Lovemore Dube
A financial services practitioner, Godfrey Marongwe-Nkosi will take part in today’s Comrades Marathon in South Africa for wellness while the elite athletes will be chasing handsome pickings from the world’s most popular ultra-marathon.
Marongwe-Nkosi who is based in Harare is excited about running the elite event of world longer marathons. It is his first time running there after two successful attempts on the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, South Africa in the last two years.
The Two Oceans is a 56km ultra-marathon and is used as a qualifier for the Comrades. He ran the event in 6 hours 18 minutes last year and lowered his time to 5 hours 37 minutes.
With that improvement and being among 554 Zimbabweans taking part in the event, Marongwe-Nkosi’s attention is on the health benefits of running.
He considers it therapeutic and something he advises fellow citizens to embrace.
“Running is good exercise. It enhances both physical and mental sharpness,” said Marongwe-Nkosi from Durban where the event is being run this morning.
Running is known for boosting cardiovascular health, helps strengthen muscles, good at managing body weight and through releasing chemicals called endorphins mood swings are managed.
“Sports are good for prompting healthy work-life balance. Productivity will obviously increase when mental, physical and social areas are well taken care of,” said Marongwe-Nkosi of running’s benefits to society.
He emphasised that working in the financial services sector, at times when he knocks off at work he is so worked out that running helps calm his nerves giving him peace of mind.
“At times working in the financial services sector can be a stressful environment, for wellness running is important it enhances sleep quality,” said Marongwe-Nkosi.
Marongwe-Nkosi is happy to be running with 553 other Zimbabweans at the event.
“There are many of us here, 554, it’s no joke, and others are social athletes and the other lot being elite athletes running for money,” said the fitness fanatic.
He says what motivated him to try this milestone this year is that he turned 50 on 27 May.
With three wins Stephen Muzhingi remains the best Zimbabwean to ever participate in the event.
Mike Fokorani, Lyon Muchena and Monica Kativhu are some of the confirmed top elite athletes in KwaZulu-Natal.