This article was originally published in the official 2025 Comrades Marathon Souvenir Race Magazine and was edited by Sean Falconer.
Julian Karp loves running marathons, and he has traversed every corner of the country to get his marathon-running fix, making him probably the most recognised recreational runner on South African roads. (If you have not seen Julian’s flowing locks of hair and ripped physique on the road somewhere near you, can you call yourself a real runner?) Now he has his sights set on another incredible marathoning feat at this year’s Comrades Marathon. – BY STUART MANN
I’ve known Julian since well before he ran his 20th marathon… which was many years before I ran my first. At the time, I was a student with a hairstyle rivalling Julian’s famous locks, and I was earning some extra cash by waitering in a Spur. Julian was a regular customer who would come in after a gym session, for a grilled chicken burger and a side salad. He ran with my father, so I’d often alleviate the boredom of a quiet shift with a conversation about running.
When I eventually started running myself, I regularly saw Julian on the Gauteng roads. I remember bumping into him one Sunday morning whilst running the Soweto Marathon in 2011. He was, of course, on his second marathon of the weekend, and nonchalantly told me that he had set himself the challenge of running 50 marathons in his 50th year – and he duly did just that, with 35 standard marathons and 15 ultras that year. Then in 2016, Julian ran 50 standard marathons and 12 ultras to set the South African record of 62 official marathons in a calendar year!
Julian has had his sights on reaching 1000 marathons for some time now, and has been steadily knocking them off. He started this year on 984 and his plan was to run his 1000th at the original Athens Marathon in November, but deep down, I knew that there was no way that Julian could help himself and curtail his marathon running addiction to that extent… and so here we are, several months ahead of schedule, with Julian set to start his 30th Comrades Marathon on 8 June with his running record showing 999.
(Sidenote: Julian only counts official road marathons or ultras, so the handful of trail ultras he has completed are only listed on his unofficial catalogue. Also, most long-distance runners in South Africa are defined by their Comrades pedigree, but Julian is the exception. His 29 Comrades are just a few incidental ticks on the most impressive recreational running CV in South Africa, with Comrades making up less than 3% of his marathons.)
Doctor’s Orders to Run
One of the myths of marathon running is that it’s bad for the knees. In Julian’s case, his bad knees were good news for his marathon running. You see, Julian originally got into road running as part the rehabilitation process after tearing his cruciate ligament playing soccer for the Wits first team. Julian explains, “I came from a very strong and competitive soccer environment. After tearing my cruciate ligament, I was introduced to running by a doctor friend of mine.” It seems the prescription was a success.
The running bug quickly took hold and Julian ran his first marathon at Peninsula in February 1990. However, what will surprise many people, is that Julian had a very sedate start to his running career. Over his first 12 years of running, he averaged just six marathons a year. Then in year 13 (2002), he doubled his previous year’s output to 14, but that was just the start… ‘Mr Slow Burn’ was about to become ‘Mr Raging Furnace.’ Excluding the disrupted COVID years, he has averaged in the mid-40s every year since then!
Julian credits this parabolic increase in his marathon output to the Comrades Marathon increasing its cut-off time to 12 hours in 2003, and says this was the accelerant that fuelled his running fire. “The 12-hour cut-off led to an explosion of new marathons on the running calendar, and I decided to run as many as I could.” Before that he had ‘only’ run 88 marathons in 13 years. So, Julian’s meteoric marathon acceleration can be explained in simple economic terms: The supply of marathons increased, and Julian responded in kind by increasing his demand to run them!
A HercJulian Task
Julian is very cautious about his chances at Comrades 2025. He has just one DNF in his 35-year running career, which came at Comrades 2024. The body can only take so much, and Julian has been struggling with a bad hip injury for a couple of years. The injury was made worse when he tried to separate some squabbling baboons at his home in Hartbeespoort and tripped on a loose brick.
Fortunately for his running goals, Julian has an incredibly high pain threshold and is able to apply this fortitude both on and off the road. Although he no longer plays football himself, the ability to overcome mental torture comes in handy, as he is an ardent supporter of both Tottenham Hotspurs and Kaizer Chiefs. I asked him which had better odds, him finishing Comrades this year or Tottenham winning the English Premier League next season. Julian is a naïve optimist, without skipping a beat he said, “Tottenham winning the league.”
When I asked him recently, Julian gave himself a 10% chance of making the 12-hour cutoff this year, upping it to 20% “if the weather is good.” However, Julian then remembered that with the two-group start this year, he’ll be at the front of the second batch, and he adjusted his calculations accordingly: “This will save me at least five minutes, so let’s add another 5%”. Personally, I’d give Julian a 30% to 50% chance – the even odds dependent on whether he manages to stick to his promise to not run anything longer than 10km in the final few weeks before the 8 June.
The World According to Karp
Whilst Julian is entirely predictable when it comes to diet (his staple before a marathon is chicken viennas), drink (black coffee, tomato juice or sparkling water – depending on the time of day) and desire (his affections are evenly spread across the multitude of marathons in South Africa), he can still sometimes surprise with his answers to questions. When I asked him what he considered his greatest achievement in running, it was not a specific race or result, but the people and friends he has made along the way. “Achievement in running is encompassed in the privilege, passion, people and places visited whilst being involved in the greatest sport on earth,” he says, adding that he runs to be with the people he loves and truly feels at home with.
Julian’s advice to fellow marathon-running aficionados is simple: “I believe in three pointers. One, run clean and appreciate the fantastic venues we are privileged to run in; two, respect other athletes; and three, run your own race – if you train hard and correctly, you will achieve all your goals.”
That said, if I had R100 for every time Julian said, “That marathon was fantastic, definitely a top 10 marathon,” I would have enough money for a lifetime supply of running shoes! I once tried to write an article on “Julian Karp’s Top 10 marathons” but the never-married bachelor clearly has commitment issues. I was given a very, very long list, and couldn’t afford the disk space to try and fit all of Julian’s favourite marathons onto my blog site!
However, I was able to get Julian to tell me what he looks for in a marathon: “The uniqueness of the event, the event organisation, value for money and the history of race. The only criteria that is not a factor is distance from home or difficulty to get there, as travel is part of the journey.”
An Authentic Influencer
If someone makes you run more marathons than you are planning to, does that make the person a good or bad influence? Whilst Julian ritually runs two marathons a weekend (and three if the opportunity allows for it over a long weekend), I am strictly a one marathon a weekend guy. However, Julian did convince me to join him for a weekend double in PE (now Gqeberha) and Mthatha one year. I can confirm that running back-to-back marathons is much easier than running Comrades, but I prefer to run my marathons on Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend relaxing and drinking beer. Julian doesn’t drink. This is a vice… because I firmly believe that running two marathons a weekend is one of the side-effects.
However, I am glad to report that the influencing happens both ways. Last year, I found a new marathon in Gqeberha on Good Friday. I told Julian about it, but thought I’d be flying solo, as he sent me a message saying, “Pity to miss this, but the flights are too expensive.” A few days before the marathon, he sent me another message: “I am getting FOMO on the Friday marathon – please forward your flight details and I will see what I can do.” And a day later, this communication saga was concluded with, “I’ve booked my flights. You are a bad influence on me, Mr Mann.”
It was another fantastic marathon, but then, every marathon with Julian is memorable. As the African proverb says, “If you want to run fast, run alone. If you want to run far, run together.” I’d like to add, if you want to run far and have a great time while doing so, travel with Julian. I have been privileged to travel with him to many marathons, and each and every one has been unforgettable.
It will be truly fantastic if Julian is able to complete both his 1000th marathon and 30th Comrades on 8 June. However, if there is one person whose greatness transcends Comrades, it is Julain Karp. No one will remember whether he finished his running career with 29 or 30 Comrades, but we will remember Julian as the first South African to complete 1000 official marathons, for the friendliness he’s shown to every runner on the road, and as the undisputed G.O.A.T. of South African recreational running!
Afterword
Unfortunately Julian did not make it to the finish line under 12 hours at Comrades but he has picked the 2025 Soweto Marathon as the race he wants to use for his 1000th official marathon as this is an event that has special significance to him. In the event that Soweto is cancelled, Julian has Bluff on the following day as his backup plan.
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I remember Julian from the early days, when he ran with us at Celtics.
Was very sorry when he left to live in Joberg, 1000 marathons is a fantastic and unmatched achievement and wish him well at Soweto.
In a 25-year career as a running journo and magazine editor, I have written about or edited articles on many, many inspirational athletes. This stands out as one of my favourites to have worked on, because I have known Julian for a number of years, and I am just as inspired by his incredible feats as The Running Mann is. (It is also a fantastically well-written article by The The Running Mann, as is the norm for his articles, which makes my job as an editor so much easier!)
Kudo’s to both Julian and Stuart for their contributions to the rich tapestry of SA road running.
Thanks for the kind words Sean!