18/05/2026
Introducing our May Magnolian of the Month – Tony Gomes.
Comrades Green Number holder.
Two Oceans Blue Number holder.
Consistent. Dedicated. Humble.
Tony continues to put together incredible performances while making every run look easy, but there’s a deeper story behind those achievements that many may not know.
This month we recognise not only the milestones, but the journey behind them.
Congratulations Tony. Fully deserved.
Read his full story below
Back in high school I was in the Cross Country team, and for a short while had delusions that I was God’s gift to the sport. But my high school was very small, and very English, so when I went to my first Noord Transvaal Landloop meeting, I spent all 8km trailing every kaalvoet Jannie and Thabo who left me and my fancy North Star tekkies eating their dust. So my first running lesson was humility. My second lesson was the realization that the beauty of running is that everyone can do it. Basically everyone can run, because running has no barriers to entry. And when we look at our physiology and human history, running has basically always been part of humanity. When we run we are doing what our bodies were intended to do.
I stopped running after school, and moved onto varsity and newly married life with lots of takeaways. Many moons later, as a chubby new father, with many unhealthy habits, I was looking for a new sport. At the time I was a paddler, who only did well in the parts when we had to get off the water to run with our boats around obstacles. I also had a smoking addiction, and very addictive personality. So one night at 21:00 I decided to quit smoking and switch my ni****ne addiction to a running addiction. Like some Forrest Gump character, I just started running furiously every single night. Every night was max effort time trial, and I went through my running injury growing pains in a few months.
One limitation I did have, was that none of my friends, family or wife ran back then. So I would go about by myself just entering things and learning as I went along. My first marathon was Vaal, and I remember standing on the start line listening to everyone and thinking to myself “I should probably also have some kind of a plan for this thing. I think I will do a hard 21km, and then repeat, yep, that sounds good”. Needless to say it ended badly.
This was also where I joined and learned the value of a good running club – clubs are really the foundation of organised running in South Africa. Without them the running landscape would be much more limited in terms of races, runners would be less prepared and informed, races would be much more expensive, and the whole running experience would be a lot poorer. I have chatted to Magnolia novices before and thought “wow, I wish I was this organised when I started running, it would have made life much easier”. Some of it is generational - younger runners nowadays are more informed, but a lot of it is just the fact that these novices belong to an organized club and can benefit from lots of tips and advice.
Soon I was no longer a lonely runner, but part of a whole community of friends and wonderful people I probably wouldn’t speak to otherwise. After having supported me at my first few Comrades, my wife Alzena also suddenly took up running and we had the good fortune to run her 1st one together in 2017. For many years I was scary obsessive with my running, that I even developed stress fractures in 2020. Having developed friends and then having a partner who also runs kept me training hard for many more years than I otherwise would have. Comrades has always been my favourite race, although we have had a complicated love/hate relationship, where I alternate yearly between just missing whatever medal I want and then coming back and smashing it the next year. It’s a funny old race where humility serves you well, as just when you think you have mastered it the next year it smacks you down again.
Look, I was hesitant to join this club as I was deeply traumatized at age 12 by Magnolias, when a friend and I walked into the wrong cinema at Sterland and instead of watching The Bear, sat watching Steel Magnolias. After a bit too much grannies drinking tea and no bears, we realized our mistake, but weren’t allowed to move and had to sit through the whole thing. But pushing aside my phobia for all things Magnolia, I nonetheless joined the club, and found a very diverse club with a range of ages and capabilities – a whole happy community. And the fact that it is also super organised is a huge bonus. I am very happy to be a Magnolian, and even more blessed to be a runner.
- Tony Gomes
