Bruce Fordyce will be running his 25th Comrades Marathon when the race starts at Pietermaritzburg's City Hall and heads for Durban's Sahara Stadium Kingsmead on June 17.
And the 51-year-old, who thrilled millions of spectators with his outstanding performances early in his career - he won eight Comrades on the trot between 1981 and 1988 and returned in 1990 after missing a year to add to his winner's medals - says he will be running his 25th for fun.
"I have trained but not as diligently as I did in the 80s. I've done an average of 300km a month since January, and feel good," Fordyce said.
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"I'm going to run this year with two friends who are running for the first time and another who has run the Comrades once previously. There will be nothing serious about this year's Comrades, I just want to go out and enjoy it. A Bill Rowan medal at the end of the day will be nice for the record. I'd want to do between 8hrs 50min or 9hrs 30min. That's my target."
Fordyce first ran the world- famous ultra-marathon in 1977 in Wits University colours and finished 45th. He followed it up with another silver medal a year later and his finish position improved at each attempt for the next two years - finishing third in 1979 and second in 1980.
And after that he went into overdrive as he rattled off win after win to become one of the all-time greats of the Comrades Marathon.
"To look back at my career and think what I have achieved is amazing. This race has changed a lot over the years. Look at what's on offer these days - prize money (The Fordyce household could well do with nine times R200 000 these days), 12 hours of live television coverage, huge fields (in the early days there were like 2 500 and at the most 3 000 runners), the influx of international runners and our own international class black runners - Fusi Nhlapo, Andrew Kelehe and Sipho Ngomane," he said.
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