[MARATHON #263 / UNIQUE MARATHON #159 / 24 March 2024]
I don’t run many marathons in Gauteng these days but when I do, I usually head to the south for Soweto or Jackie Gibson. The last time I ran a Gauteng marathon was 2 years ago at the Jackie Gibson, hosted by Johannesburg Harriers (the oldest running club Gauteng), and I was keen to see what their inaugural Johannesburg City Marathon had in store.
READ MORE: What’s in a name? (A Eulogy to the Jackie Gibson Marathon)
We were off to a delayed start with the 5:30am start moving to 6:00am courtesy of loadshedding and stolen streetlights meaning we had to wait for enough daylight to run safely. A number of northerners also struggled to get to the start as the M1 South, which comprises a large part of the route, was closed from 3am. Luckily, I had done a last minute read of the race instructions before bed the night before and had taken the slightly longer N1 routing to the start.
There was an expectant vibe amongst the runners as we got going with the national anthem. The first four kilometres are a nice gentle (and mostly downhill) traverse through Kibler Park but the fun really starts as one takes the onramp to the R82 motorway. The R82 becomes the M1 highway at the 9km mark but to earn the right to say you’ve run on the M1 highway, you need to conquer the toughest hill of the day – a 180m climb over four kilometres.
There is a novelty factor when running on a highway completely closed to traffic for the event. However, that novelty does wear off quite quickly for me. I find that one is removed from the detail of everyday life and there is less to observe than when running on ‘normal streets’.
Nevertheless, there were still some interesting sights to see in the distance – these included Gold Reef City, the Masjid Siratul Jannah mosque, great views of the city skyline and regular sightings of mine dumps. Whilst the roads were very clean and pothole free, unfortunately we were also treated to regular whiffs from actual dumps with the decaying water and sewerage infrastructure in the metropole.
And before moving on from the topic, the race could really have used some toilets along the route. As many runners noted afterwards, there is very little privacy along the highway. Whilst this is an inaugural marathon, Johannesburg Harriers have more marathon organisation experience than any other club in the country so I would still expect the high standard one has come to experience at the Jackie Gibson. Another basic that was missing from the race were distance markers along the route.
There is however some mitigation for the organisers – who have also promised to address these issues for the 2025 event. I certainly did not have an appreciation of how much complexity is added to a race when you close a major highway.
Nathalie Roelf, Johannesburg Harriers Club Spokesperson, explained, “We underestimated the time of the closure of the freeway to the start of the race. The difficult task about the freeway is that we needed the whole freeway to be shut before even placing a single piece of equipment on the road. Once all the entries/exits on the race route have been shut, we have to wait for the police to give a green light that the road is now clear. Only then, we can start placing equipment. So many things did not go according to plan on the morning of the race. All we can say is that, so many lessons were learned in 2024. 2025 will be a bigger and a better year.”
Closing the freeway is a major coup, “It was not an easy task. With Jackie Gibson, it used to take us less than an hour to do a dry run with JMPD, with Johannesburg City Marathon, it took us months to find the most workable solution to close the freeway. Even a week before the race, there were so many uncertainties. We really appreciate the great work that was done by JMPD to make sure that the event was a success.”
Knowing this now, perhaps I should have appreciated my stint as a Highwayman(n) more than I did! You stick on the M1 highway until after the halfway mark where you exit onto Empire Road at 23km for a 5k loop around Braamfontein and Parktown*.
* Is it OK to call this 5k stretch a ‘parktownrun’?
Downtown Johannesburg has a bad reputation but I was surprised that this part of the city was remarkably clean and safe. However, I wasn’t going to take any chances and after I spotted a runner in SAPS kit, I stuck close to him ‘just in case’.
I was also interested as to whether the Joburg Metro put in some extra effort to “tidy up their room” before the marathon but I was told, “the city keeps those parts of Braamfontein and Parktown clean of late.”
With traffic police and waste management being the biggest cost for most races, I wondered whether the municipality had donated their services for this event. Sadly not, with Nathalie Roelf confirming, “We paid for almost all the services that were provided on the route. The provincial government did sponsor crime wardens to supplement our security at the race venue.”
I really enjoyed the downtown Joburg part of the route and it is a pity a bit more of the city itself cannot be explored. One of the high points of the route (metaphorically) and the definite high point (literally) is Constitution Hill. The Hill reduced most of the those around me to a constitutional walk until the summit was breached at 1788m above sea level (just before the 25km mark).
Another drawcard on this section of the route is the opportunity to run over Nelson Mandela Bridge without the risk of getting mown down by a taxi. Whilst not quite as spectacular as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Nelson Mandela Bridge does have the benefit of having far fewer Australians around it.
You leave the city via the Carr Street onramp which provides a short, sharp tester to get back onto the M1 highway and from there it’s straight back to Kibler Park.
With the majority of the route being on the M1, and the thought of obnoxious Australians still fresh in my mind, these AC/DC lyrics kept popping into my head…
“Don’t need reason
Don’t need rhyme
Ain’t nothin’ that I’d rather do
Goin’ down
Party time
My friends are gonna be there too
I’m on the highway to hell
On the highway to hell
Highway to hell
I’m on the highway to hell”
The final eight kilometres are a steady drop broken by two short but steep hills. The runners’ highway exit comes with two kilometres to go and it was at this point that I pulled into the final support table which was operated by Rand Water.
Although there were a couple of organisational issues on the day, kudos must go to Johannesburg Harriers who were able to stock the Rand Water table with more water than most of Johannesburg had received for the entire month of March*.
* On that note, I am planning to watch the new Dune movie this weekend. Not for entertainment value but just to get some water conversation tips from the Fremen.
There were just under 1000 finishers in the marathon which is up from the 640 and 642 from Jackie Gibson in 2022 and 2023 (but still well below the pre-Covid numbers which were usually over 1500). However, there were plenty of people to chat to along the way. I was busy finishing off my “The Lunatics are Ruining the Asylum (the fight against idiotic athletics officialdom)” article that weekend. Therefore, I struck up a conversation with anyone I spotted who had a permanent number or Comrades finishers’ badge sewn onto their vest to ask their opinion about ASA’s plans to make badges on running vests a disqualifiable offence (none of the responses were printable in case you were wondering).
One of the runners I got talking to was Ian Kingon from Alberton who ran his first Comrades in 2000 and has run every one since then (including the full distance over the virtual runs). He is also something of a stats fundi and mentioned that he’s been tracking all the other 2000 novices and only two other ‘Comrades millennials’ have run every run since then.
I was planning a leisurely stroll to the finish line when clubmate Peter Reavy pulled up alongside me and I ended up running my fastest kilometre of the day (and probably also year) as we headed back to finish line at the Klipriviersberg Recreation Centre.
Whilst we might have conquered the highway to hell, the route map looks like a treacherous hangman’s noose with a knot at each end. The total climbing over the route was 561m which is fairly challenging but still a lot easier than the 734m of the Jackie Gibson route.
I guess the big question to answer is, “How does the Johannesburg City Marathon compare to the Jackie Gibson?” I’ve called Jackie Gibson, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre of marathons – connoisseurs of pain, horror and gore will love it whilst the weak and squeamish will hate every minute.” Johannesburg City is a PG-13 version of this. There’s definitely more mass-market appeal with the new route (and great potential for growth) but it lacks the grit and old school charm that Jackie Gibson provided. Let’s hope that there’s room on the calendar for both races in future.
