Marathon man du Toit: Wait 'til 2004!

Hendrik du Toit, CEO of London's $20 billion-in-assets Investec Asset Management, experienced that sensation in literal rather than figurative fashion last month. Du Toit, 41, was among the 32,746 runners in the 23rd London Marathon.

His time of three hours and 11 minutes for the grueling 26-mile race is respectable for an amateur. But du Toit, a native of South Africa, where the spirit of sporting competition is imbibed with mother's milk, vows to do better.

"Next year I'll be back with a time under three hours," he pledges, adding sniffily, "If I'd known I was going to be questioned about it afterwards, I would have run faster."

Du Toit likens running the marathon to surviving the bear market. "We fund managers are now at 20 miles and are hitting the wall, and it will be interesting to see who can get through it," he says.

His ramble was for a worthy cause: He and 20 colleagues raised money for Starfish, a charity formed by expat South Africans to help children in their homeland who have been orphaned by AIDS.