Endurance Country

I married a man who likes to push himself. This is, depending on the day, either one of his most admirable qualities or the root cause of most of our logistical problems. It is the trait that saw him accept a job offer in Johannesburg without ever visiting the city before, and it is also the same instinct that compels him to voluntarily run marathons for leisure. Which is how we found ourselves in Cape Town last weekend for the Cape Town Marathon, where he prepared to run 42 kilometres around Table Mountain and I resumed my now well-practised role as the marathon WAG.

I do always find watching a marathon inspiring. Thousands of people voluntarily deciding to put themselves through that level of physical misery either in support of a good cause or simply to discover the outer limits of what their bodies are capable of. The Cape Town Marathon was no exception. Part of it was the atmosphere itself. There was a very ambitious and hopeful energy hanging over the city all weekend. Cape Town is currently trying to become Africa’s first Abbott World Marathon Major, joining the existing marathon royalty of Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York City and, more recently, Sydney. Cape Town entered the candidacy process in 2021 and has spent the past few years trying to prove it can deliver the same scale, organisation and international appeal as the existing majors.

The Finish Line

Which does raise the slightly awkward question of why Africa, the continent that has produced many of the world’s greatest distance runners, has never had a Major in the first place. Part of it is infrastructure, part of it is tourism, part of it is economics, and part of it is the simple reality that these races are not just sporting events but enormous global spectacles requiring huge investment, road closures, transport systems, international sponsorships and the ability to safely absorb tens of thousands of runners and tourists. Cape Town is probably the first African city that can realistically package all of that into something globally marketable. And you could feel that aspiration everywhere this weekend. It felt like the city was auditioning.

And to Cape Town’s credit, the whole thing was genuinely very well organised. My favourite part was that the finish line opened out into a festival area with live music, food stalls, bars, seating. Somewhere runners and supporters could properly collapse together afterwards instead of immediately dispersing into the streets looking shell-shocked and dehydrated. This gave us a nice opportunity to catch up with our friends who had also finished the marathon and for the runners to compare nipple chafing and toe nail injuries.

Not every major city gets this right. I have watched marathons in London, Paris and Madrid, and none of them really had a proper post-race space to gather afterwards. Once runners cross the finish line, everyone just sort of spills out onto the streets, desperately trying to coordinate a suitable location to get pissed. Cape Town’s approach felt far more civilised. If you are going to run 42 kilometres, the least a city can do is provide somewhere decent to sit down afterwards and soak up the glory.

I do think its a shame that Johannesburg doesn't have the opportunity to host something on this scale, because in many ways it feels like a bigger running city than Cape Town. There's like a million run clubs (don't fact check that) and they range from serious marathon training groups to more social clubs. I understand why they have exploded in popularity here. Johannesburg is not an especially outdoorsy city in the traditional sense. There are no beaches, limited walkability, and many public spaces can feel inaccessible or unsafe alone. But run clubs offer people a structured way to do something outdoors together. On top of that, they are one of the best ways to meet new people in the city, which was helpful for us Billy no mates when we first arrived here. Joburg itself can sometimes feel fragmented or isolating, but these clubs create little pockets of consistency and belonging.

I think South Africa, generally, has a strong running culture and hosts a few other iconic races each year. One famous example is the Comrades Marathon - the ultramarathon between Durban and Pietermaritzburg that sees tens of thousands of people run roughly 90 kilometres through KwaZulu-Natal. Naturally, Ali has decided this is something he would like to do next year.

Running in South Africa seems to be more than fitness. It has become social life, identity, aspiration, routine, friendship, discipline, therapy and, occasionally, mild self-destruction. Cape Town may have the scenery and infrastructure to become South Africa’s marathon Major, but the appetite for endurance feels embedded across the whole country. South Africa is a nation committed to persevering through hardship. So perhaps marathon running was always going to thrive here.

Notes from 26° South.