Sean Falconer Archives - The Running Mann

19th April 202519th April 2025

Is Two Oceans soft on Cheating?

A runner from Old Edwardian Athletics Club who would prefer to remain anonymous sent me an email with detailed and irrefutable proof showing that a serial offender, Anthony Naguriah, had cheated in previous Two Oceans ultra marathons and would be running (and presumably cheating) again in 2025. The same runner has also been publicly exposed as cheating in qualifier marathons and at Comrades. Naguriah’s modus operandi is to start slow, disappear off the grid for a large portion of the race (missing several timing mats) and then popping up towards the finish again*.

* And true to form, at this year’s Two Oceans Naguriah was recorded on the first two mats (up to 14km) running at 7:11/km pace, he then disappears of the grid for the next five timing mats and reappears on the UCT fields for a 6:37:56 ‘finish’.

19th April 202521st April 2025

Instagram Influencer caught cheating at Two Oceans

I received a tipoff about an Instagram influencer who cheated her way into the A batch at the Two Oceans half marathon. The source, who prefers to remain anonymous, said, “I find this behaviour so entitled and exasperating in races nowadays and feel it’s part of a broader discussion on influencers in running, taking up spaces they haven’t legitimately earned in sweat and tears.”

The Insta influencer in question is Kelly van der Walt who uses the handle @thehealthyprocess and has a following of just under 30,000. She has achieved a large following documenting her weight loss journey and is a Institute for Integrative Nutrition Multidimensional Health Coach which “refers to a holistic approach to health and wellness that considers various aspects of a person’s life, not just physical health, but also emotional, mental, spiritual, and social well-being.”

13th March 202518th March 2025

Update on ASA Deregistration / Paid ASA contactor, Modern Athlete, Heavily Criticised

I chatted to a business law expert about the implication of Athletics South Africa (ASA) being deregistered on 5 February 2025. She told me that, as it stands right now, “Legally they are dead in the water. It’s like someone has blown their head off with a shotgun – they no longer exist.”

The deregistration is a result of ASA not filing their annual returns, required forms or paying company fees for the last 3 years. Any supposed issues with SARS and former directors are totally irrelevant to the deregistration. Essentially the issue is one of negligence and dereliction of duty from ASA’s directors and accountants / auditors.

25th January 202515th March 2025

An Ethical Call: Pulling my Column from Modern Athlete

Sadly the current issue will be my final column for Modern Athlete. After 6 years of sharing humorous marathon reports from every corner of the country, I have decided to pull my monthly column (which I write for free) with the news that editor Sean Falconer has left Modern Athlete. I found this out recently when I contacted him to chat about ideas for upcoming editions, and I was shocked when he informed me that he had resigned his position a month ago and sold his shares in the business to his now former partners, Roxanne Martin and Richard Laskey.

I do not feel comfortable having my articles continue appearing in the magazine, because while I have the utmost respect for Falconer as an editor and journalist, I don’t feel I can say the same for Martin, who was editor of the infamous 2024 Two Oceans Marathon Digimag, published by Modern Athlete on behalf of the Two Oceans Marathon and was caught out in the deceit and dishonesty that followed the cutoff controversy. (https://runningmann.co.za/2024/04/30/two-oceans-2024-copycat-cutoff-chaos/)

18th March 202219th March 2022

Peninsula Marathon (Naval gazing in the Cape)

[MARATHON #245 / Unique Marathon #144 / 20 February 2022]

Running marathons is hard but organising them is much harder – and post-Covid events have additional challenges like reduced field sizes, staggered starts and a plethora of government regulations to comply with.

However, the Peninsula Marathon takes compliance one step further. Most marathons give you an actual map or road names and local landmarks to ensure that you make it safely to the start but Peninsula ensures that there was no danger of breaching Covid regulations on the maximum size of outdoor gatherings by only providing a suburb name (rather than a specific location within said suburb) as the race’s starting point. Continue reading “Peninsula Marathon (Naval gazing in the Cape)”

14th April 2019

When a Push Comes to a Shove, Constantia Nek is the Toughest Hill in South Africa

Inspiring OMTOM Stories: Hilton Murray & Anita Engelbrecht

I’ve been gathering Two Oceans advice from a number of different athletes of all abilities. There is one common answer across the spectrum – take the first half of the race easy because you’ll pay significant interest charges over the much tougher second half.

Therefore, I wanted to make sure we got some input from the person best qualified to inform us what happens on race day when “a push comes to shove” – and that person is undoubtedly Hilton Murray.

Team Blitsie before the 2018 Two Oceans Marathon.

Hilton will be piloting Anita Engelbrecht in a “wheelchair jogger” that they’ve named ‘Blitsie’ for the fourth year in a row at the Two Oceans Marathon. Team Blitsie have traversed the country but there is one hill they fear more than any other – an “absolute killer” that they dread more than Polly Shortts or any of the ‘big five’ hills at Comrades. According to Hilton, getting to the top of Constantia Nek stands out head and shoulders as the most difficult hill in the country when pushing a wheelchair jogger. Continue reading “When a Push Comes to a Shove, Constantia Nek is the Toughest Hill in South Africa”

16th November 201816th November 2018

Jacaranda Marathon (Purple Rain in Pretoria)

Opening Chords

Once a year Pretoria turns purple as 65,000 Jacaranda trees go into bloom and herald the start of summer. The impact of the trees on South Africa’s capital city is immense. They’ve resulted in Pretoria being nicknamed “Jacaranda City” and prominent purple branding adorns everything from the regional Tshwane municipality to the local radio station (which is of course called Jacaranda FM).

The Jacaranda City Challenge is perfectly timed to capture the trees in full bloom. Prince sang about Purple Rain – but if you really want to see the phenomenon in real life you should run the Jacaranda City Marathon. Running a marathon under a constant florid canopy is quite an experience. This year an overnight thunderstorm meant that we were also treated to a luxurious carpet of petals, whilst every gust of wind brought more purple blossoms raining down.

Continue reading “Jacaranda Marathon (Purple Rain in Pretoria)”

15th September 201828th July 2019

PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (a win-win-win Winelands scenario)

[MARATHON #191 / Riebeek BERgmarathon #2 / 4 August 2018]

Marathons are in short supply after Comrades. After two long months in the barren running wilderness, I was finally able to fall off the marathon wagon on the first weekend in August with the 33^rd running of the PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (my second). Although I am currently on a mission to run every marathon in the country, I don’t mind doing a few repeats here and there – and this marathon through the heart of the Western Cape’s Swartland is definitely worth a repeat visit.

The Riebeek Bergmarathon starts and finishes at the PPC Cement Factory. Whilst the factory itself is very Dickensian, the beautiful grounds include a working vineyard and have historical significance as the birthplace of Jan Smuts.

Continue reading “PPC Riebeek Bergmarathon (a win-win-win Winelands scenario)”

Tag: Sean Falconer