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
