Blue Number Archives - The Running Mann

8th January 20268th January 2026

The Two Oceans Marathon: A Family Buck-et List Event

A Legacy of Running, Support and Cherished Memories Across Three Generations

For many, the Two Oceans Marathon is more than just a race – it’s a celebration of endurance, community and shared stories. For the Buck family, it symbolises decades of dedication, togetherness, and heartfelt milestones that have shaped their lives. Their deep-rooted association with the event exemplifies the profound family bonds forged through sport and the enduring impact of tradition.

16th May 202516th May 2025

Chartering an Accountant: An Interview with Two Oceans Legend Lucille Damon

Lucille Damon was the first woman to earn a triple Blue Number at the Two Oceans ultra marathon and she did so in style with 30 consecutive finishes from 1990 to 2019. Lucille thought she was done with the ultra after Covid but, after running the half marathon post-Covid in 2022, she realised that she preferred the longer Two Oceans route (which includes some actual views of the ocean) and has added another two voyages to her count.

A full audit of Lucille’s Two Oceans general ledger shows that she’s accrued 32 ultra marathon medals (with a best time of 4:27:56 on her 10^th run in 1999) and the solitary 2022 half marathon. After the 2025 event, Lucille and Sharon Bosch jointly hold the ladies record Two Oceans ultra finishes – and just like her record, Lucille proved difficult to track down.

10th May 202510th May 2025

TOM 2025 Stories: A Medal of Honour

“Good morning Stuart, I want to give you a lead to consider for a story, but I am not really part of the story.” was the intriguing message I received from Ronnie van der Westhuizen. He did have a story that is both lovely to tell and interesting to read so here it is.

Ronnie is a member of Hangklip Athletic Club in Bettys Bay and the story revolves around clubmate Johan le Roux who had recently moved to the small holiday village after going into early retirement. Health related issues had meant Johan had to leave his post of 21 years as the principal of the Black Rock Primary School in the Northern Cape.

4th April 2025

The P.I.R.A.T.E.S. Code

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…

3rd April 20253rd April 2025

Benson & Legends (Ian Benson’s 40th Two Oceans ultra marathon)

Prelude

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’.

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.

18th April 201921st April 2019

Novice Two Oceans Marathon Mistakes: When you’ve #RunAsOne, don’t finish as two!

Cautionary OMTOM Stories: BN4991

This story was confessed to me by a club mate who made a terrible mistake during her first Two Oceans Marathon in 2004. It still haunts her to this day and she doesn’t want other novices to repeat the same grave error of judgement.

She is still acutely embarrassed by her naïve blunder – so much so that she only agreed to share her story under condition of anonymity. Therefore, I have decided to respect her wishes and will refer to the protagonist of this story under the code name BN4991.

Continue reading “Novice Two Oceans Marathon Mistakes: When you’ve #RunAsOne, don’t finish as two!”

10th April 201910th April 2019

Blue at Two Oceans Marathon? Blame your Mother-in-Law!

Inspiring OMTOM Stories: Darrin Mail

Darrin Mail never thought he’d be an ultra runner – let alone one who hopes to join the illustrious Blue Number club. Looking back he says, “What was I thinking?” and lays the blame squarely at the feet of his mother-in-law.

Darrin knew that the way to get into his prospective mother-in-law’s good books was through his legs.

Continue reading “Blue at Two Oceans Marathon? Blame your Mother-in-Law!”

25th April 20189th April 2019

Two Oceans (A Love Letter To My Favourite Ultra)

[MARATHON #183 / 16th Two OCeans / 31 MARCH 2018]

South Africa hosts the two biggest (and greatest) ultra marathons in the world: Two Oceans and Comrades. I’ve been asked many times about the difference between the two. My philosophical view is that if you are a teenager in love, Two Oceans is the sweet, charming, beautiful girl that you should marry. Comrades is the girl that’s way out of your league but is malevolent enough to string you along, thinking you have a chance – only to break your heart (and your body) after crushing your spirit and ripping out your soul.

It’s got to be a special race when you’re this happy at 38km (and still have 18km – and Constantia Nek – to go).

The Romance

Growing up in Cape Town, Two Oceans was my “girl next door” – and it was as a teenager that I fell in love with her. I had just started high school at Rondebosch Boys and they asked for volunteers to hold up kilometre boards over the first 15km and man (or in my case “boy”) the last support table on the route. This seemed like a really good idea since I could support my Dad (The Old Running Mann) and we were told we could drink as much Coca-Cola as we liked on the day. In future years Rustenburg Girls School were invited to partner us at the table (which made the proposition even more attractive!). Continue reading “Two Oceans (A Love Letter To My Favourite Ultra)”