FORUM NAME:  KenJohn

Name:  Ken Swettenham

Club:  CSIR Running Club

Running history:

Started running on 25th July 1995 at the age of 32. 

Why? I won a 3-month Run-for-Life contract on Radio 702 and I thought that I had better use it. 

Set myself of goal of running 5km – little did I know then where it would lead.



Started pushing myself a little. Ran my first 5km in September 1995 in 33 minutes and nearly died. Harder training led to my first 10km in February 1996, 21km in May 1996, 32km in November 1996, 42km in May 1997 and finally my first Ultra (Om-die-Dam) in March 1998. 

Attempted Comrades for the first time in 1998 but didn’t finish that year.



Pushed at that time to run better times but soon realized that a guy of my size (1.94m and 98kg) doesn’t run fast but discovered that I could plod at a slow pace for hours which gave me a greater interest in doing distance rather than time and entered the 1000km Challenge for the first time in 1997/98. I’ve done that competition every year since, having now achieved 1 Bronze, 6 Silvers and 3 Gold Medal distances in the 10 years, and a number of awards for national, age group and province finishing positions.



I have now finished approximately 60 Ultra marathons (including 5 Comrades), 90 Standard Marathons and hundreds of lower distance races. I’ve also completed 8 12-hour races, 2 24-hour races and 1 Six Day event (never again!). I’m Chairman of the CSIR Running Club and organiser of the CSIR Half-Marathon and 10km held in September each year.



I’m not going to post my all-time PB’s here because they were all done more than 7 years ago and I doubt I’ll ever get near those times again. Needless to say, after many years of long distance, I’ve now set a revised goal of doing less longer races and getting my times down again, although I don’t think I’ll ever see my all-time PB times again but did recently run a 21km PB since the age of 40 (2:08). I’ll still do the 1000km Challenge simply because it is a part of my life that I can’t do without!



On a personal basis, I’m now 44-years-old, married for 7 years to Thiru, 3 sons (age 23 & 19 from my first marriage and age 3 from my current marriage) and 1 daughter (age 2). I’ve been a Financial Advisor with the Liberty Group for 17 years and live in Brummeria, Pretoria.