FordyceFusion Archives - Bruce Fordyce

JOHNSON CRANE MARATHON

21 January 202529 June 2025
by Bruce Fordyce

My tattered, old training diaries inform me that to date I have run 16 Johnson Crane marathons, 9 half marathons and one Johnson Crane 10km. The diaries also remind me that I first discovered this iconic race in 1981. My faded notes from 44 years ago tell me that I “jogged “2:37 minutes for 6th place on 25th January 1981. (Nowadays I would be delighted to run 2:37 for the half marathon.) I shared the 1981 team prize with my Wits teammates (Mark Plaatjes (1st) who would go on to become world marathon champion in 1993, the late and greatly missed Dr. Alan Edwards, (12th) and physiotherapist Graeme Lindenberg 16th) Read more “JOHNSON CRANE MARATHON” →

Comrades Marathon

I HATE SURPRISE PARTIES

1 January 202529 June 2025
by Bruce Fordyce

I hate surprise parties!

Not those spontaneous, “let’s try that new restaurant tonight“ or “Suzy is having a braai and watching the rugby on telly this afternoon” parties. Those are fine. They can even be fun. No I hate those surprise parties where you are the “surprise” the shocked victim, and everybody else is a “surpriser “Those parties when you walk through the door yawning, and scratching your bum and a phalanx of friends in funny hats shout “surprise, surprise!” Read more “I HATE SURPRISE PARTIES” →

Bruce Fordyce Comrades Route Tour

THE UP RUN

20 March 202420 March 2024
by Bruce Fordyce

With fewer than 100 sleeps to go until race day it is worth having a look at the challenge that faces runners on 9^th June this year.

Understandably many runners are reluctant to run the Comrades ‘up run’. It has a notorious reputation. The ‘up run’ is always the slower of the two races, and it boasts 5 arduous and infamous hills, culminating in the monster mountain, Polly Shortts. Runners must negotiate Polly Shortts after completing more than 80 kilometres, and this in full view of a prying television camera. Common sense and experience teach us that ascending is harder than descending. Running up hills is tough, running down them is so much more enjoyable, so the prospect of hours of climbing in an up Comrades can be daunting.

CLOSE THE CHAPTER NOT THE BOOK!

29 December 202329 December 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

My great friend Derick Marcisz never ceases to remind me that his lifetime marathon personal best (p.b.) is exactly one second faster than mine. In March 1983 I ran 2 hours 17 minutes and 18 seconds at the Buffs Marathon in East London. A few months earlier Derick recorded 2 hours 17 minutes and 17 seconds at the old Transvaal Marathon Championships. He has reminded me of that one second for over 40 years.

Alan Robb

SOME SUPERSTITIONS DO WORK

4 June 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

I’m not a superstitious person. I’ll walk under a ladder, and I’ll stroke a black cat that crosses my path. I hardly notice Friday 13^th and I would happily sit in seat in seat 13 on a plane if there was one. I eat the chicken on a wishbone, and I always forget to make a wish.

But I would never dare forget to greet Arthur Newton as I run past Arthur’s seat in the Comrades marathon.

Bruce Fordyce Comrades After Party

KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

20 May 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

I can still hear the late Don Oliver’s calming words delivered in his charming cockney accent.

“Don’t you worry Comrades novices you’re going to be alright. You’ve got Don Oliver’s pacing chart and his wise words to guide you home.”

How I miss him. For nearly 40 years Don, and fellow Rocky Road Runners coach Dennis “tombstones” Tabakin advised novices at monthly training panel discussions. I was often an invited guest speaker at these evening talks, and I was privileged to watch these two experts help hundreds of novices take their first tentative steps on their Comrades journeys. Then months later Don and Dennis would help them complete those journeys. The Rocky Novice panel talks were so popular that every talk was jam-packed, and even experienced runners and Comrades veterans attended.

Read more “KEEP MOVING FORWARD.” →

Comrades Marathon

CRAMPS-TRY RUNNING LIKE DAFFY DUCK

14 May 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

Illustration by Daniel Yagman

“The reason you beat me in the ‘Comrades Marathon’, Bruce”, Hoseah Tjale once remarked, “Is that I start cramping with 10 kilometres to go in the race and you start cramping with 5 kilometres to go. While I’m fighting cramps in those critical few kilometres, you run away from me.”

Alan Robb

JUST GET ON WITH IT

6 May 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

Glued into one of my old scrapbooks are some faded dog-eared newspaper articles of the 1978 Comrades marathon. That year I ran my second Comrades Marathon and my first down run. To be honest I kept these articles because my 14^th place finish meant my name appeared in those newspapers that published the first 20 finishers. Fame at last! One photograph in that scrapbook, however, always catches my eye. It’s a faded black and white photo of Alan Robb’s head poking out from above a shower door. Clearly, he is enjoying a shower in Durban’s famous Kingsmead stadium. Alan’s running vest is also captured in the photo. It dangles from a towel rack with Alan’s Comrades number, 1704 still pinned to it.

Read more “JUST GET ON WITH IT “ →

Bruce Fordyce Comrades After Party

I’M A CHEF

29 April 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

Last Sunday’s epic 42nd running of the London Marathon reminded me that I once ran the London Marathon with Gordon Ramsay. Yes “Hell’s kitchens/Kitchen Nightmares/The F word” Gordon Ramsay.

For any astonished non-believing sceptics reading this article who doubt Ramsay’s ability to run a marathon, allow me to startle you further. Gordon Ramsay has completed 3 Comrades marathons between the years 2000 and 2004. His best time is 10:31 (up). For good measure he is also an Iron Man medallist. In language spiced with profanities he rated the Comrades as the toughest @#$& race he has ever run.

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT!

15 April 202321 November 2023
by Bruce Fordyce

It’s such a pity that South Africa’s two premier ultramarathons are run just a few weeks apart. It’s like those poor people whose birthdays fall on Christmas day or New Year. It’s simply too much excitement in too short a time. Comrades Marathon runners are compelled to choose. One of the events must take precedence. If their goal is to run a successful Comrades they must make Two Oceans the supporting act for Comrades. Two Oceans ambitions must be cast aside, and the focus must be the Comrades marathon. For Two Oceans fans it means discarding the Comrades. It’s a little like choosing the Rolling Stones as the supporting act for The Beatles. Neither should be the supporting act for the other, It’s Interesting that many Cape based runners call closed season after they’ve earned their Two Oceans medals. For many of them the Comrades is a bridge too far.

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