Durban - Defending Comrades Marathon champion Andrew Kelehe could be granted another five Comrades Marathon wins, but there is probably no way he could surpass last year's victory.
That is, unless he were to follow it with an emphatic win in the Up Run this year.
Kelehe's near super-natural win last year, in which he came perilously close to Bruce Fordyce's Down record despite running a longer route than the Comrades Marathon legend, had all the elements of human and sporting drama to capture the hearts and minds of the nation.
There was the human tragedy of his running the race in memory of his daughter Rejoice, who died at 17 months old on Valentine's day last year.
There was his wrenching back the Comrades title from East European to South African hands. There was his becoming the third and pretty much the only black athlete to win the race, not by default.
Sam Tshabalala having won the one and only Comrades in the 1980's in which Bruce Fordyce did not compete, and Jetman Msutu having won when Charl Mattheus was disqualified in 1992.
And of course the matter of Kelehe's striking a blow for the "clean" athletes after the drug cheating allegations preceding last year's race.
Although running the race for a child who has lost both parents to Aids ("To make the child feel as though he/she still has parents," said Kelehe), the sheer will to win is not as compelling this time around, especially seeing that the race is being run in the opposite direction to Kelehe's preference.
In the six years Kelehe has been running the race, his Down record has by far been better than his Up record, though it has improved on each outing.
Two years ago when Vladimir Kotov won the Up Run in record time in 2000, Kelehe was 5th with a creditable time of 5:36:32.
While admitting to a preference for the Down Run, Kelehe also admits that his confidence was enormously buoyed by last year's win.
"I do prefer the Down Run but I think if the proper training has been done the Up Run is not such a problem," Kelehe said.
To that end, he has stayed a week longer than usual at his high altitude training camp in Dullstroom, being there for a total of nine weeks.
"The reason I've stayed longer is because I've been dealing with additional hill training in preparation for the Up Run."
Kelehe feels he has also been helped by a two-week training visit to Russia in January, where he was reminded of the importance of toughing out a training programme.
"Russia is rough but when the athletes there are doing something they are very patient," he said, "They train in the cold and in rough weather but they keep on training."
And perhaps ominously for those looking at a repeat of a South African victory, Kelehe says his training has gone exactly according to plan.
On whether he considers himself the defending champion considering that he won last year on the Down Run, Kelehe was frank, "I don't feel I'm defending. I'm going to run my own race without any pressure.
"I know people are expecting me to win because of the Down Run last year, but I also know Kotov will be there and he is the record holder for the Up Run, so I'm not the only one people expect a good result from."
Speaking of Belarus' Kotov, Kelehe sees him and the Ukrainian Dmitri Grishine as another to look out for because they have both won the Up Run before.
On the man everyone fears this year, 2001 second place finisher Leonid Shvetsov (of Russia) Kelehe feels he still has a lot to learn. "He has learnt about the Down Run, but he has not learned about the Up," was Kelehe's opinion. - Sapa