Last week Thursday I hotfooted through to the
Sportsnite studios to "be part of the studio audience" for us
i.e. to get the goss and catch-up with host
Kabelo Mabalane a.k.a Bouga Luv.
The guests for the show being filmed were:
Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Farouk Abrahams, who's obsessed with people finishing high school - he went on and on about it. And sport boff Tim Noakes, who's obsessed with the South African rugby team's need to rest - went on about it too.
Also, speed-junkie Gugu Zulu: the dancer known as Blogzilla on TVSA. He got all "I'm so fast and furious" so I pretended I could match his hundreds of k's an hour (when I only really drive at 85. Maybe 120, sometimes).
At the centre of things: Kabelo, who made his sports hosting debut on Sportsnite when it launched about two months ago.
As you probs know, besides his music and the show, he's a keen athlete who's mad enough to run the Comrades.
The race is coming up this Sunday (30 May) and he'll be at the start line:
Tashi: You've done the Comrades for three years now?
Bouga: No this is gonna be my fifth year.
Tashi: Oh - what's your best time?
Bouga: Eight hours, 46 minutes last year.
Tashi: What are you aiming for now?
Bouga: Seven hours, 46. Anything under eight hours will be cool, I'll be happy with it but Seven/46 will be Well Done.
Tashi: I don't understand how you estimate that that's how long you could take?
Bouga: Because I run at a certain minute-per-kilometre. If I run five-and-a-half minutes per kilometre then I'm coming in at exactly eight hours, 4 minutes but I want to run the first half in four hours, 2 minutes and then do the second half quicker.
Tashi: What kind of training do you have to do for the race?
Bouga: Lots and lots and lots of running and cross training. I calculated it, I've done 1067 kilometres since the 1st of August last year.
I've calculated all the months - that's nine months - which comes to seven kilometres a day.
Obviously certain days are different, for instance I ran the Two Oceans too so that's 56 kilometres in one go.
Spread out like that, across it all, it's about seven kilometres a day. Some days I'll do seven days a week, sometimes four but I love running.
Tashi: What is it about it that you love so much?
Bouga: How I'm so in tune with my body at the moment. I used be very overweight. I was 104 kilo's, I'm 78 kilos now. I look great, I feel great, you're in tune with your body - you see the difference it makes, you see your body getting stronger and responding to the training regime you're putting it under.
Tashi: When I watch Comrades and see those people sweating and going "uuuuurrrrgh" as they run and straggle towards the end I always think it's got to be very unhleathy for you. People look as if they're putting pressure on every part of their body. It can't be good for you.
Bouga: If you think about it, you've got about 13 000 runners who run it on average per year. You see about 30 like that, falling over and stuff like that.
Tashi: No-no, even the ones who go and go and even the winners - they all look so
drained.
Bouga: It's the ultimate human race. It's a real test of your mental strength, your body. It's all about mental strength. What I love about what the Comrades teaches you is that it filters into other areas of your life.
It pushes you to go beyond yourself. Having that mental capacity to go beyond yourself. You'll never achieve anything significant if you're in your comfort zone and the Comrades pushes you beyond them and your barriers.
Tashi: The battle you had with drugs in the past - would you say running is an addiction?
Bouga: Somewhat ja, I think you can get addicted to it. Let me say that I'd rather be addicted to it than to cocaine. At the same time there are warning signs that you have to watch out for so it doesn't become a God in your life. That it doesn't take away family time and so on - you've got to weigh it up,
Tashi: Like those guys you see at the gym who stare at themselves in the mirror.
Bouga: It's all about balance in your life.
Tashi: Have you found balance in your life?
Bouga: Just as I think I do, there's something else that needs to be sorted out - it's a journey, a process.
Tashi: You're doing Sportsnite, the running - you obviously don't get time for music anymore?
Bouga: No, no I can make time to record - it's all about time management. I've got a 10k run tomorrow morning, I've got my running shoes ready and everything.
Tashi: Yes the Bouga Luv running shoes by Reebok - you obviously run in them all the time?
Bouga: That was a three-year contract I signed with Reebok where I had my own running shoes, tracksuit, caps, whatever - the contract has just ended and I'm talking to a new sporting brand, so lookout for it.
Tashi: Did you run in them?
Bouga: They weren't running shoes, they were lifestyle shoes.
Tashi: Oh 'cos my next question was gonna be about how Reebok spent all their time on your takkies and not the cricket's team's outfits.
Bouga: I haven't seen them yet - are they terrible?
Tashi: Ja, their numbers were flapping in the breeze. Hysterical. It's interesting that you're a sportsman and muso - they seem like such contrasting things.
Bouga: No they're not, the same principles apply: discipline, hard work, perseverance, preparation - they all apply.
You have to prepare for the shows, if you have a dud album you have to have perseverance. If you're performing in front of 50 000 you have to keep your feet on the ground and not have a false sense of grandeur. The principles are the same. Both are entertainment too.
Tashi: Which sportsman entertains you most?
Bouga: It changes as the seasons go by. When I was younger it was Ivan Lendl, The Machine. Then it kinda went from him to, nowadays Cristiano Ronaldo's one of my favourites, Wayne Rooney - the soccer guys have really taken over.
Tashi: And runner-wise?
Bouga: The women really surprise me because obviously guys are much stronger so when you look at someone like Frith van der Merwe, I think she came ninth in the Comrades - it's really awesome.
Fast facts:
>> The race airs on SABC2 on Sunday, starting at flippin' 5am.
>> Tonight (Friday, 28 May) Sportsnite's going to be broadcast live in a special from Sahara Stadium in Durbs - the finish point for the Comrades.
>>Guests include Bruce Fordyce (multiple Comrades winner), Willie Mtolo (two time Comrades runner up and New York marathon winner) and Farwa Mentoor (top female finisher in the Comrades).
>>The show is usually filmed at the Waterfront Studios in downtown Cape Town on Thursday nights at 6pm - the audience get loads of cheese and wine (I got drunk).
>>Planned guests for upcoming episodes often change because of their schedule but those in the piepline for the future include Mark Fish, Phil Masinga, Jethro de Decker (biker type) and Caster Semenya.