Marathons Archives - Page 15 of 18

7th April 2019

John Nugent Marathon (Upington: The Final Frontier)

[Marathon #209 / Unique Marathon #119 / 9 March 2019]

The plan to run a marathon in Upington began at the Mokopane Spur the night before the Potties Marathon. My companions that evening were the two JKs: former international rugby referee Jonathan Kaplan (120 marathons and going strong) and current Tarzan / Michael Bolton impersonator Julian Karp (770 marathons and going stronger). I was just the Mann in the middle with around 180 marathons at that stage.

Hatching a plan over a pre-marathon meal in Mokopane with the two JKs.

Continue reading “John Nugent Marathon (Upington: The Final Frontier)”

31st March 2019

Surrender Hill Marathon (Overdosing on Maluti Muti)

[Marathon #208 / Unique Marathon #118 / 2 March 2019]

One of my wild running ideas is to pick the best and most beautiful small-town marathons from all around the South Africa and create a ‘Hidden Gems’ series – the objective being to add a finish at each one to your lifetime marathon running CV. It’s still very much in the formulative stage but I would ensure that there is at least one race per province.

There are so many great small-town marathons scattered all over our beautiful country that whittling the list down to a manageable size, say a dozen, is going to be a challenge. However, I expected a bigger challenge to be finding a Free State marathon that meets my stringent selection criteria. Although there are many great Free State runs, ‘beautiful’ is not adjective one readily associates with their routes.

Nevertheless, as an optimist by nature, I held out hope that a hidden gem could still be unearthed in the Free State. Many marathons ago, I got chatting to some runners from Bethlehem (if memory serves me correctly it was one wise man and two wise women) who told me of a neighbouring town called Clarens and a marathon called Surrender Hill. Continue reading “Surrender Hill Marathon (Overdosing on Maluti Muti)”

24th March 201924th March 2019

Hippo Marathon (Getting hot & sweaty in Richards Bay)

[Marathon #207 / Unique Marathon #117 / 23 February 2019]

When a holiday is announced in our household, the first question my daughters ask is not, “Where are we going?” but “What marathon is dad running?”. The answer this time was “The Hippo Marathon”, with a mid-term break enabling my daughters to spend four nights with their Nana in Pinetown while my wife and I were able to sneak off to Richards Bay for two of those nights.

After twelve years of marriage, two nights of peace and quiet sans kids far outweighs the attraction of a dirty weekend. However, one thing is for sure – if you want to get hot and sweaty, Richards Bay is the perfect place to do it. Continue reading “Hippo Marathon (Getting hot & sweaty in Richards Bay)”

17th March 201917th March 2019

Tuks Marathon (Earning your undergraduate degree the hard way)

[Marathon #206 / Unique Marathon #116 / 16 February 2019]

Father Christmas, unicorns, working indicators on BMWs and single-lap marathons in Pretoria. Before 2018 none of these existed – three still don’t.

Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, is crammed full of bureaucrats and civil servants who like nothing more than to capture everything in duplicate – this philosophy spills out onto the streets with all their road running events being double-lappers. I am not sure whether there has ever has been a single-lap marathon in Pretoria but there has definitely never been one in Tshwane*. Call me a Doubting Thomas but when I heard that the Bestmed Tuks Marathon was a single-lap route I had to see it for myself to believe it. Continue reading “Tuks Marathon (Earning your undergraduate degree the hard way)”

10th March 2019

Klerksdorp Marathon (You Shouldn’t Judge A Town By Its Main Road)

[Marathon #205 / Unique Marathon #115 / 9 February 2019]

Klerksdorp was never high on my list of marathons to run. I almost ran it last year but then “got a better offer” and ended up doing Potties instead. There are some marathons that I look forward to doing and others I look forward to getting done – and I was expecting this to be one of the latter.

My only previous exposure to Klerksdorp has been driving through the city on the N12 – normally on the long drive to Kimberley for one of their marathons. People slow down to look at car crashes but they avert their eyes when driving through Klerksdorp. The only redeeming factor for Klerksdorp is that her N12 façade is slightly less ugly than that of her close neighbour Potchefstroom.

On top of this, the towns Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom are both are incredibly irritating with lots of slow, exasperating traffic and dozens (may well be hundreds) of infuriating, stop-start segments. Klerksdorp and Potchefstroom are like the mosquito and the fly – everyone tells you that they serve some kind of purpose, but no one can tell you what that purpose is. Continue reading “Klerksdorp Marathon (You Shouldn’t Judge A Town By Its Main Road)”

2nd March 20196th March 2019

Meerkat Marathon (The One With A Presidential Sendoff)

[Marathon #204 / Unique Marathon #114 / 2 February 2019]

Once a year, I take out the one wood for the long drive to Kimberley – five to six gruelling hours along the N12. I am slowly working through all the Kimberley and Northern Cape marathons in my quest to run every marathon in the country. When scheduling my races, the annual trip to Kimberley is one of the first to go into the plan – but I can only face doing the drive there once per year.

Took out the 1-wood for the long drive to Kimberley to run the Meerkat Marathon.

Continue reading “Meerkat Marathon (The One With A Presidential Sendoff)”

21st February 201922nd February 2019

Ottosdal Night Marathon (Testing the Limits of Delayed Gratification)

[Marathon #203 / Unique Marathon #113 / 26 January 2019]

The Ottosdal Marathon is one of the last races left from my original running bucket list. The race is the subject of much folklore amongst the inland running community for two reasons:

Starting at 5:30pm, it is the only night marathon on the South African calendar, and
Some nutters* make the most of the opportunity and use Ottosdal as the meat in the middle of their marathon running sandwich, with this being the second of three marathons they run in just over 24-hours.

* Similarly to driving, where anyone slower that you is a classified as a dithering idiot and anyone faster a raving lunatic; Anyone who runs less than you is an idle slacker and anyone who runs more is an absolute nutjob. Continue reading “Ottosdal Night Marathon (Testing the Limits of Delayed Gratification)”

9th February 20199th February 2019

Mielie Marathon (The Amaizeing Race)

[Marathon #202 / 2nd Mielie Marathon / 19 January 2019]

When I was young and naïve I thought you had to wait until the end of January to run your first marathon of the year. Luckily, I’m older and wiser now – and this new-found wisdom has unearthed two great options for those that want to get their first marathon done a week earlier: Either go digging for diamonds in the Kalahari Desert or butter your mielie in Welkom.

Mielie is a flat marathon through the Free State gold and cornfields.

Continue reading “Mielie Marathon (The Amaizeing Race)”

2nd February 20195th February 2019

Prison to Prison Marathon (The Breede Valley Jailbreak)

[Marathon #201 / Unique Marathon #112 / 8 December 2018]

In my effort to monopolise the South African running calendar, I managed one last roll of the 2018 marathon running dice in December. I was aiming to land on Breede River Valley to add a new marathon to my portfolio but, after flying down to Cape Town and completing the 90-minute drive to Worcester, I did not pass go and went directly to jail. Luckily, I had already paid for my ‘get out of jail free’ card – a simple R120 ($9/£7) transaction to register for the Prison to Prison Marathon.

Continue reading “Prison to Prison Marathon (The Breede Valley Jailbreak)”

13th January 201913th January 2019

Josiah Gumede Marathon (Escaping Black Friday in the Drakensberg)

[Marathon #200 / Unique Marathon #111 / 24 November 2018]

A good way to avoid the Black Friday madness that has engulfed our country over the last few years is to head into the countryside. As luck would have it, a new marathon had popped onto the calendar which provided a reliable means of escape: The Josiah Gumede Marathon (42.2 point-to-point kilometres nestled into the northern Drakensburg). Continue reading “Josiah Gumede Marathon (Escaping Black Friday in the Drakensberg)”