Half marathon Archives - The Running Mann

26th March 20267th April 2026

Everything you need to know about Two Oceans 2026 batch seedings

The 2026 Two Oceans half and ultra marathon batch seedings are out. What’s new, what’s different and how much difference does a good seeding make? This article explains it all.

The big change is smaller batches

The one big change this year is that the seeding batches are much smaller, downsizing from about 1200 to 770 runners per batch in the half and just below 700 per batch in the full. This has resulted in an increase in the number of batches to 19 in the ultra and 23 in the half.

All batches will leave at two minute intervals* and, in the event that there is a start time delay, the in-race cutoffs will automatically be adjusted based on the time that the last batch actually starts. I will do a separate article on the cutoffs but I can confirm that they are both sensible and fair in 2026.

12th May 202512th May 2025

TOM 2025 Reader Letters: The Kindness of Strangers

We’ve heard a lot from the runners about the diabolical water situation in the Two Oceans ultra marathon but here’s a different perspective from one of the supporters on the day, Lungi Khambule.

Good day,

I was privileged to support runners at 26km and just before 47km during the Two Oceans Ultra — and what I witnessed left me deeply moved.

At 26km, runners were asking for food, salt, and spray etc. All was relatively good.

But at 47km, the sight was heartbreaking. Runners were desperate for water – pleading at every supporter they saw. Even the supporters adjacent to us were asking us for water, as runners were desperately also asking them for water.

11th May 202511th May 2025

TOM 2025 Reader Letters: Water Woes Ignored in 2024, Worse in 2025

Despite issuing ‘Heatwave’ warnings, Two Oceans failed to provide sufficient water to participants. Both the ultra and half marathons had long stretches of 6km or more with no support tables where runners had to rely on the goodwill of strangers to keep hydrated. In addition, some tables ran out of water and they could not handle the volume of runners. What is very alarming is that these issues have been raised by various participants like Kerryne Krause but have seem to have been completely ignored by the organisers.

The Two Oceans organisers failed to address problems with the 2024 Two Oceans water tables, which were arguably far worse in 2025 . Fortunately the impending ‘heatwave’ warning never materialised. Kerryne tried to contact the organisers on several occasions but was ignored.

9th May 20259th May 2025

TOM 2025 Reader Letters: Casualties of Overcrowding

Two Oceans severely contravened their permit conditions with the City of Cape Town (CoCT) at this year’s half marathon by taking in almost 21,000 entries when their permit only allowed 17,000. They had previously done the same at the 2019 ultra marathon and relations with CoCT have been strained ever since. The permit limits are there for reasons of safety and violating them raises issues of negligence and incompetence.

What happens when safety rules are flouted? Here’s an example from Belinda Steyn. Steyn, Financial Director of The Christie Group (who manage a large number of Spar and SuperSpar stores across Mpumalanga) was badly injured during the race. A month later and the injury is still seriously impacting her personal and professional life. She is waiting to find out whether she will need to undergo shoulder replacement surgery.

The below letter was sent to Two Oceans over a month ago on 6 April and she has still had no response, once again bringing into question whether the board has taken any accountability for the litany of 2025 issues or are just paying lip service to the runners.

8th May 20259th May 2025

TOM 2025 Reader Letters: Lucky’s luck runs out with half marathon water stations

Seasoned runner ends up in medical tent with dehydration after half marathon

Reports indicate that despite the relatively mild weather, there were still plenty of cases of dehydration at the finish of this year’s Two Oceans half marathon. The temperature at the final cutoff was 23 degrees according to official weather data. However, humidity was higher than normal – and humid conditions are exacerbated in overcrowded environments. Here’s a letter printed as received from a seasoned runner who ended up in the medical tent with dehydration after the half marathon…

15th April 202516th April 2025

The Two Oceans Board can’t stop lying

The Two Oceans Board can just not stop lying. They’ve been caught out again…

Nine days after the last half marathon runner crossed the finish line, an email has finally gone out to impacted athletes. It is estimated that about 2500 runners did not get a medal after finishing. However, the email said that the shortage was due to “a significantly higher number of runners than anticipated finished in the bronze medal category due to the hot weather on Sunday 6 April, leading to a shortage of bronze medals and a surplus of silver medals.”

This is a bald-faced lie.

10th April 202510th April 2025

Where did all the medals go? (Board greed threatens future of Two Oceans)

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.

19th April 201919th April 2019

In Your Father’s Footsteps (When You Can Hike But You Can’t Run)

Inspiring Two Oceans Stories: Karen Brough

When running is in your blood, you can hide – and hike, cycle and swim – but you’ll eventually have to run.

Karen Brough has hiked all over the world. She’s completed the Annapurna Trail in the Himalayas, walked the El Camino from France, trekked across the Pyrenean Mountains to Santiago in Spain (900kms in 20 days) and climbed Kilimanjaro just for the views.

Karen has also cycled thousands of kilometres on her bike – her greatest achievement in this space was raising over a million rand for charity by doing a series of long distance peddles from Johannesburg to Maputo, Johannesburg to Cape Town and Johannesburg to East London.

She’s “always been a very active person” but none of her regular endurance exploits ever broke out into a run – until recently. At the age of 56 Karen set her sights on completing the IronMan – and accidentally fell into running, “I have always wanted to do a full IronMan. I could swim and cycle with ease, but soon realised my dream would never come true if I couldn’t run a marathon.”

Continue reading “In Your Father’s Footsteps (When You Can Hike But You Can’t Run)”

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!”

18th April 201918th April 2019

30-year old photo of long-lost family member gets Two Oceans Half Marathon novice to the start

Inspiring OMTOM Stories: Rikki Hibbert

Rikki’s mom had lost contact with her favourite cousin-once-removed, Wesley Tiedt, for over 40 years until Facebook intervened and facilitated a happy family reunion in Johannesburg.

The blood ties were quickly rekindled and Rikki immediately formed a strong bond with her new-found family member. She says, “It was clear we were all cut from the same cloth and had the same wacky sense of humour.”

They spent the Christmas of 2017 together on Wes’ farm in St. Francis Bay. Rikki was paging through a photo album when she stumbled across the picture below of Wes running the 1987 Two Oceans Marathon. Photo finishes are commonplace in athletics but this photo was about initiate a major change in Rikki’s life.

Wesley Tiedt (left) on his way to a 5:58:14 finish at Two Oceans Marathon 1987. No time to walk up Constantia Nek as the cut-off time was 6-hours in those days.

Continue reading “30-year old photo of long-lost family member gets Two Oceans Half Marathon novice to the start”