This article provides statistics and analysis of South Africa’s 2023 marathon and ultra road running season. Comparisons are made to 2019 (pre-Covid) and 2022 (first full post-Covid season).

Total Events

There were a total of 114 events, comprising 93 standard marathons and 23 ultras and. This is just below the 2019 number of 119 events but a big increase from the 2022 number of 99 events.

There were 11 new races (marathon unless otherwise noted): Makoro Village, Tshwane North 50k, Titaniums, Kuruman, Buffalo City, Northridge Mall, Red Star, Great Kei, South Coast, Mdantsane and Elias Resort Nzhelele Valley.

Notable marathon and ultra absentees were (marathon unless otherwise noted): Jeppe, Potties, Zabalaza (runners arrived on race morning to find that the organisers had not actually organised a marathon route), Bruintjieshoogte 50k, Hemel & Aarde (road works), Arthur Creswell Memorial 52k, Amathole (cancelled due to the condition of the road), Prison to Prison.

We welcomed back the following event that did not take place in 2022: Red Hill, Akasia, Ottosdal, Cango, Sapphire Coast, Run 4 Cancer 46k, , Loskop 50k, Chatsworth 52k and Laingsburg (which was a 56k and not the traditional 80k).

Marathons by Province

KwaZulu Natal retains its position as the richest province for long distance runners followed by Gauteng and the Western Cape. Together, these three provinces have 50% of the marathons and ultras. The poorest provinces for the marathon enthusiast are Northern Cape and North West. The Northern Cape is also the only province not to host an ultra.

We have the anomaly in South African athletics of having 9 official provinces but 17 “athletics provinces” – the graph below provides a more detailed breakdown of events by athletics province. A good challenge is to run a marathon in all 17 (to the best of my knowledge only two people, Julian Karp and myself, have managed this to date).*

* Special mention to Jonathan Kaplan who has done 16/17 and is now looking for a Transkei marathon with a generous cutoff!

Costs & Inflation

Whilst KZN has the most marathons and ultras, they are also the most expensive to run at over R8 per km. Gauteng and Limpopo fill out the “most expensive podium”. Western Cape and Free State are the only provinces below R6 per km with Free State running definitely not free but by some way the cheapest at R5.38 per km.

The countrywide average is R6.91 per km which is up 6.4% from the 2022 average of R6.49 per km. However, bear in mind that the pre-covid 2019 average was R4.56 per km. Several provinces (Gauteng, North West and Free State) were able to reduce their average costs this year. The biggest increases were in the Eastern Cape (23.9%) and Mpumalanga (22.7%).

Looking at the average cost by athletics province shows that the South Western Districts (which includes the Garden Route and Karoo) have by far the cheapest marathon with a R4.01 per km average. There are also some stunners here so factor the SWD into your 2024 marathon running holiday plans. North West Central (Potch and Klerksdorp) are the second more economical but this contrasts with the North West North which only has Om Die Dam being the most expensive.

Comment on race costs: In most cases the race fees are 100% justified based on the expenses incurred. Other than the large ‘professional races’, most races struggle to make a meagre profit and many struggle to break even.  For city races the largest cost is usually for the traffic department. In general the big beneficiaries or road running events are the local municipality.

Most Expensive

The list is dominated by the “big name” races. Despite a 0% price increase, Comrades remains the most expensive rand per kilometre race. If you ran all 10 on the most expensive list, it would cost R5,976 in entry fees. As a comparison entering the London Marathon ballot will set you back about R3,500.

I’ve run all 10 on the list and, in my opinion, there’s still good value but organisers will need to look at creative ways to halt increases or it will exclude a large portion of the running community.

It’s also worthwhile reiterating a previous statement: The main beneficiaries of road running are not the organising clubs but the traffic authorities and other service providers (and this is where most of your entry fees go).

Least Expensive

The Knysna Heads Marathon loses it’s number one spot to the Laingsburg 56k – both these races have fantastic scenery and highly recommended for a marathon weekend away.

There’s some amazing value on this list (and a few races even throw in a free race t-shirt). I can recommend all 8 of the 10 I’ve run (just missing Umzila Ka Tambo and Beaufort West Kanniedood) and several will appear on runner’s Top 10 lists (Ottosdal and Outeniqua are on mine).

Links to detailed race reports for those I’ve run since starting the blog are below:

Ottosdal Night Marathon (Testing the Limits of Delayed Gratification): http://runningmann.co.za/2019/02/21/ottosdal-night-marathon/

Knysna Heads Marathon (The Return of the Jetty): http://runningmann.co.za/2019/05/01/knysna-heads-marathon/

Real Gijimas Ultra (Every village needs an idiot): http://runningmann.co.za/2019/05/15/real-gijimas-ultra/

Outeniqua Marathon (The One I Almost Missed): http://runningmann.co.za/2018/05/26/outeniqua-marathon/

Prince Mangosuthu Ultra (The Dundee double): http://runningmann.co.za/2019/09/08/prince-mangosuthu-ultra/

Karoo 80k Ultra (Flood Levelling-Up in Laingsburg): http://runningmann.co.za/2019/11/17/karoo-80k/

Entry Fee Increases (and Decreases)

Rising costs and economic pressure meant that most races needed to increase their entry fees. The increases are generally lower that the 2022 data where several races (including Comrades) doubles their entry fees. The table below includes the Top 10 (note: where no 2022 event occurred the previous event’s entry fee was used).

Despite inflationary pressures, nine events managed to drop their prices. Top of the chart was Aquelle Joburg North City – well done to Graham Block and the RunZone team. I also see that they have managed to do another price drop in 2024 to R250 (R273 with admin fees). I suspect that this will be the cheapest 2024 marathon in Gauteng.

14 events also managed to keep their entry 2023 entries the same as 2022: AECI Mielie, Volksrust, Vodacom Meerkat, Kloppers, John Nugent, Ethekwini Best of Best, Edenvale, Om Die Dam 50k, Human Rights Real Gijimas 50k, Umgeni Water, Goldi Standerton, Irene 48k, MiWay Wally Hayward and Comrades.

Finisher Numbers

Overall 2023 Finishers

The good news is that the total number of 2023 marathon / ultra finishers is up by 31.1% from 2022 figures (ultra finishers alone are up by 38%). However, the bad news is that we are still nowhere near to 2019 pre-Covid figures – overall 2023 finishers were still about 22% fewer than the 2019 number.

I suspect that the drop in numbers will persist with rising entry fees, financial pressures and competition from other recreational activities. It’s also interesting to note that 40% of the finishers come from the four largest events (Comrades, Cape Town, Two Oceans and Soweto). Based on comments received on social media, many runners are choosing the frugal option of running more long club runs and entering less official marathons.

There also seems to be fewer younger recreational runners entering the sport. I was recently contacted by the race director of a popular 15km Gauteng race. They had more veterans than open runners (and consider that Vets is a 10 year age block whereas open is a 20 year block) and there were less than 100 runners under 30 participating.

Biggest Marathons

Comrades maintains their spot as the largest marathon or ultra in South Africa (and by far the largest ultra in the world) but Cape Town Marathon is nipping at their heels with a massive jump in finisher numbers. Although there is plenty of moaning on social media about entry fees, the most expensive races are still the most popular.

Four additional ultras crack the Top 10: Two Oceans, Om Die Dam, Irene and Loskop. Chatsworth is the other ultra with over 1000 finishers (outside of South Africa there were only a couple of ultras in Japan with over 1000 finishers last time I checked).

Most of the races improved on their 2022 numbers – the only one in the Top 10 that didn’t was Om Die Dam (-1778). However, most races are still well below their pre-Covid 2019 numbers. The only two events that buck the trend are Cape Town (+3715) and Chatsworth (+119). I’ll do some analysis on the total number of marathon / ultra finishers by year in a future post.

In total there were 26 marathons and ultras with over 1000 finishers (up from 18 in 2022 but below the pre-Covid 2019 figure of 33) and Benoni missed out by just 1 runner. The only events on this list that I’ve not run in the past are the recently new Durban International Marathon and Benoni Northerns. I thought I’d spent enough time on my feet in Benoni over 10 Johnson Cranes but I plan on helping BNAC reach quadruple finisher figures in 2024.

BNAC had the largest club organised event in 2022 but in 2024 this honour goes to Alpha Centurion with MiWay Wally Hayward (5^th overall) narrowly followed by Nelspruit MC’s Kaapsehoop Marathon.

Smallest Marathons

I can assure you that bigger is not always better, there are some absolute gems on the smallest finishers table. If there’s still space on your new year resolution lists then add a couple of these races to your 2024 plans. There are definitely a few far flung marathons that are worth planning a road trip holiday around.

Below are the 25 smallest marathons / ultras by number of finishers. The Karoo claimed joint first with the Laingsburg 56k and Beaufort West Kanniedood (which is run around the Karoo National Park) who both had just 17 finishers.

The Biggest Winners

A massive marketing push to get the Sanlam Cape Marathon on the World Marathon Majors map and many organisational innovations saw the event gain an additional 4,000 finishers and top the chart. As far as I know, Cape Town Marathon is the first standard marathon to achieve over 10,000 finishers in a single distance (only Comrades and Two Oceans have achieved this since I’ve being doing stats).

There were some events still operating under Covid restrictions in 2022 which has an impact on the positive numbers. Several events that more than doubled their finisher numbers with Vaal River City achieving a massive 445% jump from 308 to 1677.

Note: Where no 2022 event took place, the “Previous Finishers” numbers in the tables are based on the highest number of finishers between 2019 and 2021.

The Biggest Losers

In general those who had large drops in numbers suffered from scheduling where they benefitted from having no competition around the 2022 event or having other popular races close to their race date. Some, like Benoni Northerns at the top of the chart, got double-whammied with a good 2022 date followed by a congested 2023 date.

I suspect that entry fee increases (especially where there is a cheaper marathon in the same area and time period) impacted the Om Die Dam and Dolphin Coast. On the case of the North West N12 50k, their 2022 event was a shambles resulting in a big drop in 2023 numbers (their 2023 event was much better organised).

Marathons by Month

The graphs below show the spread of marathons and ultras over the year. The marathon schedule revolves around the Comrades (and to a lesser extent Two Oceans) qualification period. With the 28 August 2022 Comrades race date and allowing a full year qualification period, 2022 had a much more even spread of marathons over the year.

In 2023, we are back to having most marathons (55%) crammed into February, March and April (which are also some of the hottest months of the year to run).

The Comrades qualification time period is roughly 8 months (two-thirds of the year) but 88% of South Africa’s marathons and ultras take place in this narrow 8-month window.

Personally, I think both Comrades and Two Oceans should allow full year (i.e. race date to race date) qualification to balance the running calendar better. Analysis on Comrades qualification marathons at the 2022 event showed that those who ran their qualifiers earlier (e.g. in Oct/Nov 2021) performed much better (higher finish rate and faster average time) than those who did late qualifiers. There is no statistical justification for limiting the qualification to a 8-month window.

Most Popular Comrades Qualifiers

Not done for 2023 as I received the data extract too late.

Marathons by Route Type

Here’s a look at the marathons / ultras by route type. Personally I like circular and out-and-back routes the best. I am surprised at how many of the new events are point-to-point as this makes logistics much more difficult (e.g. transport needed to start / finish) and a much earlier wake-up for the runners (which I am sure leads to a drop off in entries).

Double-lap marathons dominate in the metropoles which is largely driven by cost considerations (traffic police are the major beneficiaries of road running) and a double-lap usually halves the costs of traffic control but there are also other cost factors like half the number of support tables.

I’ve also included the route type by province which shows how double-lappers dominate in the Gauteng and KZN whilst the Eastern Cape helps boost their transport industry with almost exclusively point-to-point events.

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