Never afraid to chase: A Black woman aims for ultramarathon history
The TV cameras swept across the row of elite runners gathered at the start of the 2023 Comrades ultramarathon. Skin prickling with goosebumps in the 40-degree morning, they waved and flashed nervous smiles.
Ahead of them, the race’s 55-mile course curled into the still pitch-black winter day. At their backs, 16,000 hobby runners sang and snapped selfies as speakers croaked pop songs over the crowd.
Galaletsang Mekgoe could have been in the front row, if she wanted. The year before, she’d finished fifth in the Comrades, which is – by a considerable margin – the world’s largest race longer than a standard marathon. The 26-year-old firefighter from a rural South African village had picked off a field that included an American runner who was the most decorated female ultrarunner in the world. In the Comrades’ centurylong history, no Black woman had ever come so close to winning the race.
Now, however, as the cameras dipped and panned over the elite field, Ms. Mekgoe was nowhere to be seen. “I don’t like to stand out,” she explained a few days
