March 2025 - The Running Mann

30th March 202530th March 2025

What a Mess! (A Two Oceans Communication Breakdown)

Lest I be accused of trolling, I rarely comment on the social media posts of South Africa’s big races. Who needs casual trolling anyway when you can unleash your inner ogre with a 4,000-word rant on your blog? However, I could not resist breaking out from ‘read only’ mode when the below post from Two Oceans Marathon appeared on my Facebook feed.

The phrase that caught my attention was, “The stakes are high: R250,000 for the male and female champions, with an additional R250,000 for anyone who shatters the course record…”.

28th March 20254th April 2026

Blue Number Bummer (Two Oceans downgrades their loyalty program)

A Two Oceans Blue Number is quite literally a badge of honour. In terms of street credibility for the recreational South Africa distance runner, it is second only to Comrades’ Green Number. Many a Two Oceans ultra marathon novice lines up at the start in Newlands for a maiden voyage, hoping to one day be standing there in a Blue Number. I certainly did when I stood at the start of my first Oceans in 2002.

13th March 202518th March 2025

Update on ASA Deregistration / Paid ASA contactor, Modern Athlete, Heavily Criticised

I chatted to a business law expert about the implication of Athletics South Africa (ASA) being deregistered on 5 February 2025. She told me that, as it stands right now, “Legally they are dead in the water. It’s like someone has blown their head off with a shotgun – they no longer exist.”

The deregistration is a result of ASA not filing their annual returns, required forms or paying company fees for the last 3 years. Any supposed issues with SARS and former directors are totally irrelevant to the deregistration. Essentially the issue is one of negligence and dereliction of duty from ASA’s directors and accountants / auditors.

12th March 202513th March 2025

Save the Date (An evaluation of Cape Town Marathon’s date change)

Cape Town Marathon announced that the 2026 race date was moving to the end of May and the South African road running internet went mad. Social media is great at polarizing people and this case was no different…

In the left corner you had the Comrades runners, gloves up and spitting mad that the new race date is two weeks before Comrades meaning that they must choose between the two biggest and most prestigious distance races in South Africa in 2026.

In the right corner, you had the ‘a marathon is far enough’ camp, gloves up and spitting mad at runners who think the world revolves around the Comrades Marathon (and also seemingly very upset at ‘entitled’ Comrades runners being very upset).

11th March 202517th March 2025

The Running Mann’s Guide to April 2025 Marathons

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

A summary of your choices is below:

7th March 202510th March 2025

Staggered Starts (Comrades introduces the Two Pot System)

Just when South African runners thought it was safe to go back onto the internet after Cape Town Marathon’s new race date announcement, the Comrades Marathon decided it was time to get their share of the social media limelight with the announcement of staggered starts for the first time in the race’s 104-year-old history.

2nd March 202515th March 2025

ASA Happy to let Rapist Run Loose Amongst Vulnerable Young Athletes (Normalising Rape Culture in South Africa)

Despite being provided with unequivocal proof that the President of Athletics Free State (AFS) is a rapist who is still serving a suspended sentence, Athletics South Africa (ASA) are content to let him run free amongst vulnerable women and children under his ‘care and custodianship’. Court documents confirming the rape conviction were originally presented to ASA in July 2024. After legal pressure, ASA finally met with the AFS Board eight months later on 21 February but have delayed making any decision or taking any action against the rapist until 15 March. However, they did issue a ‘gag order’ against whistleblowers within the AFS athletics structures from ‘talking to the media’. The complete lack of action from the ASA Board is normalising rape culture in South Africa.

Rhetoric around Gender Based Violence (GBV) is everywhere. You can’t escape it. From billboards to t-shirts, from hashtags to celebrities on social media and of course politicians looking concerned and saying all the right things in front of television cameras. Sadly, it is even harder for women and vulnerable persons to escape the actual rapists and sexual predators – especially when they are men in positions of power.

The rapists are no longer lurking in the shadows, they are sitting comfortably in the boardrooms and greedily massaging in the changerooms. Talk is cheap and the politicians and officials entrusted with protecting our women and children are easily bought when the rapist is rich and powerful.