Running for UP graduates’ futures

My name is Qiniso Sithole, and I am a final-year master’s student in Agricultural Plant Pathology in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) at the University of Pretoria (UP).

My running journey started as a child. I loved athletics and regularly competed in short-distance races at school. As I got older, I continued running. However, my academic demands became overwhelming, and I decided to step back from the sport to focus on my academics.

During my undergraduate degree my passion for running reignited and I became involved in almost every sporting code that I could. Finally settling on cross-country running, I began running 4 km and 10 km races. And I just kept running…

When I arrived in Pretoria in 2024 to begin my master’s degree, I found myself surrounded by people running what I once considered “crazy distances”, namely 21 km races and beyond. Deep down, I always dreamed of one day running the Comrades Marathon, bu...