Passion runs deep — mining marathoner Ledile Dikgale targets back-to-back Comrades after conquering underground race

‘I run for enjoyment and to finish and what it does for me mentally. Not really for the accolades or being number one or number two.”

This is running enthusiast and mining engineer Ledile Dikgale on her love for the feeling of the wind caressing her face on open road, while her body and mind battle each other. Marathons are not for the faint of heart, but for Dikgale they are a way of life.

Having completed the “World’s Deepest Marathon” – which she ran 1,120m below sea level at Sweden’s Garpenberg zinc mine – Dikgale plans to complete her second Comrades Marathon in 2026, following her debut in 2025.

Second Comrades

After conquering the demands of an underground marathon, Dikgale is optimistic that this will help improve on her 2025 Comrades time of 11 hours and three minutes, where she narrowly missed out on a bronze medal on the Down Run (Pietermaritzburg to Durban).

“I have registered for the 2026 event. Because you are never truly a Comrades Marathon runner if you don’t have a back-to-back. I’m going for my back-to-back. Then after that I’m done,” Dikgale told Daily Maverick.      

Of course, anyone who has run a number of Comrades would move hastily to tell Dikgale that running and completing the prestigious race becomes more addictive with each successful run. This might be especially true when you’ve completed a marathon in the most unlikely places – a deep and dark mine.

Once-in-a-lifetime

On the back of making her Comrades bow in June, Dikgale joined 60 other recreational runners from 18 countries as they made history in Sweden. Pending imminent Guinness World Records ratification, Dikgale’s run in October 2025 will officially become the deepest marathon to date.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Before I started the race I was a bit anxious. But I was able to collect my thoughts, start the race and finish it. But it was challenging,” she said.

“The emotion that was dominant was excitement, even though I was anxious about what time I will finish and how the whole experience will be. Because it was a bit humid in the mine. It was also dark and there was no natural light for us.”

The participants in the audacious attempt deep below the surface had to rely on head torches to navigate. The race was also run in 18 loops of 2.4km each, on a gravel surface.    

“Running is very difficult, [more so] if you’re going to run underground. I’m a mining engineer by profession. So, my career genesis was in the underground mine,” said Dikgale, who hails from the former mining town of Mohlakeng, west of Johannesburg.    

“That experience assisted me in terms of preparation. I knew what I was expecting in terms of heat, in terms of the ventilation and in terms of no natural light.”

Although she has dabbled in running for 10 years, it was back in 2019 that Dikgale truly fell in love with the sport – after recovering from pleural effusion. Known as “water on the lungs”, this condition is characterised by an abnormal buildup of fluid in the space between the lungs and the chest wall. 

Anything is possible

But for Kumba Iron Ore employee Dikgale, running is not just about ensuring she stays healthy, but also about pushing her body and mind to their limit, to show herself and her six-year-old son that anything is possible if you put your mind to it and prepare accordingly. 

“In terms of my training, I enrolled with Skhindi Gang, a running coaching club. I asked them for a training plan, which I followed,” said Dikgale. “And then for the mental demands of it, I prayed a lot. My friends and my family prayed for me as well. Because you can never know what can go wrong on the day. You can only prepare.”

With no spectators or picturesque views along the route, the runners depended on each other to push on in the dark. Dikgale was the sole woman in the party running to raise money for charity, as well as highlighting the global safety advancements in the mining industry.  

“I wanted to see how it would feel for me to be so resilient. I just wanted to make sure that I finished the race, while enjoying the experience as well. Because it was 60 of us, from different backgrounds, different parts of the world,” she added.

“So, this really also shows me that I can get support from other people to just continue, because there was no spectator. That also made it very difficult, because nobody’s cheering you on.”

A BTech mining engineering graduate from the University of Johannesburg, Dikgale’s first love was medicine, but she ended up in mining engineering and has fallen firmly in love with it. 

While running marathons and excelling at work, the 34-year-old still finds time to further her studies, and is enrolled for a postgraduate course with Wits University, pursuing a master’s degree in mining engineering. DM