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.

Race reports from the 6 that I managed to get to are below (will hopefully get to many of the others next year):

Mapungubwe Marathon (off with their heads)

Johannesburg City Marathon (up in the dumps)

Festival of Running Marathon (Earning your Easter eggs) 

Coastal Marathon (When you start to go postal…)

Musina Marathon (Borderline crazy)

MadMac Marathon (a cure for coulrophobia)

Marathons by Province

KwaZulu Natal retains its position as the richest province for long distance runners. Limpopo (4^th in 2023) leapfrogs Gauteng and Western Cape into 2^nd. Gauteng retains a spot on the podium but Western Cape drops all the way to 6^th behind Mpumalanga and Eastern Cape. The top 3 provinces host 50% of the races.

The poorest provinces for the marathon enthusiast are still the 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!

Total Finishers

There were a total of 121,480 official finishers in 2024 (79,576 marathon and 41,904 ultra – note: this is the grand total and not the individuals). The good news is that the total number of 2023 marathon / ultra finishers is up by 15.2% from 2023 figures (ultra finishers are up by 17.1%). However, we’re still 8.5% below the 2019 pre-Covid figures. Interestingly the ultra figures are almost back to 2019 levels so depressed marathon numbers may be due to cost pressure and runners doing fewer official marathons as preparation for Comrades.

Rising entry fees, financial pressures and competition from other recreational activities will continue to impact the numbers. It’s also interesting to note that over 36% of the finishers come from the 3 largest events (Comrades, Cape Town and Two Oceans). Furthermore, whilst there were 129 events in 2024, the top ten events account for 54% of the total finishes.

Biggest Fields

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 for the second consecutive year. Although there is plenty of moaning on social media about entry fees, the most expensive races are still the most popular.

Only two additional ultras crack the Top 10: Two Oceans and Om Die Dam (this is change from previous years when half the top 10 were ultras). However, it’s still worth noting that outside of South Africa there are only a couple of ultras in Japan with over 1000 finishers (the last time I checked anyway).

Although there were 129 events in 2024, the top 3 events account for over 36% of the total finishers, the top 10 events 54% and the top 20 events 68%.

Most of the races improved on their 2023 numbers – the only two in the Top 20 that didn’t were Loskop and Irene. However, most races are still below their pre-Covid 2019 numbers. The only two events that buck the trend are Cape Town (+6767) and Comrades (+593).

In total there were 28 marathons and ultras with over 1000 finishers (up from 26 in 2023 and 18 in 2022 but below the pre-Covid 2019 figure of 33). Alpha Centurion keep their record as being the largest club organised event with MiWay Wally Hayward (5^th overall) narrowly followed by Benoni Harriers Johnson Crane and Nelspruit MC’s Kaapsehoop Marathon.

Smallest Fields

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 2025 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. Zabalaza (which in 2023 forgot to organise the marathon and 21k they advertised and only offered a 10k) and Laingsburg (which was arranged at the last minute) claimed joint first with just 17 finishers.

Biggest Growth / Decline

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 3,000 finishers on top of the 4,000 increase they achieved in 2023. Cape Town Marathon is the first and only 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).

Comrades, Two Oceans and Elands all grew by more than 1,000 finishers. Percentwise, the N12 Ultra (which was the last Comrades qualifier) achieved the highest growth (58%) with the Elands Marathon just under 50%.

The Biggest Losers

In general those who had large drops in numbers suffered from scheduling where there was a lot of competition on that particular weekend from other events.

Costs & Inflation

Whilst KZN has the most marathons and ultras, they are also the most expensive to run at R8.45 per km. Mpumalanga go from 4^th to 2^nd most expensive in 2024 largely on the back of the Loskop 50k and Mpumalanga Marathon (the latter which seems to have been a scam). Gauteng drops from 2^nd to 3^rd just 2c below the R8/km threshold. The Northern Cape may not have many marathons but they are the by some way the cheapest. The Free State is certainly not free but does also offer good value at R6/km.

The second graph tracks the history from Covid to 2024. The countrywide average is now R7.43/km which is up 7.5% from the 2023 average of R6.02 per km. However, bear in mind that the pre-covid 2019 average was R4.56 per km – so we’ve had a 63% increase since Covid. Two provinces (North West and Northern Cape) were able to reduce their average costs this year. Three provinces saw double digit inflation this year: Mpumalanga (15.1%), Western Cape (14.9%) and Free State (11.6%).

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 R4.64/km average (they were also the lowest in 2023). There are also some stunners here so factor the SWD into your 2025 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. It’s not just the property that’s expensive around Cape Town, you’ll pay here R9.05/km to run a marathon here (and like the property market, they seem to have a shortage of race entries).

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 biggest beneficiaries of road running events are the local municipality.

Most Expensive

The list is dominated by the “big name” races. The great R1 million Mpumalanga marathon scam goes straight to the top of the charts. Doubt we’ll see this race again so the 2025 title is up for grabs. Loskop returned in 2024 but at a very high entry fee securing a Mpumalanga 1-2.

Despite a 0% price increase, Comrades remains the 3^rd most expensive rand per kilometre race but does drop from the top of the most expensive chart since I’ve been doing these stats. With Comrades’ rich post-Covid cash surplus and a new Board in place, hopefully we’ll see reduction in entry fee for 2026.

If you ran all 10 on the most expensive list, it would cost R7,650 in entry fees. As a comparison entering the London Marathon ballot will set you back about R4,000.

I’ve run most 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.

Cheapest

If you’re looking for a good running deal, this is the list to check out. With the Knysna Heads Marathon increasing their entry fee by R5, the Umzila ka Tambo Marathon moves into the #1 spot. The inaugural (and highly recommended) Festival of Running along the Gqeberha coastline rounds off the podium.

There’s some amazing value on this list (and a few races even throw in a free race t-shirt). I can recommend all those that I’ve run. Links to detailed race reports for those I’ve run since starting the blog are below:

Knysna Heads Marathon (The Return of the Jetty)

Festival of Running Marathon (Earning your Easter eggs)

Laingsburg Karoo 80k Ultra (Flood Levelling-Up in Laingsburg)

Prince Mangosuthu Ultra (The Dundee double)

Ottosdal Night Marathon (Testing the Limits of Delayed Gratification)

Entry Fee Increases

Rising costs and economic pressure meant that many races needed to increase their entry fees. The increases are generally lower that the 2022 and 2023 data where several races (including Comrades) doubled their entry fees. The table below includes the Top 10 by rand value increase (Note: in 2024 I included the admin fee in the price hence Comrades shows as a R80 increase).

Despite inflationary pressures, 14 events managed to drop their prices. Top of the chart was Om Die Dam who managed a R160 reduction. Hillcrest, Seshego 50k, John Nugent and Kuruman all managed triple figure reductions.

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. Half of the marathons are crammed into the three month period from February to April. This is actually down from 55% in 2023.

With Comrades now allowing full year qualification, there is some scope for race organisers in July, August and October (the latter of which is surprisingly sparse on marathons).

For the 2024 event, the Comrades qualification period was from 1 September which was approximately 8 months (two-thirds of the year) and 96% of South Africa’s marathons and ultras took place in this narrow 8-month window. Hopefully Comrades announces that the year-round qualification is a permanent change and race organisers respond appropriately.

Marathons by Route Type

Here’s a look at the marathons / ultras by route type. Marathons are fairly evenly split by the route type whereas ultras are dominated by point-to-point events (presumably this is the impact of Comrades impersonation).

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 the 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.

Prize Money

This is a new stat I started capturing in 2024 for the first prize value. Note: This is the “first prize” value (i.e. the male or female winner) and excludes record incentives and other non-cash awards. The Mpumalanga Marathon scam tops the list but it’s unlikely the winners will see any of the money. Unfortunately, the same sad situation also occurred for #10 on the list. It would be great if our athletics administrators focussed on resolving real issues like non-payment of winners rather than on territorial pissing contests and trying to be the fashion police.

Comrades is the biggest legitimate paycheck followed by Cape Town Marathon (note: this is the approximate value as the winning prize is $25,000) and Soweto and Two Oceans in joint third.

For interest, the final column is the first prize divided by the number of finishers. Your best ‘value’ can be found in a couple of rural KZN races with local municipality sponsorship. Of the larger races, City to City is another that had massive prize money with no corporate sponsorship.

The bar graph plots the first prize money for the 106 marathons I had data on. The most notable “for pride not money” event is Washie 100 miler that has no cash prizes for the winners. Most races offer a first prize of less than R5000 but bear in mind that there are many small town, small field marathons that are scratching around to break even.

However, no one in South Africa is going to retire on race winnings. If you won every marathon and ultra in 2024 (which is of course impossible), you would take home R2,827,300 (I’ve excluded Mpumalanga and Bhekizizwe Joseph Shabalala from this amount).

Afterword

I managed to run 21 of the 129 in 2024 (way behind Julian Karp who ran a whopping 55) but did want to share this awesome customised medal hanger I received from SA Medal Hangers. With the 2025 running season now upon us, this provides good motivation to clean the hanger and start working on filling it with 2025’s haul. Here’s wishing everyone a great 2025 with plenty of medals and mileage!

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