Roodepoort’s running policeman Kennedy Sekhuthe added yet another trail title to his already impressive CV by winning the Ultra-trail Drakensberg (UTD) 100-miler in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
The qualified teacher-turned-constable is no stranger to success, having previously won the KZN crusade two years ago. He first stamped his mark on the trail-running scene by winning the short trail events at the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town in 2018 and 2019, breaking the record in his first attempt.
Those two events made him realise that his way to success was in the ultra-trail arena of 100km and beyond.
But first he had to lose his way to learn the hard way.
“I think it was 2020 that I first ran [the 100 mile] Addo Elephant Trail Run in the Eastern Cape,” says Sekhuthe.
“The problem was that I only decided quite late that I was going to run, I think it was late January. So I had to put in a huge month of training in February.
“For every day of February I ran at least twice a day, sometimes three, logging at least 50km daily!”
Come the actual race and Sekhuthe would go on to place 11th — but it could have been so much better.
“I got lost,” he explains, “and it wasn’t a simple thing — I went off course by a whole 30km and actually had to phone the organisers to try to find out where I was. They told me … I was way off course. I had no choice but to run 30km back to join the correct route.
“I’d lost four places and had to push hard at 4 min/km for a long time. I picked up blisters, ran out of energy. The next day was so hot that they stopped the race at 9am and we only got going again at 2pm. I was shattered and had to walk the last 30km before ending up eleventh in 33 hours.”
This year Sekhuthe, who started off playing cricket as a youngster before becoming frustrated at the lack of facilities, had all his ducks in a row and won the 100-miler in 25hr 08 min 26 sec.
“This year’s UT Drakensberg went 90% according to plan. I did the SkyRun 100km [from Lady Grey, Eastern Cape, into the Witteberg Mountain Range] in November last year but injured my arm quite badly when a rock dislodged and hit me 4km before the finish. So though my arm wasn’t broken I had to wear a cast for a while. But my training started going well, with more mileage in January and especially February and I started visualising being first.”
Behind the scenes, helping him during those long training runs and at races has been his partner, Michelle Mojela, who was with him during his latest triumph.
“My plan was to just follow the early leaders till the early hours of the morning until we reached 100km and then get going. We reached 100km in 14hr which was a box ticked and the next 63km was just about maintaining, keeping on going, not rushing.”
But he says he had imagined that trophy becoming his and with 30km to go upped the pace to lift the silverware.
Not many SA sports lovers would have experienced something like the UTD and Sekhuthe shared his sentiments about it.
“You have to expect anything … rocks, lots of climbing, [and] water crossings. It’s not a trail if it’s a flat road. The only thing I found really scary was when I was running on the edge of the mountain escarpment at night, because … one slip could see you falling hundreds of metres and you don’t know what’s down there. Thankfully I had a very good torch.”
In terms of wildlife, he was well aware that he wasn’t alone. “You hear all sorts of noises, mostly jackals, and you know there are snakes out there but my thinking is that at night it’s cold so they’re not on the trails. I did see baboons 12km before the finish.”
He says one of his scariest moments came many kilometres from the Drakensberg. “That was in the Stellenbosch Maxi Race when I suddenly surprised a Cape cobra! That gave me a big wake-up.”
Next up for Sekhuthe will be the Mountain Ultra-trail by UTMB in George, Southern Cape, and then the Grossglockner Ultra-trail in Austria.
Of course he has bigger dreams but his selflessness is real. The R20,000 he earned by winning the Ultra-trail Drakensberg will help to cover the costs of his travels, nutritional supplements and visas “but first I want to inspire the youth”.
“After winning Two Oceans ultratrail a few years back I heard about the Inanda Trail Running Club from KZN so wanted to give them something. I also bought five pairs of school shoes each for boys and girls and bought soccer balls for a primary school near to me. It’s not about me, I want to inspire the country’s youth long before they reach their 20s.”
He may have strayed from the trail in Addo a few years ago but when it comes to empowering and inspiring his fellow South Africans, Sekhuthe has a laser-sharp focus.
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