Dear Phil,

This is my second article to you. I cannot get over how good this ultralegends site is. It certainly saves me having to churn out reams of photocopies about the history of the sport.I do think, that not enough attention has been given to geraldine watson, the first woman ever to run 100 miles in South Africa, 1933. She also ran unoffically the Comrades in 9.20. The committee honoured her achievements ,by giving a cup to the last man home in the Comrades. It was due to her, that I took up running the Comrades, so I named a cup after her awarded to the first woman to finish the 24 hour. In a male dominated sport, we awarded two cups in honour of Miss Watson and Trisha Spain, the great WA runner. Now very sick. I may add that because of our attention to female athletes,we had four reach 100 miles. We had two women on the committee, because they were the best people available.

I would like to draw your attention to mavis Hutchinson, who unoffically raN IN THE COMRADES IN THE LATE 1960′S,but also completed the Johannesburg to Durban run. She ran from Jo,berg to cape town. Following the footsteps of the great John Ball of East London, a friend of mine. He ran from Joberg to Durban and Across America, smashing the record in the late 1960’s. I have newspaper articles about these people and shall send them to you.Maybe, the readers of the ultra legends might be interested.

I believe that now South Africa is in from the cold, its ultra history should be told. It has so many untold stories. naturally, without the Comrades marathon none of this would be possible.

For example, how many know that during the apartheid years, we encouraged blacks to run. I trained with a gentleman of colour, a school teacher, who ran the Comrades unoffically. However, once one has been through that experience politically, you never take freedom for granted.