Momentum picks up with motivational individual feats

In the wake of the Comrades Marathon a natural lull in the running calendar follows albeit for a fairly short period. And now the momentum is picking up with the Border Cross Country Championships this weekend in Berlin, coinciding with the Washie 100 miler and on the heels of a very different event in the form of the Icon’s Journey Marathon. Meanwhile Thato Kabeli from Rhodes runners, who ran the Mont Blanc last year is on his way to Switzerland again to run the Swiss Alps 100, a race he was selected for.

He is a fine runner and a superb man who has a huge following in his community. The start is at Fiesch and has an elevation gain of 6250m. He will run beside the Aletsch Glacier and traverse the Aspi-Titter (160m) and the Muhlebach-Furgangen of 280m suspension bridges.

Lwando Lwana who ran the Icon’s Journey Marathon recently features elsewhere in the Daily Dispatch and this weekend a fellow member of the Buffalo Runners AC, Mangaliso Kani, is tackling the Washie 100 in aid of Awareness of Autism. He too has previously been introduced to the community in this column. Kani is a young man who has made great strides in his personal running and now aims to to make a mark in assisting us all to understand the impact that autism in children has on families.

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His journey too has already been meaningful and by running Washie, an event outside his personal comfort zone, he is striving to spread hope amongst many of the most vulnerable in society. Kani’s strategy is to venture out into the cold night as the runners depart Cathcart and find a good rhythm that will take him comfortably towards the break of dawn, when the temperature is often at its lowest. This first segment he intends to run alone.

Once the sun is up the strategy is to have his two personal seconds and pacers – both of whom are good friends who will take turns in joining him through the hills towards Stutterheim. Kani is aware that he will need company most in his lowest moments and feels his choice of team will anchor him as they have had a positive input throughout his planning. Kani lost his young teenage brother to autism and saw first hand what it did to his family and specific members thereof who will also be out in the morning encouraging him on to the finish.

While somewhat unbelievably, there have been numerous negative influences during the build up to the race and coming from some members of the running community, it might well have derailed his resolve, but Kani has learnt to brush such influences aside and overall his campaign has been well received. “My support system got me though it all” he told the Daily Dispatch. The Washie has an all time record entry in 2026 so the entrepreneurial Kani should have visiting company from time to time.

In respect of preparation there have been no health issues to impact his training, which is amazing given the cold winter. He reiterates “no ‘flu, nothing!”

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