In World War 2, fewer than 20% of combatants ever fired their weapons. That’s not including the guys drafted in to peel potatoes and polish Spitfire windscreens. That number refers to the guys who were there, on the battlefield, with a gun in their hands and bullets whizzing past their ears. read more ...

I’m not alone in feeling that running should be more directly linked to gifts from above.  When I’ve packed on a few pounds and I’m struggling to get back from a winter’s break, I really do believe that the first long run should miraculously transform me into something lithe, supple and fast as lightning. read more ...

Maybe it’s that we spend a lot of time on our own.  Perhaps it’s that we do what we do when cyclists are still in bed and cricketers are still coming home from nightclubs.  Maybe it’s that the pain that we inflict, we inflict on ourselves. read more ...

Have you ever noticed how only the good people run? read more ...

I’ve said it before, running is a great sport.  Central to this is that at just about any event, the number of participants far exceeds the number of spectators.  Rather like a home game for the Lions at Ellis Park, really.  But with our heavy emphasis on being a part of the race, rather than among the thronging masses along the verge, comes a fierce commitment to independence that may not be in our best interests. read more ...

I had occasion, not too long ago, to journey around Limpopo on the Department of Tourism’s dollar. They had collected together a group of alleged journos and we were expected to go home and write stories about how wonderful a province Limpopo is. read more ...

So it turns out that Haile Gebreselassie trains with headphones on. This is a major problem for all we right-thinking, macho, ego-driven athletes who quite rightly dismiss walkmans as something for occasional joggers and American actors pretending to be runners. read more ...

US Olympic miler, Marty Liquori, once said, “If road running is rock and roll, then track is Carnegie Hall.”  No matter where you lie on the continuum between once a week, once round the block joggler and Haile Gbresselassie, track is the real deal. read more ...

When I first met my wife, she was an adherent of the teachings of the late Maharishi Yogi.  That’s the same guy who got the Beatles and a host of other 60s icons into transcendental meditation. read more ...

There seems to be a concern in some quarters that the two grand old dames of South African road running, Comrades and Two Oceans, are beginning to suffer dwindling numbers in the face of competition from a host of younger, shorter races. read more ...

Up here on the highveld, April smells like cross country season. It’s a hard-to-pin-down mixture of dust, Antarctic air and fear that pervades the running community and makes you realize that now is the time to haal uit en wys. I love the smell of April. read more ...

One of the clearest memories of a training run that I have is one that I ran during matric finals. We had just written Chemistry II and the only thing left between us and the endless summer was English Creative Writing so the books were essentially closed. read more ...

I’m fundamentally lazy. In fact I’d go as far as to say that of the sub-set of ‘3:30 in the morning’-rising, multiple job-holding, ‘2 kids and a house’-missioning guys, I am easily the laziest. Well, was. About a year ago, I was out running and came across a family on mountain bikes, meandering along the river path on what was clearly a social ride. I had to confess my admiration for families who are prepared to engage in such activity of a Sunday morning when any sensible person is in bed with the paper and a bacon roll. read more ...

What must it be like to be an Idols contestant? I’m not talking about the Kelly Clarksons of the world or the guys who know they’re hopeless but are keen to see whether the rude one, Adolph, or whatever his name is, is actually a human being or not. The folk who captivate me are the people who march in there, absolutely convinced that they are God’s gift to Sony Records when in fact they are… how to put this nicely… crap. read more ...