Humorous Anecdotes, Observations & Accounts of Marathon Running & Agile Adventures.
This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s September 2024 marathons and ultras including race descriptions and recommendations. You can find the full 2024 marathon / ultra calendar here.
[Note: I am currently unable to update the full calendar.]
A summary of your choices is below:
This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s September 2023 marathons and ultras including race descriptions and recommendations. You can find the full 2023 marathon / ultra calendar here.
A summary of your choices is below:
This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s August and September marathons and ultras including race descriptions, recommendations and travel information.
An August Comrades’ means that there is no much happening over these two months but the few options available are quality runs.
A summary of all your choices is below:
Continue reading “The Running Mann’s Guide to August / September 2022 Marathons & Ultras”
Although South Africa is known for being “ultra mad”, in reality our runners only have sporadic bouts of insanity with a select few races. The two main delirium inducing culprits are Comrades and Two Oceans (the only two ultra marathons in the world to record over 10,000 finishers) – and there are just three other ultras (Loskop, Om Die Dam and Irene) that boasted more than 1,000 finishers in 2019.
Furthermore, the second half of the year is particularly lucid with just a handful of road ultras on the calendar – and all these races have to be content with a few hundred institutionalised patients participants. You’d have to be crazy to voluntarily check yourself into the nuthouse. Likewise, there are no rational explanations for entering ultra marathons in the desert, only justifications – here are mine.
At 80 kilometres, Laingsburg’s Karoo Ultra is the only race on the calendar between the Two Oceans and Comrades distances making it what long distance snobs call a “proper ultra”. As such, it is a race that any self-professed running connoisseur must have on his CV. I also love a bargain – and with an entry fee of just R100 ($7/€6), this is the cheapest rand per kilometre race in the country (the further you run the more you save!).
Continue reading “Karoo 80k Ultra (Flood Levelling-Up in Laingsburg)”
The week leading up to this marathon had been one bad news story after another in South Africa. The perfect antidote for a bad week is a visit to Port Elizabeth, otherwise known as the Friendly City – especially if you get to run the Friendly City Marathon whilst there.
On arrival Port Elizabeth quickly reminded us of her other nickname, the Windy City, and the small amount of hair that I have left got given the full Alex Ferguson-hairdryer treatment on the short walk from the plane to the airport terminal.
Continue reading “Friendly City Marathon (the one with a tequila sunrise)”
“Just erotic. Nothing kinky. It’s the difference between using a feather and using a chicken.” – Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett was one of most creative writers of all time. However, I doubt that even within the zaniest recesses of his wild imagination did he ever imagine that these lines from his book “Eric” (1990) would be used to describe a marathon route. But then again Terry Pratchett never visited East London. Had he done so, the Discworld would have looked rather different!
Continue reading “Tony Viljoen Masters Marathon (Pure unadulterated running erotica)”