Mavis Hutchison ran for her life – and sometimes for weeks at a time

A grandmother of six, Mavis Hutchison fell into sport by accident and became the world’s best long-distance runner – by miles.

Mavis Hutchison sets the pace.

Mavis Hutchison. Long-distance runner.
Born Kimberley, South Africa, November 25, 1924; died Fish Hoek, South Africa, May 19, aged 97.

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Mavis Hutchison and her identical twin Doreen were born in the thinly populated Northern Cape province of South Africa, not far from the Big Hole, a 240m deep, hand-dug legacy of diamond mining.

Doreen’s hip was misshapen and she limped, while Mavis had problems with a leg that clearly came good. But twice as a teenager she suffered from chorea – St Vitus’s dance – a disorder of the nervous system causing involuntary muscle movement.

The girls’ father worked at a diamond mine operation, played rugby and was a champion middle-distance runner. He trained some of Mavis’s schoolmates, but it took a few years before the shy and introspective girl joined them.

“I found excuses to give up. I believe my dad was disappointed, but he never forced me,” she said a lifetime later.

She married at 22, but her husband drank heavily and she became depressed. They had twin boys; one died the following day and the other was disabled.

They had another son, but her husband fled and she battled on as a single mother, moving to Johannesburg and working at several jobs before meeting and marrying Ernie Hutchison, who also worked in mining. Ernie had two children of his own and together they had two daughters.

After many operations, her firstborn son was well enough in 1962 to attempt what was known as the Big Walk, an 80km route ending outside the office of the Rand Daily Mail newspaper. Mavis, needing to improve her fitness, thought she would join him. She stayed for 60km, pulling out with the pledge to train hard and compete the following year. She set a women’s record of nine hours, 35 minutes, started running marathons and quickly improved.

In 1965 she competed unofficially (women were banned until 1975) in the 90km Comrades Marathon, the first of eight; the last was in 1981 when she was 57. Her first Comrades run was on a wet, cold day and she was seen as something of a gimmick. But she completed it in just over 10 hours, changing places with one runner three times before he stopped, bowed and said: “Madam, you may pass.”

The distances quickly became greater and by 1971 Mavis was setting world records in 100-mile (160km) and 24-hour running and walking events. South Africa’s media called her the Galloping Granny after she competed in the 602km run from Germiston in Gauteng Province to Durban on the coast. By then she was training two hours each evening and eight hours every Saturday and Sunday, and was to South Africa what Cliff Young would become to Australians after his Sydney to Melbourne run in 1983.

Mavis ran from Johannesburg to Durban (567km) in 1973, a gruelling route that crossed the Drakensberg mountains and took six days, 13 hours and 55 minutes. Her mother said as she crossed the finishing line: “She’s always been a little crazy.”

By then she was unstoppable. Starting that year she made plans to run across the US after reading English ultramarathoner Bruce Tulloh’s book about his run from Los Angeles to New York. Tulloh had never run farther than 37km in a day and was 34. It was considered a risk, but he completed the 4628km in 65 days. A few had tried, but no woman had run the US coast to coast. Using Tulloh’s book to guide her route, Mavis set out at 9am, March 12, 1978, from Los Angeles City Hall, Ernie driving behind with 23 spare pairs of runners.

Sometimes the wind from big trucks would blow her off her feet. Every day she was stopped several times by drivers offering her a lift. Crossing four time zones and 13 states, on May 20 she ran across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and headed for New York’s City Hall. Mavis had completed her run in 69 days (she took day 33 off with sore shins) covering 4679km, 51 more than Tulloh and aged 54.

But her goal in life was to traverse the British Isles, from John o’Groats at the top of Caithness in Scotland to Land’s End, the Cornish promontory jutting into the Celtic Sea 1406km later. She ran this in July 1980 aged 55 and plagued by injuries. It took 16 days, 21 hours, 55 minutes, another record. She kept running and breaking records until 2010.

When she was injured and exhausted but with many kilometres to go she would sing to herself St John Henry Newman’s famous words:

Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th’encircling gloom,

Lead Thou me on!

The night is dark, and I am far from home,

Lead Thou me on!