Despite his impressive form this year and being mentioned among the favourites to win the Comrades Marathon in June and Two Oceans on April 12, SA runner George Kusche insists he is only concerned with running and not with people’s opinions of his chances.
The 27-year-old claimed victories at the Biogen Half Marathon in January and followed that up by winning the Cape Peninsula Marathon to continue with his preparations for the Two Oceans and Comrades events.
He also won the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge earlier this month to continue his impressive form this year.
“I’m not listening to outside influences, and I don’t really care what people think about whether I’m a favourite or not. I just love running,” Kusche said.
“I took a break for a week after the Cape Peninsula Marathon. I make sure I take a good break and don’t always do intense work. The focus is on the long run now.”
While he continues to prepare for the Comrades, Kusche said the reason he decided to run the half marathon at Two Oceans and not the full one is because he wants to run it hard.
“My training is definitely geared to longer things like the Comrades, but it is always important to be an all-round athlete,” he said. “I feel like if you can run a good 5k, 10k and half marathon, they will build on each other.
“I’m going to do the Two Oceans half and Comrades — only those two races — until June. The Two Oceans is going to be a hard race, [but] my focus is on Comrades.”
Kusche added that he will run the Two Oceans ultra next year, as he plans to improve his second-place finish of two years ago.
“I’m going to do my best, and we will see what will happen.”
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