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For Unati Sigodi, athletics was always more about a healthy lifestyle than winning medals and breaking records. It wasn’t a serious sport, like football. But the more he ran, the more he got into it.
And this weekend, Sigodi was one of was one of the thousands of runners who completed the strenuous Totalsports Two Oceans Ultra Marathon over the weekend.
“It was my first time running the Two Oceans Marathon, and I really enjoyed it – especially the view: it’s a very scenic route” Sigodi says. “But it wasn’t easy – I had difficulty descending from Chapman’s Peak and the last two kilometres of the race heading to the finishing line. ”
Sigodi laced up for Gugulethu Athletics Club, aka the Orange Army. Difficulties aside, his 4 hours 42 minute finish was good enough to earn him a Sainsbury Medal – the recognition awarded to those who finish the grueling race in less than five hours.
“As a novice runner for the ultra-Marathon, I’m happy to have finished it under Sub 5. But next year, I will return and hope for a better time. And in the meantime, this is a good motivation to focus on training for the Comrades Marathon – it’s just eight weeks away.”
It has been a good transition for someone who grew up playing football in the Sidwadweni village of Tsolo in the Eastern Cape. And he had such a promising career that he was in the books of Bush Bucks’ development divisions, among many other football clubs.
He played for Ntsikana Primary School in Daveyton in Ekurhuleni, Mchatu Junior Secondary School in Tsolo, and Zimele Junior Secondary School in Khwezi, Mthatha at Hulwazi Secondary School, where he completed his Matric. He also played for Mhlakulo United Stars, Mdeni Celtics, and Dunoon Moscow, and was part of the first University of the Western Cape (UWC) football team to qualify for their inaugural Varsity Football tournament.
It was that UWC connection that ultimately led him to try athletics.
“I studied at UWC, and I’m currently working there. In 2019, I was playing in a social soccer league as UWC Legends alongside some of my fellow UWC alumni, Vusumzi Nobaza and TK (Tshikane), and they inspired me to join the University’s famous Fast & Flat 10-kilometre race. And it all kind of grew from there.”
It wasn’t all smooth sailing (or running), though. After Covid -19 disrupted his participation in athletics, it took a while to get back into the swing of things.
So Sigodi joined RCS Gugulethu Athletic Club (RCS GUGS), and found yet another UWC connection in the form of Patrick Moshiga, a colleague at UWC who has run over twenty Comrades Marathons…and was also running for and coaching the club.
Last year he ran his first Cape Peninsula Marathon in just under four hours and has seen significant improvements since Moshiga coached him. Now Sigodi looks forward to participating in some of the most daunting races on the land.
And running has improved his lifestyle – both at work and in his personal life – for the better.
“With running, I get ideas on how to approach and execute tasks I have for that day,” he says.
“I usually do the morning runs because that prepares me for the day, as my energy levels are high. After that, I tackle everything with ease throughout the day.”
