Zululand Archives - The Running Mann

[MARATHON #251 / UNIQUE MARATHON #148 / 29 May 2022]

It was a bleak May for marathons. After running the Seshego 50k on the opening day of the month, circumstances conspired against me. The 8^th of May is Mother’s Day and I am absolutely forbidden from running marathons on this weekend (since accidentally missing Mother’s Day for the Gabarone Marathon in 2018); I’d run all the far-flung marathons the following weekend and thought I’d save the travel budget for runs I’d not done before; The resurrected False Bay Ultra on 22 May is on my “to do” list but my mother was visiting us in Joburg that weekend and she would not have been impressed if her eldest son disappeared to Cape Town for a day. Continue reading “Tronox Marathon (The Empangeni sugar rush)”

[Marathon #216 / Unique Marathon #123 / 27 April 2019]

On the 27^th of April 1994, 20 million South Africans exercised their right to vote in our first non-racial democratic elections. Twenty-five years later, on the 27^th of April 2019, 214 runners exercised their legs and enjoyed their freedom to run marathons in the small Zululand town of Pongola.

Pongola (or uPhongolo as it’s known in Zulu) is a Kwazulu Natal town famous for its production of sugar cane and subtropical fruit which are harvested in the 50 km² of plantations that surround it. The town has a long history and hosts the grave site of the Zulu King Dingane. Continue reading “Pongola Marathon (The Zululand Sugar Rush)”