Humorous Anecdotes, Observations & Accounts of Marathon Running & Agile Adventures.
Reports were that no one who finished in the last 30 minutes of the Two Oceans half marathon received a medal – that means that they were at least 2410 medals short. Two Oceans’ published entry cap on the 2025 half was 17000. Their permit with the City of Cape Town allowed them to have 17,000 runners. However, there were 17,677 official finishers plus an additional 400 runners who started the race but did not finish before the 3h30 final cutoff.
I asked 41-time Two Oceans ultra marathon finisher Mark Raubenheimer for a “few quotes, comments and / or anecdotes” on Ian Benson for the article I was writing on Ian’s 40th Two Oceans.
A couple of days later Mark sent me back an email saying, “I think I ended up going down a rabbit warren when you reached out to me. I wrote this as an article but am not precious about it so happy for you to use the content as you see fit.”
Pirates clearly have a tendency to go ‘overboard’ (although I understand this is known as ‘walking the plank’ in Greenside lingo).
I did use a few segments in my main article on Ian (Benson & Legends (Ian Benson’s 40th Two Oceans ultra marathon)) but I thought this would be an ideal guest blog. So here it is courtesy of Mark Raubenheimer…
Continue reading “The P.I.R.A.T.E.S. Code”
When doing research on living legends in the running space like Ian Benson, a rich source of information are their club mates. I therefore asked a mutual friend, David Case, if he has any anecdotes, stories or snippets that he could share with me. David started his description of Ian with, “He’s a typical macho male.”
David is something of a kindred spirit when it comes to beer and, as is typical of his kind, framed the follow-up sentence in a drinking context, “Ian is always in the bar but he’s not one to be holding up the bar.*”
* After writing this article, I have to say that I think David got this one wrong as it would be more appropriate to say that Ian is normally the one ‘raising the bar’.
Continue reading “Benson & Legends (Ian Benson’s 40th Two Oceans ultra marathon)”
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…”.
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.
Continue reading “Blue Number Bummer (Two Oceans downgrades their loyalty program)”
Earlier this year, the Two Oceans Marathon (TOM) issued a media release, “New Chair and Vice Chair to head up TOM NPC as appointment of board is finalised”. Shortly afterwards I received a tip off from a credible source who prefers to remain anonymous that the announcement contained several inaccuracies on the qualifications and running pedigree of new Chairperson Toni Cavanagh.
Continue reading “Lies, Damn Lies & Two Oceans Press Releases (Has the Chair embellished her running and professional CV?)”It is in times of great turmoil that you hope for a hero. Someone who will step forward to create sense and order from the chaos. Someone who will do the right thing when others cower and hide. Someone who will act with the maturity and integrity that their peers seem incapable of.
As William Shakespeare said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” It was indeed another William who raised his hand amidst the turmoil of the Two Oceans cutoff saga. William Swartbooi is a current Two Oceans Board member and former chairperson of the organisation.
This William is part of a Board that has stumbled over sensibility, tripped over truthfulness and trampled on the hopes and dreams of the runners they are meant to serve. If William Shakespeare were alive today, no doubt the Bard of Avon would shake his head in dismay and observe on the current Board of Bergvliet, “Some are born stupid, some achieve stupidity, and some have stupidity thrust upon them.”
Continue reading “Two Oceans Board member (and former chairperson) calls cutoff issue ‘trivial matter’”
The starting gun fired thirteen times before dawn on Saturday the 13th of April as wave after wave of Two Oceans ultra marathon runners set off on another voyage around the Cape Peninsula. Three weeks later and one smoking gun remains.
Continue reading “Two Oceans caught out in their own digimag lie”
Two Oceans are known to copy whatever Comrades does. Comrades’ prestigious Green Number Club was followed by Two Oceans’ Blue Number Club. When Comrades added an hour to their finish time, Two Oceans extended the same favour. When Comrades introduced qualification marathons, Two Oceans added the same criteria to take part. When Comrades introduced the Bill Rowan Medal between silver and bronze, Two Oceans quickly followed with the Sainsbury. I really didn’t think Two Oceans would copy Comrades’ cutoff debacle but here we are.
This article provides an in-depth independent investigation of organisational deficiencies, statistical analysis of previous results data and first-hand accounts of what happened at the Two Oceans marathon cutoff and top of Constantia Nek. It aims to drop a series of logic bombs amidst Two Oceans’ sea of debatable decisions and questionable explanations.
Executive Summary:
The following are unedited correspondence I’ve received from various 2024 Two Oceans ultra runners who were impacted by the the marathon and Constantia Nek cutoffs. I have just removed any identifying text like names and race numbers.
I believe that this is a valuable resource to understand that there are always humans who are impacted in different ways by these unfortunate decisions. Some are angry, others disappointed, others disillusioned – there’s a wide variety of different emotions.
I will be publishing an in-depth analysis of the cutoff issue in the next few days (I’ve just received answers to my detailed questions from the Two Oceans Organisation). The article will draw from some of these stories.
Continue reading “Two Oceans Ultra Marathon Cutoffs: Unedited Runner Stories”