‘Why would anyone want to run this race?’ The question that prompted a story

Runners understand stamina and the will to finish a race – whether it’s a 26-mile Boston Marathon or a local 10K road race.

But what if the race is 56 miles? And what if many of the 19,000-plus runners are not your typical well-trained, perfectly-toned athletes?

The Monitor’s Africa correspondent Ryan Brown’s July profile of an “unlikely ultramarathoner” provides a glimpse of the real courage found in the runners at the end of the pack at South Africa’s Comrades Marathon, the world’s largest ultramarathon. These men and women, some with “jiggling potbellies” and “heavy strides,” are determined to finish in the race’s 12-hour cutoff.  

The story centers on Shahieda Thungo, whose singular job is “to

“People sometimes ask me, don’t you want to run faster? Don’t you want to see if you can finish sooner? But I don’t,” she says. “The back is where my people are. And this has become a passion for me, a kind of calling. To carry them to the finish.” – from “South Africa’s Unlikely Ultramarathoner”“Running wasn’t just therapeutic, it gave her purpose. ‘In your life, you might not be the smartest in your class,’ she had often told her young daughter, Nkazi. ‘You might not be the prettiest. But you’ll get there. It’s not about comparing yourself to other people. It’s about running your own race.’ ”  – from “South Africa’s Unlikely Ultramarathoner”