South Africa’s incomparable ultra-marathon runner Bruce Fordyce will miss the Two Oceans Marathon for the first time in four decades.
By chance, this weekend, while enjoying a beautiful Johannesburg autumn afternoon, I decided to listen to an album from my old vinyl record collection.
I chose All Things Must Pass by the “forgotten Beatle”, George Harrison. The record is an old favourite of mine, a reminder of a different, simpler, and very happy time.
The song rang true for me, as while listening to it, I was starting to accept that for the first time in over 40 years I would not be attending the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon this year. (At this point I must beg the reader’s forgiveness for my all-too-frequent use of the first-person singular “I” in this short piece, but what follows are my impressions and memories of the Two Oceans, and so you, the reader, will have to indulge me.)
Ever since I first ran this wonderful race in 1983, it has been an essential part of every April, and of every autumn, every year thereafter.
“If it’s autumn, it must be the Two Oceans” has been an oft-repeated mantra.
Since 1983, I have participated in the Two Oceans, whether as a runner in the ultramarathon, half marathon, or more recently, as a television commentator….