January 2025 - The Running Mann

29th January 202523rd March 2025

Mdantsane Marathon (Get in the ring)

[MARATHON #277 / UNIQUE MARATHON #170 / 7 December 2024]

The whole of South Africa slows down in December and good marathons are hard to find (but a hard marathon is always good to find). Luckily the Eastern Cape provides some festive cheer for the obsessive marathon runner, hosting the only two pre-Christmas options – the 1City Marathon in Gqeberha and the Mdantsane Marathon just outside East London. Unfortunately, this presents a Christmas predicament for the marathon enthusiast as they were both run on the first Saturday in December in 2024. Having run the 1City Marathon in 2023, Julian and I opted to head to Buffalo City and tackle the hills of Mdantsane.

25th January 202515th March 2025

An Ethical Call: Pulling my Column from Modern Athlete

Sadly the current issue will be my final column for Modern Athlete. After 6 years of sharing humorous marathon reports from every corner of the country, I have decided to pull my monthly column (which I write for free) with the news that editor Sean Falconer has left Modern Athlete. I found this out recently when I contacted him to chat about ideas for upcoming editions, and I was shocked when he informed me that he had resigned his position a month ago and sold his shares in the business to his now former partners, Roxanne Martin and Richard Laskey.

I do not feel comfortable having my articles continue appearing in the magazine, because while I have the utmost respect for Falconer as an editor and journalist, I don’t feel I can say the same for Martin, who was editor of the infamous 2024 Two Oceans Marathon Digimag, published by Modern Athlete on behalf of the Two Oceans Marathon and was caught out in the deceit and dishonesty that followed the cutoff controversy. (https://runningmann.co.za/2024/04/30/two-oceans-2024-copycat-cutoff-chaos/)

24th January 202524th January 2025

Comrades 2024: Start Line Stats

This is a part of a series of articles covering statistics from Comrades 2024. Other articles are Comrades 2024: Women’s Elite Stats, Comrades 2024: Men’s Elite Stats and Full Field Stat (to come). Depending on time, I will also do a detailed article on Qualifier Marathon Stats.

Note: Most of the content was originally posted on social media so there might be some past case / future case errors I missed when transcribing.

First Record Broken at Comrades 2024

The class of 2024 were officially the oldest group of starters at any Comrades Marathon where age records exist. As you can see from the graph below, the average age of the Comrades runner has steadily increased since 1990 from 35 to over 44 post-Covid.

Two noticeable step changes happened. The first was a full year increase from 39 to 40 in 2003 when the cutoff time was permanently increased to 12-hours. However, the biggest increase was the first post-Covid event which went from 42.1 in 2019 to 44 in 2022. I believe this is largely due to new joiners to the great sport of road running being “lost” during the Covid shutdowns with no road running fixtures (and most participants in 2022 were already “marathon runners” pre-Covid).

18th January 202522nd January 2025

The Running Mann’s Guide to February 2025 Marathons

This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s February 2025 marathons including race descriptions and recommendations. You can find the full 2025 marathon / ultra calendar here.

A summary of your choices is below:

9th January 20259th January 2025

2024 Marathon & Ultra Statistics

This article provides detailed statistics and analysis of South Africa’s 2024 marathon and ultra road running season.

Total Events

There were a total of 129 events, comprising 106 standard marathons, 22 ultras and 1 combo (Benoni Northerns which offered a marathon and a 48k). This is 10 more than the pre-Covid number and the highest since I’ve been tracking marathons. On a personal note, I still have 29 (plus whatever new marathons arise in 2025 to run).

There were 16 new races (marathon unless otherwise noted): Air Force Base Makhado, Mapungubwe, Johannesburg City, Festival of Running, Gazamed, Lemo Mall, Nedbank Coastal Marathon, Musina, Mpumalanga, Masingita Mall, Makhuduthamaga Mayor’s, Fetakgomo Tubatse, Midvaal MADMAC, Waterberg, Hope Challenge and NRB Harriers Challenge.

8th January 20259th January 2025

The impact of 4h50 vs 5h00 Comrades qualification (and a short history of Comrades qualification criteria)

Earlier today, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) announced that the qualification time for the 2025 event would revert to 5h00 for a standard marathon. The qualification time was changed from 5h00 to 4h50 for the 2019 event. This article provides statistical analysis on the Comrades finish rates between various qualification times and a brief history of Comrades qualification criteria.

The requirement to run a qualifying marathon was introduced in 1975 (the same year that women and non-white athletes were officially allowed to take part). At that stage Comrades could only accommodate 1,500 entrants, was heavily oversubscribed and the 4h30 qualification was a way to ensure that those entering Comrades had the best chance of being able to finish. There was not (and never has been) a medical reason requiring the running of a qualification marathon.

Did it work? I would say, “Yes”. The 1975 Comrades had a finish rate of 91.5% which was the highest ever up to that point. However, the impact might not have been as dramatic as some would expect – the preceding five Comrades had finish rates of 84.3%, 87.7%, 82.7%, 89.7% and 86.1% respectively*.