MUMBAI MAGIC
Othaniel
Pahlane made the Nedbank Running Club proud when he showed his class at the Standard Chartered Marathon in Mumbai on 15
January, finishing eighth overall and setting a brilliant time of
2:14:55.
“I started with
the leading pack and managed to hang on before dropping back a little, but
keeping the gap at 400m. The pack passed halfway in 64 minutes and I passed the
21km mark in 65 minutes. After the 32km mark I caught a lot of tiring runners from
the lead bunch because of the very hot and humid conditions. I won the sprint
for the eighth position and am very happy with my race,” he said.
He was the third athlete
from the Nedbank Running Club to finish a marathon in 2:16 or faster in the
past six months. The others were Coolboy Ngamole, who clocked a fast 2:10:43 in
Valencia, Spain, and David Ngakane who
achieved 2:15:31 at the Pyongyang Marathon.
NEDBANK PRIDE IN THE US
International Comrades
athlete Michael Wardian represented the Nedbank Running Club at the Chevron
Houston Marathon where he ran two fast marathons in two days! On the second day
he crossed the finish line in 16th position, clocking a time of
2:31:17. And though it is almost 10min slower than his marathon the previous
day, it is definitely not bad for someone racing 84km over two consecutive
days!
Running
back-to-back marathons is nothing new for Michael, who has done it “four or
five times” before. “I get a lot of, ‘You’re crazy,’ ‘That’s awesome,’ and ‘You’re
a freak,’ ” says Michael, who has won the past four
US 50km Championships while holding down a day job as an international shipbroker.
“I just like to show people
you can do more than you think you can do. I have all the responsibilities that
everyone who’s not a professional runner has. I have to go to work in the
morning. I have a family. And I can still come out on the weekend and make a
good effort and run a marathon.”