbuthuma cannot really say what it was that worked for her that year.

“What did I do right? I don’t know because I did not change anything. I trained the way I always trained – with the guys and we’d go up to the mountains for the long runs and then I’d run a marathon and one ultra before Comrades.  But that year everything just fell into place. It was incredible to get into the top ten.”

Though she has struggled to replicate that feat, Mbuthuma has not been discouraged and has in fact encouraged others, so much so that there will be no less than five black women at Sunday’s line-up with a potential to finish in the top ten.

It is a change that excites her, given that for years she had been the sole black woman touted for a gold medal finish at Comrades.

“I am very happy that there are a few young black female runners coming through to race Comrades.  In the past, they used to be scared of Comrades, but now they are not. And they are doing well in ti. I was the first in recent years to get in the top ten but we have since had Galaletsang (Mekgoer – 5th in 2022) and Jenet (Mbhele, 10th) last year. It is good and I am hopeful that we will have more than one in the top ten this year. And who knows, eventually we might have one winning it. Would that not be great,” she says, dreamily.

Should that happen, there would be no denying that Fikile Mbuthuma played her part in creating that dream. By then she would be close to realising her double green number objective.