Floating on the wings of Fordyce

KNYSNA NEWS - On Friday 26 May, legendary South African runner Bruce Fordyce paid a visit to the Knysna Marathon Club, where he introduced his latest book during a well-attended function at the clubhouse at Loerie Park.

The book, The Winged Messenger, is primarily aimed at the novice Comrades runner.

Fordyce is best known for having won the Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight were consecutive.

In addition to his incredibly decorated exploits as a runner, Fordyce has written two books about the Comrades Marathon. He was also a sports columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and an SABC television commentator for the 2014 event.

He is also a motivational speaker and the chief executive officer of the South African Sports Trust. The Knysna Marathon Club boasts 15 entrants for this year's Comrades Marathon.

In 1977, when Fordyce first ran the Comrades Marathon, he placed 43rd out of 1 678 entries. He placed 14th in 1978, third in 1979, second in 1980, and was the winner for an unprecedented eight consecutive years from 1981 to 1988; he won it again in 1990. No other runner in the history of the Comrades has achieved this feat.

Fordyce also held the record time for the "up" run (Durban to Pietermaritzburg) and his time of 05:24:07 for the "down" run (Pietermaritzburg to Durban) stood for 21 years from 1986 until it was broken in 2007 by Russia's Leonid Shvetsov.

He has completed a total of 30 Comrades marathons, and achieved the remarkable feat of posting identical times in 1985 and 1987.

In 2011 he aimed for a silver medal, but missed this by 31 seconds (with a finishing time of 07:30:31). Fordyce also introduced the parkrun, that are free-entry weekly 5km run events, to South Africa and was seen taking part at the Knysna parkrun on Saturday morning.

In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the Witwatersrand.