Nkosikhona Mhlakwana is going back to running fast so he can run longer and better in the future.
Considered by many as a potential Comrades Marathon the runner from Howick did well to finish sixth in 2022. His successive podium finishes at the 56km Two Oceans Marathon in 2022 and 2023 confirmed him as a prospective Comrades winner.
He also believes he can reign supreme at the world-famous ultra-marathon between the KwaZulu-Natal cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Yet, in order to realise that goal, Mhlakwana believes he has to restart.
“My manager, David Mohale, and I have decided that we must go back to basics” the Hollywood Athletics Club star explains. “So, starting next year, I am going to run shorter distances.
“No Comrades for me next year. The only ultra I will do is Two Oceans because my times have been good in that race in the past few years,”
Mhlakwana has proven himself to have the endurance to do well at Comrades, but he clearly believes he needs to work on his speed if he is to achieve a feat regarded by most in this country as the ultimate in road running.
“I have analysed myself thoroughly, and I know one day I can win Comrades. But for the immediate future, I am going to take a break from it. I intend to do one marathon next year, maybe run a fast one overseas where I can achieve a 2:10.
“I am inspired by Adam Lipzitch (the popular KZN social runner). We have run together, and to see him do what he did in Valencia (he ran a 2:08 marathon) inspires me. I will sit down with my manager and my club as well as my sponsors Puma and 32GI to decide which race I am going to do.”
With a track background, Mhlakwana has the speed, but he’d love to go even faster: “I have 28 minutes in 10km which I ran at the Hollywood Durban 10k. My goal is to now be able to run a half-marathon in 63 minutes.”
All those goals achieved, he believes he will be in a good position for an assault at Comrades glory, although he cannot say after how many years. After all, he has ambitions to represent the country at the Olympics Marathon, and that could well be his focus for the near future.
Mhlakwana is still hurting from having been denied the opportunity to run for South Africa at the World 50km Championships due to the administrative bungling by Athletics South Africa (ASA), which saw only a few members of the team making the trip to the race.
“I am still healing from not going to the World Champs, but I believe I can still represent South Africa,” says the man who is evidently the glass-half-full kind of guy.
It is his positive outlook on life that sees him almost always beaming, his circumstances notwithstanding. The ordinary man’s assessment of his 2024 running season would be negative, Mhlakwana having failed to make the top ten at Comrades, a race he was seen by many as being among the favourites.
Add to that the fact he also did not get into the top ten at the Soweto Marathon, and surely the year has to be chalked up as an episode in the 30-year-old’s running story best forgotten, right?
Not for Mhlakwana: “This was one of the best seasons I have had,” he tells me.
“Although I did not get into the top 10 at Comrades, and I skipped the Two Oceans, I won the SA 50km championship. I was also third at the Harry Gwala Marathon – so I am very pleased with 2024.”
Mhlakwana finished 19th at Comrades, a far cry from his 11th place at the previous Up-Run. But he chooses to view it from a completely different perspective.
“This was only my second Up Run, and I ran a 5:45, which was much faster than the 5:53 which I ran in 2019. So, there is improvement, and as a runner those are some of the things I look at – improvements.
“Of course, the normal person will look at the position, and I understand because even I would have loved to make the Top 10. But I ran the race faster than the last time around and that’s good.”
He finished 12th at the Soweto Marathon, but says he could have done way better had there not been 'complications with my energy drinks' on the route. Even with that, the man from Howick just outside Pietermaritzburg opts to see the positives and views it as a learning curve for the future.
Mhlakwana has planned for that future and has every intention of returning to run Comrades, confident he can win it.