This article contains high level details and, where available, flyers, profiles and route maps for every 2026 South African road marathon and ultra. Updates will be made regularly as races are added, cancelled and confirmed.
The 2026 calendar is brought to you by RaceSpace – the app that has every running and endurance event in the country at your fingertips. RaceSpace are covering some of my marathon running travel costs in 2025 – you can support me and the site by downloading the RaceSpace app on Apple, Android or by using the QR Code below.
The Otter Trail is South Africa’s most famous hiking trail and the Garden Route National Park, where it is located, is the third biggest public tourist attraction in South Africa in terms of number of visitors (after the Kruger National Park and Table Mountain). The Otter Trail is within an exclusive area of the national park and entrance into the park is throttled at just 12 people per day who are allowed to start the hike which is completed over 5 days and 4 nights.
Just 12 people a day get to experience the Otter Trail which is completed over 5 days.
Once a year they get rid of the hikers and allow 300 people to run the trail in a day on the Thursday for the more recreational Challenge and another 300 on the Saturday for the much more competitive Race. I was one of the fortunate few who got an entry for the Thursday Challenge trail run (courtesy of title sponsors EasyEquities) which must be completed in under 11 hours over incredibly technical terrain to earn a finish.
This is the first of two articles on the Otter Trail Challenge. Part one deals with how a wobbly road runner so to the start line. Part two deals with the race itself.
Gary Player is well-known for saying, “The harder I practice, the luckier I get.” There is something to that, although in my case I’ve recently found that the more I write (and talk) the luckier I’ve got. After the November 2024 Comrades AGM, newly elected Board Member Carel Nolte asked to meet for a coffee. He would be heading up the Communications Portfolio and was keen to chat about working together. Having written so much about the problems at Comrades, I jokingly asked whether he was following a “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer approach.”
[MARATHON #277 / UNIQUE MARATHON #170 / 7 December 2024]
The whole of South Africa slows down in December and good marathons are hard to find (but a hard marathon is always good to find). Luckily the Eastern Cape provides some festive cheer for the obsessive marathon runner, hosting the only two pre-Christmas options – the 1City Marathon in Gqeberha and the Mdantsane Marathon just outside East London. Unfortunately, this presents a Christmas predicament for the marathon enthusiast as they were both run on the first Saturday in December in 2024. Having run the 1City Marathon in 2023, Julian and I opted to head to Buffalo City and tackle the hills of Mdantsane.
[MARATHON #276 / UNIQUE MARATHON #169 / 17 November 2024]
When someone introduces you to a friend or acquaintance with the caveat, “They’re from the Bluff”, this is a warning. It’s the equivalent of cautioning a friendly stranger that, “My dog bites!”
When you tell someone that you are running the Bluff Marathon, they recoil and give you a similar cautionary look – and whatever statement follows indicates, “That marathon bites!”
With 275 marathons under my belt, I decided it was finally time to see whether I could bite off more than I could chew at the Bluff Marathon – or whether this brutal route would chew me up and spit me out (or, as this is a double-lap course, I guess you could call that a case of “once bitten, twice shy”).
I had been told a lot about the Bluff. Some descriptions fail to live up to expectations. However, it took just a two-second scan of the Fynnlands Sports Club bar (which was also the registration venue and doubles as the Bluff AC clubhouse) to realise that the “Rough and tough and from Bluff” mantra was not propaganda. In fact, if anything the slogan is underhyped. Wearing baggies and a T-shirt, I was probably the most overdressed male at the venue (and by far the least tattooed). You’ll have to take my word for it as I was not about to take an unsolicited photograph and risk someone taking offence.
This article contains high level details and, where available, flyers, profiles and route maps for every 2025 South African road marathon and ultra. Updates will be made regularly as races are added, cancelled and confirmed.
The 2025 calendar is brought to you by RaceSpace – the app that has every running and endurance event in the country at your fingertips. RaceSpace are covering some of my marathon running travel costs in 2025 – you can support me and the site by downloading the RaceSpace app on Apple, Android or by using the QR Code below.
[MARATHON #274 / UNIQUE MARATHON #168 / 6 October 2024]
Between Comrades and Two Oceans, I have spent a lot of time this year writing about clowns. You could say I was acquiring a severe case of coulrophobia – which is of course the fear of clowns. However, I seem to have developed a unique strain called antici-coulrophobia – which is a fear about what the aforementioned clowns will do or say next (and then I have to spend a great deal of time writing about it).
Fortunately, I was confident that I could find a 100% successful cure for extreme antici-coulrophobia by facing my fears head on and self-medicating at the clown-themed MadMac Marathon. The theme was chosen as the race venue is the site of the old Boswell Wilkie Circus in Randvaal and there is still plenty of circus apparatus and remnants of the now defunct circus around.
This article provides detailed information on all South Africa’s December 2024 marathons and ultras including race descriptions and recommendations. You can find the full 2024 marathon / ultra calendar here.
[MARATHON #273 / UNIQUE MARATHON #167 / 14 September 2024]
Running marathons in the Eastern Cape is always a pleasant experience. They possess the charm and character of a big club run with plenty of chatter and everyone seems to know everyone else. The sentiment is further enhanced with many of the support tables being enthusiastically crewed by ‘rival’ running clubs.
[MARATHON #272 / UNIQUE MARATHON #165 / 7 September 2024]
The inaugural Musina Marathon held in the northern extremities of Limpopo was the only marathon in the whole of South Africa over the entire weekend of 7-8 September. Musina is a stone’s throw from the Zimbabwean border and the last town on the N1 before hitting the Beit Bridge border post and crossing the Limpopo River.
Musina is where the devil spends his winters when he wants to warm up. It’s a place where your entry level sunblock is Factor 50. Legend has it that a Scotsman visiting Musina made the fatal mistake of sitting down on the pavement and ended up with hard boiled eggs in under three minutes. In other words, this is a fantastic place for a connoisseur to run a marathon.
