"The Comrades Marathon has always been on my bucket list,” says Colleen de Reuck (née Lindeque) one of South Africa's all-time great athletes.
De Reuck is married to East London-raised Darren and they live in Boulder, Colorado in the USA.
Tomorrow the now 52-year-old De Reuck will run Comrades as a novice, not the sort of description one would expect to be linked to a veteran of four Olympic Games, two each in the colours of SA and the United States.
With her incredible pedigree it is widely expected that the Vryheid-born De Reuck will be a serious contender and that no one should be surprised if she is on the podium at the prize-giving.
The entire De Reuck family are in the country for her Comrades challenge thanks to the support of
KPMG. She will run the race in their colours and as a teammate of defending champion Caroline Wostmann.
De Reuck was brought up on a diet of Comrades given that her father Frank ran it 15 times and for 10 years her younger Henry joined him. Elder brother Colin, himself a fine athlete, won a gold medal at the 90-odd kilometre classic.
Colleen and Darren met at university in Port Elizabeth with Darren also being a competitive athlete, coming out of the strong Queen’s College cross-country culture of the time.
He has run one Two Oceans Marathon where he came fourth, but will not be in the field tomorrow as he is currently concentrating on triathlon. He and Colleen are also top coaches.
De Reuck reflects fondly on her experiences of running in East London and speaks of a superb SA Cross-Country Championships she remembers running on a tough course, as well as the incredibly fast half-marathon course that the city offered.
It was a course on which she won on more than one occasion, including the year when Mathews Temane and Zithulele Sinqe ran a world best 60:11.
“As athletes we always knew we would get a great race with Border in charge,” the multiple SA champion declares with obvious enthusiasm.
In 1996 she was sadly left out of the Olympic Marathon team for Atlanta, based on her B qualifier. She did however run in the 10 000m.
Josia Thugwane was the slowest of SA's qualifying men but he went on to win the gold medal, giving credence to the argument that time or first past the post should not be the sole criteria in marathon selection.
De Reuck was an enthusiastic attendee at Thugwane's medal ceremony. Adding to that argument, De Reuck went on to win the Berlin Marathon, that same year setting a SA record of 2:26:35. A record that still stands 20 years later.
It also makes her the fastest marathoner in the Comrades field and probably the fastest ever.
A 2:28:40 at the Chicago Marathon in 2005 as a 41-year-old and an American age group record further confirms the outstanding longevity that De Reuck displays in her running.
Locally folk like to lay claim to her too, given that she is also a former winner of the Surfers Challenge, one of East London’s most revered sporting events. That she did as a student and before marrying.
The Two Oceans was her first ultra-marathon earlier this year and she finished fifth smashing the 50-59-year race record in the process.
Asked what her Comrades strategy will be she suggests: “I will go out at a 4:30 per kilometre pace and see what I have left for the last 20km.”
Husband Darren and her two daughters will be on the route supporting.
The popular runner both in South Africa and America said: “I am both nervous and excited to be running the Comrades.”
Many along the Comrades route will be equally excited to watch a daughter of KwaZulu-Natal in action upfront.
SA great has what it takes to rock at Comrades
De Reuck is married to East London-raised Darren and they live in Boulder, Colorado in the USA.
Tomorrow the now 52-year-old De Reuck will run Comrades as a novice, not the sort of description one would expect to be linked to a veteran of four Olympic Games, two each in the colours of SA and the United States.
With her incredible pedigree it is widely expected that the Vryheid-born De Reuck will be a serious contender and that no one should be surprised if she is on the podium at the prize-giving.
The entire De Reuck family are in the country for her Comrades challenge thanks to the support of
KPMG. She will run the race in their colours and as a teammate of defending champion Caroline Wostmann.
De Reuck was brought up on a diet of Comrades given that her father Frank ran it 15 times and for 10 years her younger Henry joined him. Elder brother Colin, himself a fine athlete, won a gold medal at the 90-odd kilometre classic.
Colleen and Darren met at university in Port Elizabeth with Darren also being a competitive athlete, coming out of the strong Queen’s College cross-country culture of the time.
He has run one Two Oceans Marathon where he came fourth, but will not be in the field tomorrow as he is currently concentrating on triathlon. He and Colleen are also top coaches.
De Reuck reflects fondly on her experiences of running in East London and speaks of a superb SA Cross-Country Championships she remembers running on a tough course, as well as the incredibly fast half-marathon course that the city offered.
It was a course on which she won on more than one occasion, including the year when Mathews Temane and Zithulele Sinqe ran a world best 60:11.
“As athletes we always knew we would get a great race with Border in charge,” the multiple SA champion declares with obvious enthusiasm.
In 1996 she was sadly left out of the Olympic Marathon team for Atlanta, based on her B qualifier. She did however run in the 10 000m.
Josia Thugwane was the slowest of SA's qualifying men but he went on to win the gold medal, giving credence to the argument that time or first past the post should not be the sole criteria in marathon selection.
De Reuck was an enthusiastic attendee at Thugwane's medal ceremony. Adding to that argument, De Reuck went on to win the Berlin Marathon, that same year setting a SA record of 2:26:35. A record that still stands 20 years later.
It also makes her the fastest marathoner in the Comrades field and probably the fastest ever.
A 2:28:40 at the Chicago Marathon in 2005 as a 41-year-old and an American age group record further confirms the outstanding longevity that De Reuck displays in her running.
Locally folk like to lay claim to her too, given that she is also a former winner of the Surfers Challenge, one of East London’s most revered sporting events. That she did as a student and before marrying.
The Two Oceans was her first ultra-marathon earlier this year and she finished fifth smashing the 50-59-year race record in the process.
Asked what her Comrades strategy will be she suggests: “I will go out at a 4:30 per kilometre pace and see what I have left for the last 20km.”
Husband Darren and her two daughters will be on the route supporting.
The popular runner both in South Africa and America said: “I am both nervous and excited to be running the Comrades.”
Many along the Comrades route will be equally excited to watch a daughter of KwaZulu-Natal in action upfront.
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