43-year-old Samukeliso Moyo has no intentions of quitting running

19 Feb, 2017 - 00:02 0 Views
43-year-old Samukeliso Moyo has no intentions of quitting running Samukeliso Moyo

The Sunday News

Samukeliso Moyo

Samukeliso Moyo

Mehluli Sibanda, Senior Sports Reporter
LAST Sunday at the National Cross Country Championships held at Hillside Dams, 43-year-old Samukeliso Moyo came fourth in the 10km senior’s women’s race.

Moyo finished behind Rudo Mhonderwa, Patience Murove and Bertha Chikanga, all from Harare. The veteran athlete had missed out on selection into the Bulawayo team for the competition because on the day the side was finalised, she was competing in the Old Mutual Marathon in Harare where she finished third. Race winner, Mhonderwa is 22 years younger than Moyo, Murove is 15 years her junior while Chikanga’s age is 23 years less of the veteran athlete.

Sunday Life tracked Moyo to her younger sister’s house in Nketa 7 to find out how she manages to keep fit at her age and if she has any intentions of quitting the sport that gave her the fame. On the day we spoke to her, it was actually a few hours after she had completed a 30km run, something she does almost daily.

“It’s about training and discipline, right now I am from training, I went around five o’clock, I did two hours 17 minutes, almost closer to 30 kilometres, it’s pretty slow, at two hours I should have covered 30km, I haven’t got a lot of speed but a combination of speed and endurance, it will make things work.

I train every day, twice a day, it honestly depends on what are you doing, it’s not about covering more kilometres everyday, it’s about what you are doing per day because yesterday we did track, the day before we did track we are going to have the jogging almost one hour thirty, almost two hours, so for one hour thirty at times you would have covered 20 kilometres, then plus or minus the track that you did in the morning,’’ said Moyo.

On last Sunday’s competition, she said the race was challenging, especially since she had not run a cross country in years. Her tactic was to keep up with the leading pack and run according to how she had prepared.

Samukeliso Moyo with her Datsun Go

“The race was challenging and it was tough on its own besides those three girls who were running so fast, the race was tough and the course itself, we were climbing the steps, getting into water, coming back again, repeatedly five times, I really knew that if I stayed there, I was going to keep my pace and maintain it, not to chase anybody because in running you don’t copy somebody but you run according to how you trained. If the pace is too high you need to go back to your own pace, you really need to keep shuffling the cards where you are calculating, after that you feel how tough the course, if they are too fast you let them go, if they are too slow you carry on.

“It’s a long time since I last ran the cross country, I can’t remember the exact year but it was in Portugal. That route that we did the other day we ran it once some time ago. I wasn’t training for the cross country, I was training for the Old Mutual marathon in Harare where I finished third,’’ she said.

As she prepares for the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, Moyo is not competing in the PPC 33 Miler in April but instead she will be running in the 21km part of that race. She last competed in the Two Oceans in 2014 where she finished 10th. In 2016, she was the third best woman in the PPC 33 Miler.

On her plans for the year, Moyo, besides the Two Oceans is aiming to run a race in Harare on 25 May and a similar one in the capital on 29 July. One of the most revered road runners in the country has competed but failed to finish the grueling Comrades Ultramarathon between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, something she wants to accomplish in the next two years.

“There are quite a number of races I want to compete in this year, they are saying there is a race on 25 May in Harare then another on 29 July on the same course, same route where quite a number of international athletes are going to run there. I really want to try my best, I have run the Comrades Marathon without the intention to finish, I never ran to finish but I ran it, I can’t remember because I ran it twice then after that I discovered that when you run this race you really need to put the proper endurance. Comrades, you can run without speed but if you put the right endurance and the right distance in your knees you will be home and dry but if you start by speeding then you won’t have the proper strength in the knees, you won’t do anything there. I really want to finish it at 45, the Russian guy Kotov won it at that age,’’ said Moyo. On how long she wants to continue running, Moyo made it clear that she has no intentions of stopping something she started when she was 21 professionally. She draws her inspiration from Kenyan Catherine Ndereba who only retired from competitive running in 2014 at the age of 41.

“I don’t intend to stop running because there are people who are older than me who are still at it. There is this guy, I don’t know where he is from, he was 83 by then, he could run the marathon in three hours at 83, they always call him the fastest guy according to his age. When we run, we run according to ages, I run as a veteran, but when I beat the seniors and get into the top 10 I am considered both ways. Besides there are ladies who have been running before I even got into running, Catherine Ndereba is older than me, she can still run as fast. The issue is about the right training, if you master what you want to do,’’ Moyo said.

She got into athletics due to inspiration from Julia Sakala, who ran 800m, 1 500m but also competed in 10km and 21km. Her other motivation was a South African who at 50 is still competing even at the Two Oceans. Over the years, some of Moyo’s accolades include winning the City to City, a race between Johannesburg and Pretoria, the Cape Town Marathon, South Africa Championships, Ulundi to Nongoma Marathon, Gaborone Steinmitz Marathon, which she won twice, the last being in 2012.

Athletics has been a source of livelihood for the Gwanda-born and bred Moyo who has never had a formal job as she has managed to acquire a house in Gweru as well as two cars registered in South Africa, an Isuzu KB300 and a Datsun Go. She won the Datsun Go when she was the first female in the Ulundi to Nongoma Ultramarathon in 2015. That was the second biggest prize she has ever won after the R250 000 she won for being the first female in the City to City.

Moyo’s knees have taken a toll over the years as she indicates that they cannot go high up as they used to do when she was younger. Her knees have, however, never stopped her from completing a race. She also does not have any specific diet since she eats anything whenever she is hungry.

“My knees cannot go up much higher than they used to so, sometimes doing track more helps keep them fresh. I haven’t pulled out of a race because of my knees, when I feel they are so painful I slow down, I know somehow they are going to heat up and I am to follow up. I don’t have a diet, I eat anything as long as I am hungry,’’ Moyo said.

The second from last born in a family of six, made up of three boys and the same number of girls, Moyo has never been married but she wants to have children at some stage in her life.

“I am still young, my mother has to look after me, before you have a kid you are still a child yourself, I have never been married, to have children in two years time, maybe. Even when you are a runner, you plan when you want to have kids, I will have obviously one day, that one I know,’’ said Moyo.

Her advice to up-and-coming athletes is that they should have discipline, know what they want to achive and listen to advice from their coaches.

“They really need discipline, to be objective, to know what they really want in life. If you train with the mind of winning you always win, if you train with a weak mind, no I am just doing it for the sake of running then something is wrong somewhere.

Discipline is needed, they need to listen to their coaches, follow the programmes that they are given by their coaches,’’ Moyo said.

Moyo credits former National Athletics Association of Zimbabwe president Joseph Mungwari for what she became in the sport. Mungwari recently appointed to the Sports and Recreation Commission board mentored Moyo, Sipholwazi Sibindi and Message Mapfumo.

As she gears up for more races in 2017 as well as years to come, Moyo continues to be an inspiration to up-and-coming athletes who can draw a lot of encouragement from her still competing at her age.

@Mdawini_29

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