While most of his fellow club mates only enter races to stay healthy or test their endurance, for Mthatha athlete Andile Maqele running is what puts food on his table every night.
The 26-year-old runner, who specialises in cross country and half marathons, is unemployed but is able to “hustle” a living through the sport as he uses his earnings to feed himself.
And he reckons, if he were to find a sponsor to back him, he would not only be able to realise his full potential but also make a proper living from the sport.
“To me running is just not about fitness, it’s a job. It is what helps me to eat,” he said.
“I don’t even have a sponsor or money to take specialised diets prior to races. But I don’t really have any other choice.”
Surprisingly he only took up running seriously around 2006 as an extra curricular activity at school.
“I actually started out as a boxer but my mother stopped me because I use to come back home with a swollen face from tournaments. I then took up soccer and actually harboured hopes of becoming a professional soccer player,” he added.
The Tsolo-born youngster, dubbed “Licence” by some women who had given him a lift to one of the races, comes from an impoverished background and his mother is unemployed. He also left school before completing his Grade 12.
But such is his passion for running that he did more than 17km during the 21.1km White Clay Trial Run in Coffee Bay a few months back with almost one shoe after his right trainer shoe bust on the sole. He won the race.
He also recently won the 21km section of Queenstown’s most popular annual race, the Bonkolo Marathon.
However, he says getting to races especially in other towns is a struggle itself because he has to ask for donations from club mates at the local Cheaters Athletic Club and some sympathetic relatives.
Sometimes he has to ask fellow competitors in advance for a place to sleep if he competes outside Mthatha.
“Its not really an ideal situation but I have to persevere,” he says, adding he is grateful for the kind of support he gets from club mates.
He lists fellow South African runner Stephen Mokoka who recently won the Shanghai Marathon as his role model.
Maqele also dreams of one day making it big in racing and representing the country at the Olympics . –– sikhon@dispatch.co.za