Johannesburg · Payments & endurance
I build payment infrastructure for Africa — and I'm teaching a 42-year-old body to run the 100th Comrades.
Two-time fintech founder and software developer, working on the rails beneath Africa's digital wallets and contributing to financial inclusion through both my ventures. This is where I think out loud — starting with the long, honest road to an 89 km down-run on 13 June 2027.
Race Comrades 100
Days out 274
Logged 179.9km
Phase Base
Why the down-run
00 — The anchorFour years ago I was, in my own words, super fit — 10 km races most months, a hilly Soweto 21 km in the legs, a soccer engine built over years. Then life, two companies, and a long pause. In June 2026 I started running again at 100 kilograms, nine minutes a kilometre, and no illusions about the gap between here and 89 km.
The 100th Comrades is a down-run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban — the historic one. Ambitious for a returning 42-year-old? Yes. But the body remembers what it once knew, and I'd rather chase something that scares me a little than something safe. So I'm logging every run, protecting my gym days as long as they'll hold, and building patiently enough to arrive at that start line whole.
This journal is the honest version — the easy days and the ones where the legs argue back.
— Vincent, mid-July 2026
The Journal
Dispatches from the roadThe race that wasn't, the run that was
My first official 10km didn't happen. What happened instead was better, funnier, and — through pure improvisation — almost exactly ten kilometres anyway. Also: I am absolutely not writing about my friend.
Read the entry →The last easy one before the start line
One more gentle run in the new shoes before Saturday — plenty of walks, no rush, just loosening the legs and letting the shoes prove themselves one final time. Two days out, and everything's in place.
Read the entry →Cleared to run (and my chiropractor is more excited than I am)
Pilates, a break-in run in shoes that feel better than anything I've worn, and a sports chiropractor who's so excited about my first race he wants a full report afterward. The fear that my body wouldn't hold has been answered. Now there's just the small matter of running with a crowd.
Read the entry →The luckiest place to find a weakness
Back on the road after a week of resting the back, an easy run that felt good the whole way — and a realization about why discovering my body's weak point now, at short distances, might be the best thing that's happened in this whole build.
Read the entry →Two hours and fifteen minutes on my feet
Two days ago I was discouraged, convinced six weeks in and I was struggling. Today I stayed on my feet for over two hours. Sometimes the body answers the doubt better than any pep talk can.
Read the entry →My longest run, and a small mutiny from the lower body
The plan was to run my usual route twice. My legs had opinions. My right knee started speaking in tongues, my waistline filed a formal complaint, and somewhere in the negotiation I ran my longest distance yet.
Read the entry →The watch lies. My lungs don't.
I finally drove out and measured my route. The watch has been flattering my distances all along. It turns out it exaggerates my heart rate too. But there's one instrument on every run that has never once lied to me — and this week I remembered to listen to it.
Read the entry →The 74-year-old, again — and this time I felt strong
Weeks ago a 74-year-old tapped my shoulder and rearranged how I saw this whole comeback. Today our paths crossed again on a surprisingly hot morning — and something had quietly changed.
Read the entry →The pilates resistance has officially fallen
Leg day, followed by my wife marching me into a proper reformer studio for a free trial. Reader, I signed up. The man who once classified his pilates attendance is now a paying member. How the mighty have folded.
Read the entry →A run, a special person, and a very suspicious washing machine
A warm-up walk, an easy social run with someone special, and a friend whose last-minute excuse deserves its own forensic investigation.
Read the entry →First run back, and the body remembered
Back from a family holiday and back on the road. A warm, strange, waking-up kind of run — the body reminding me it had been off duty — but the legs carried me exactly like they used to.
Read the entry →102 km in, and the dangerous question
A smooth easy run, legs fresh, back holding up — and the question that every improving runner eventually asks: at what point do I start doing more? Turns out that's exactly the wrong question.
Read the entry →I did pilates today. This information is classified.
A reformer class I definitely didn't want, a back that forgot it was supposed to be sore, and then the smoothest easy run of the week. What happens in the pilates studio stays in the pilates studio.
Read the entry →The day I skipped leg day and didn't feel bad about it
Lower back pain that started yesterday afternoon made today's decision easy: no gym, no leg day, a full and deliberate rest. Some days the discipline isn't about pushing through.
Read the entry →An ordinary Monday, and that's a good thing
Core in the morning, an easy run after — nothing remarkable, which after last week's chaos is exactly the kind of Monday I wanted.
Read the entry →A rest day, and a word that landed
No running today — just rest, and a Sunday at church that gave me more than my legs ever could.
Read the entry →New longest run: 8.93 km, and Saturday earns its place back
The long run finally sat where it belongs — Saturday morning, slow and patient. A new longest distance, and proof that guarding the schedule actually works.
Read the entry →Back on the road after an actual rest day
The rest day held. A short, easy run in the early afternoon, and legs that finally felt like mine again.
Read the entry →The run I talked myself into (and the scheduling mistake behind it)
Sluggish biceps, a walk that was meant to replace the run, and then an itch that talked me into going anyway on tired legs. Today taught me something about why the week fell apart — and it traces all the way back to one moved long run.
Read the entry →Accused of cheating on leg day
My gym crew accused me of slacking, one plate-loaded machine got the full treatment while the rest got 'strategic breaks,' and my watch recorded a two-hour workout because my legs couldn't do the stairs. A leg day for the ages.
Read the entry →My legs and my lungs had different opinions
An hour after gym, an easy jog on tight legs — where the muscles said 'we're done' and the engine said 'we're fine.' Learning to tell the two apart, and reminding myself I'm not supposed to be fast.
Read the entry →In which I stop counting kilometres and start counting my blessings (steps)
A day off, a longest-run-yet, and a formal announcement: I am now in my step-counting era. If the watch is exaggerating my distances, I've decided I don't want to know.
Read the entry →Sleeping in won, and the apps lost
No gym this morning — waking up felt like the Lord's work, and I'm told ministry is hard. Then a good easy run, and two phone apps that comprehensively embarrassed themselves.
Read the entry →Three devices, three answers
Back and shoulders, an easy run that felt good enough to keep going, and three gadgets that returned three different distances for the same 34 minutes. The investigation continues.
Read the entry →So slow I forgot the watch
Tight legs from leg day, a run so gentle I left my watch at home, and the small victory nobody claps for: feeling like you could do more, and choosing not to.
Read the entry →Leg day, 5AM, and the discovery of muscles I didn't order
No run today — Tuesday is leg day, and leg day is sacred. A field report from a 5AM session so thorough I found muscles between my hips and my backside I'm fairly sure weren't there yesterday.
Read the entry →The run I didn't feel like doing
Late night building payment rails, not enough sleep, no desire to hit the streets. Went anyway. This is the entry about the runs that don't feel heroic — and why they might be the ones that count most.
Read the entry →How to win Comrades: by lying perfectly still
The plan says Sunday is rest. My body says Sunday is a great day for a run. This is the story of who won that argument — and why doing absolutely nothing is, apparently, elite training.
Read the entry →In defence of the run that looks suspiciously like a walk
A surprise running partner, a suspiciously quick pace, and a philosophical inquiry into that gait — you know the one — where you're technically running but a brisk walker could still overtake you.
Read the entry →A tap on the shoulder from a 74-year-old
Halfway through an easy 5km, a stranger taps my shoulder, tells me to keep going, and runs the next two kilometres with me. We stop to chat. Then he tells me his age, and I have to recalibrate everything I thought about being 42 and starting again.
Read the entry →Two devices, one truth, and a lesson in trusting the run
A double day — back and shoulders at 5am, an easy run at nine. The watch and the phone disagreed by nearly two kilometres, and Strava simply gave up. Here's how I reconciled it, and why steps beat GPS on a bad-signal day.
Read the entry →Week three, and the running finally feels like a habit
Five runs into July and the rhythm is holding — every two or three days, five kilometres, conversational pace. Nothing heroic. That's the point: base is built slow, or it isn't built at all.
Read the entry →Into the second week
Rolling into another week of easy base miles. Same five kilometres, same conversational pace, same patient plan.
Read the entry →Still here
Another easy five. The habit is starting to feel less like a decision and more like a default.
Read the entry →Quiet kilometres
An ordinary early-base run. Nothing to report, which is rather the point — this is what building a base actually looks like.
Read the entry →Starting line: 332 days to the 100th Comrades
First logged run of the comeback. Eleven months, a marathon qualifier to earn, and a hilly Soweto half in November as the first real test. The clock starts now.
Read the entry →