We are pleased to announce that the UCT 10KM Memorial Race is scheduled to take place on the 5th of May this year. The UCT Memorial Run pays tribute to members of the club who have passed away over the years including former Comrades winners, Lindsay Weight, Isavel Roche-Kelly, Merrilyn Smith, Andrezij Okreglicki and Kevin Rochford.
In this year's 41st Anniversary Edition, we honour the memory of Isavel Roche-Kelly.
Judy was running for the Maroons (Maties) at the time and she competed with Isavel on numerous meets. Here she describes her big clashes with Isavel.
She was Isavel's teammate at UCT. In 1980, Cathy and Isavel were part of the UCT Road Relay team that surprisingly defeated the Maroons.
She was the runner up to Isavel in the 1980 and 1981 Comrades Marathons.
Stephen Granger was out of breath when interviewing her. Mariam was Isavel's teammate at UCT and she is still running strong.
UCT athlete, Isavel Roche-Kelly was one of South Africa’s most talented distance runners.
Her unique spirit and positive view on life contributed significantly to her extraordinary athletics achievements which made the diminutive Isavel a giant at the clubhouse and throughout UCT, where she was named UCT sportswoman of the year in 1980 and 1981.
Isavel was a fun and run-loving young woman, but serious minded when focussed on her talent. Extremely loyal to and proud of UCT Athletics Club, she had roots in the Free State and Ireland.
With no prior background in running, she unleashed two years of running magic at UCT with astonishing performances over the distances from 1500m to 90km, rivalling the best in the country. She broke the SA Marathon record and was the first woman to run faster than 7 hours at the Comrades Marathon.
Tragically, she died at just 25 in a cycling accident in Ireland while training to make the Irish Olympic Team.
In this year’s UCT 10km Memorial Run Edition, we will remember her enduring contribution to the club and university at large.
Online entries are live! Click HERE to enter
For the first time in years, the 2024 UCT 10km Memorial Race will include an Inter-Res Race where UCT residences will go Head-to-Head.
The res with fastest finishers will be crowned 2024 UCT 10km Res Champion and will receive a trophy. There are two trophies for Males and Females.
In the years to come, the competition will remain a tradition of the UCT Memorial Run and other residences will have the opportunity to contest the trophies from current winners.
Students in UCT Residences are therefore invited to enter and compete for their res.
Entry fee for residences has been reduced to R50 per student. However, some residences will pay for their students.
Apart from the Inter-Race Race, amazing prizes are up for grabs for all participants .
Our Race sponsor, Mr Neil Hobbs will giveaway to lucky winners;
The Vineyard Hotel has amazing accomodation and meal vouchers for the winners.
All finishers will receive commemorative Mohair running socks made locally by Cape Mohair.
If you can beat 1 999 people! Then you are guaranteed to get your free medal for participating in the race.
The big hurdle is, can you run faster than 2 000 people on Sunday?
We will see!
Orisons AM and McDonald's will giveaway;
Our course is intentionally designed to test the ability of our entrants to conquer hills. It's a made in ZA Boston course. After running, you will definitely need a free massage, that's why the Orisons AM is giving away Five massage vouchers.
The JOGGING has been done for you! This is our 2024 UCT 10km Memorial Race course. Tracked by Garmin Forrunner 55. Thanks to our amazing road race course measurer, Gavin Wright!
| Garmin course |
THE STAGE IS SET! GO HARD OR GO HOME!
Bruce Matthews was Isavel Roche-Kelly's coach leading up to her Comrades Marathon wins. Neither Bruce nor Isavel did things by halves so they were a perfect fit!
Did You Know?
Isavel Roche-Kelly was the First Woman ever to break 7 hours in the Comrades Marathon! She covered the ultra-marathon distance in 6 hours and 44 minutes. This is equivalent to 4 minutes 35.45 seconds per kilometre for 88km. We challenge all female runners from the University of Cape Town (UCT) to beat Isavel average speed/km in this years UCT 10KM Memorial Race.
Sub 4 minutes miler and sub 2 hrs 20 min marathoner. Ricky Robinson, and Isavel Roche-Kelly carried off most of the UCT Sport’s silverware in the early 80s.
John Roome was the chairperson of the UCT Athletics Club in 1982. Here, he describes some of the training memories with Isavel Roche-Kelly. He is still as passionate as ever.
