This month’s Harmony Prison Run at Pretoria Central prison provided a rare glimpse into prison life, with athletes wearing hand-sewn shorts and drab green vests, sporting handmade race numbers on their backs. They ran along a bumpy 200m concrete path with six 90Þ bends that hugged the prison’s high brick walls.
The event has made at least one man’s dream come true and has given hope and motivation to many others. It all began in August 2001, when Wolfren Abbot — cousin of the ubiquitous Jimmy — decided to turn his life around and fulfil his ultimate ambition of running the Comrades Marathon.
He’d spent 13 years of his life with a drug habit that finally landed him in the slammer on a seven-year sentence for three counts of theft (and he picked up an additional year for stealing peanut butter from the prison kitchen).
”You name the drug and I have been on it,” said the slightly built Potchefstroom-born man. ”Prison was just an extension of my life on drugs, until I decided to chuck it all in. I’m just dreaming of running next year’s race after I get out. I don’t only want to run — I want to go for gold.” Based on his current form, that boast may not be too wide off the mark. The inmates’ early morning wake-up call is at 5am, breakfast is at 6am and training in the tiny courtyard goes on until 8am before they attend to their daily tasks — for Abbott that means studying to become an electrician — supper is at 3pm and lock-up follows an hour later. His neatly kept logbook shows that he chalked up 1 200km in four months. About two years ago, Abbot made a phone call to former South African middle-distance champion Dion Brummer. ”He wanted [former Comrades winner] Nick Bester’s phone number,” Brummer recalled. ”I nearly laughed my head off when he told me he was phoning from Pretoria Central prison. But something grabbed me about the
sincerity in his voice. This guy was serious. I put him onto Nick, and the long process of organising this 10km challenge between seven of Nick’s clubmates and seven Harmony runners started.”
Prison head Frank Hlalethoa, himself a veteran of four Comrades Marathons, was overjoyed with the response from the 200-odd prisoners who turn up on the chilly winter morning last week. ”Running is good for the prisoners, it keeps them motivated,” he said. ”I wish more of the inmates would join the club. Maybe next year we can run outside the prison walls.”
The race was run at breakneck pace. Former Comrades winner Dimitri Grishin pulled out after only two laps.
Two Oceans fifth place finisher Pio Mpolokeng followed five laps later. Harmony short-distance specialist Herman Pedi finished first in a swift 33:46. Abbott was the first of the prisoners in, clocking a respectable 35:33 for fourth place.
Former Comrades winner Bester was full of praise for the man who started it all. ”Wolfren has certainly got talent,” he said.
”Look at the size of his calves — legs like his were built for long-distance running. When he’s released we will make sure that he is looked after. This kind of talent and determination can’t be ignored.”