No one has written more about cutoffs than I have. I covered the empty finish line at Comrades 2023 (and kept pushing until we finally got an apology and some recompense for the runners seven weeks later), then came Two Oceans’ own cutoff debacle in 2024 (and the resultant post-race digimag update scandal that followed) and in 2024 Comrades were determined to repeat their same mistake until I threatened them with actuaries (and a spread bet) before they finally relented, added 10 minutes to the final cutoff at Mkondeni (which resulted in 117 additional runners earning their medal).
In short in-race cutoffs have come with a lot of drama at South African ultra marathons in recent years but they shouldn’t. In-race cutoffs should be boring. And at Two Oceans 2026 I am hoping that we achieve this goal.
Continue reading “Two Oceans 2026 Cutoffs (and why they don’t matter)”
