Innholdsfortegnelse for Sep/Oct 2025 i Runner's World South Africa

Mike F, Editor “Running the Athens Marathon from the actual town of Marathon. Not the prettiest 42.2, but it finishes in the epic Panathenaic Stadium – the site of the first modern Olympic Games, in 1896.” Alana M, Creative Director “I haven’t run many road marathons, but a standout for me has always been the Weskus Marathon in Langebaan. A spectacular route in a pristine National Park – 10/10 for location.” Dave B, Chief Sub “Never done one. So my best has been watching a doccie on the shambolic 1904 Olympic Marathon, featuring rat poison, fraud, hallucinations, feral dogs, theft, brandy, and a Saffa in ninth place. Google it.” Kim W, RW Digital “The Cape Town Marathon in 2023. The support along the route was incredible, and it’s special to…

THE POPULARITY OF RUNNING, BOTH IN SOUTH AFRICA AND AROUND THE WORLD, has never been higher. Driven by social media trends, an influx of younger runners, innovative race organisers, and shoes, clothing and tech that enhance every element of the running experience, running is what all the cool kids are doing. There’s an accessibility to running that few other activities can match. Just pop on your shoes, shorts, top and GPS watch, and you can be out the door exercising in less time than it takes to boil the kettle. Running is also timeefficient: even a 20-minute run can deliver a solid workout, whereas bike rides, gym visits and padel games require a far longer time commitment. But it’s on the social side that running has found new popularity. While…

ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT RUNNING is that each of us chooses how we do it. We decide to race, or not to race. No one is less of a runner if they don’t race. My reasons for entering events have varied over the years, depending on where I am and how I’m feeling about running. Sometimes it’s as simple as wanting to travel and see a new city or country. Here are some of the other key reasons I sign up to races. 1 To inspire and be inspired The whole reason I started running and signed up for my first race was because a friend of mine started running, and did the London Marathon. I went to watch, and seeing all those people running and watching her come…

ALTHOUGH I’VE SUCCESSFULLY finished five marathons, something about my training blocks never quite worked. I run marathons because crossing a finish line is insanely fun and highly rewarding. However, I’ve always found training for them to be nerve-wracking. A training plan is necessary for this kind of distance, and while it helps with structuring my schedule and blending time to run with a full-time job and family, it’s also always created a lot of distress for me. As a runner with both ADHD and anxiety, I’d look at the 16 weeks ahead of me and full-on panic that there’s no way I can possibly run 26km in Week 9 or hit the prescribed pace in Week 12. Instead of enjoying the process, I’d constantly worry about future workouts – and…

NOW THAT YOU’VE DONE ALL THE HARD WORK – including the months of training – and completed a marathon, it’s time to give yourself a little TLC. It’s also an important part of the marathon journey, because what you do – and don’t do – after you cross the finish line determines how quickly you’ll travel the road to recovery. AT THE FINISH LINE • Try to keep moving for around 10 to 15 minutes. • Avoid static stretching. The soreness you feel is down to a lot of muscle damage, and static stretching could make this damage worse. WITHIN AN HOUR OF FINISHING • Try to consume a carb-rich snack or drink. Your main goal after running 42.2km is eating like an athlete. To start with, make sure you…

RESEARCHERS HAVE REVEALED A “LOW-RISK, effective and inexpensive intervention that has the potential to acutely improve physical performance”, according to a new study’s authors*. Is it a gel? Is it a shoe? No, you prudes – it’s swearing. The review found that it works across three pathways: physiological, psychological and nociception (dealing with pain). In essence, swearing heightens the first two and lowers the response to the third. There are, of course, some obvious caveats. As the researchers noted, “The taboo nature of swearing may limit its utility in real-world situations.” Perhaps there’s a time and a place: the final lap of a race, say, rather than the early kays of a marathon. Curious as to which vloekwoorde are most popular? They’re both four letters long. One begins with ‘F’,…

FINDING A RUNNING CLUB is not for the weak. It’s like being back in high school. Will I like them? Will they like me? Can I keep up, or will it be me on the next missing-person poster? Trust me, I know the vibes. So I figured it might be helpful if I sussed out exactly what you should expect when you show up at a club in your best running kit, hoping not to relive your school PE class trauma. I'll be putting myself in the Chads, Brads and Britneys firing line so you don’t have to – and this way, maybe you’ll find a club you actually like, without first suffering through 10 failed attempts. This month I visited Run Boss, a vibrant young club in Durban. And…

AS ROCK STAR AND EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGIST Bruce Springsteen famously remarked, “Baby, we were born to run.” And The Boss is right: compared with other land mammals, humans are indeed remarkably good at running long distances. Our upright posture, Achilles tendons and ability to shed heat – through sweating – make us extremely well adapted to endurance running. But that’s not to say we outrank every animal in the marathon stakes. Here’s a look at five of the best marathoners in the animal kingdom, from slowest to fastest. 1 / HORSE Max speed: 87km/h Average speed for 30+ kilometres: 17km/h Estimated marathon time: 2.5hr Through selective breeding, racehorses have a biological mechanism that maximises blood efficiency. “When they start to exercise, their spleen kicks out a whole bunch of red blood…

FOUR MONTHS TO GO ̇ First, accept that you’re doing something difficult and that you’ll need to leave your comfort zone to do it. It won’t be easy, and there will be setbacks, but embracing this means that instead of panicking at the ‘but what if I fail’ worries, you can plan properly to make them less likely to come true. ̇ Next, if 42.2km seems too daunting at first, you might want to ‘chunk down’ your race into more manageable portions. What distance can you already run? How many times will you need to do that in your marathon? What mental strategies do you already use? How can you amp those up for this longer race? ̇ Support is the next element to secure. The marathon build-up will have…

This comprehensive guide will help you to perform at your best, recover faster and more effectively, and keep all your bodily systems in good health and operating in harmony. WHY FASTED RUNNING IS NOT SUCH A GOOD IDEA KEEPING YOUR TANK TOPPED UP IS CRUCIAL FOR SUCCESS PACK IN THE PROTEIN TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR RECOVERY When it comes to nutrition for performance, it seems everyone has an opinion. But often, this is based on what we can term n=1; that is, when an individual bases an outcome on their personal experience, or the science (when it’s available) is simplified to take into account only fuelling and recovery. But human bodies are not machines. While we need fuel to move and to survive, it’s not a simple equation…

SUPER SHOES WITH CARBON plates have revolutionised distance running – but might they be breaking bones as well as records? Possibly, according to a study* that made a tentative connection between bone injuries and running in such shoes. It looked at case studies of five competitive athletes who experienced navicular (midfoot) bone injuries after using the footwear. The athletes ranged in age and ability, but all experienced bone injuries fairly soon after training or racing in the carbon-plated shoes. Previous studies have shown that peak vertical ground reaction is higher in runners using carbon-plated shoes, and that the footwear also leads to changes in foot and ankle mechanics – something that may contribute to midfoot bone injury. But don’t chuck out your super shoes just yet. There’s a smarter solution.…

STANDING ON THE starting line of my target marathon in 2021, I had a goal I kept mostly to myself: break four hours. I had sort of trained for it, following a mix of plans I thought would get me there. And I relied on the idea that because my 2019 PB was 4:09 and I’d been running consistently since, finishing under four was completely doable – even if my build-up didn’t go 100 percent as planned (as most don’t). But while waiting for what felt like hours for my start time, I definitely let my nerves get the best of me. And with a queasy stomach and heavy legs, I ended up with my slowest marathon time to date, finishing in 4:30. So when I got a chance to…

Adam Lipschitz Age: 31 Lives: Durban Achievements: 2:08:54 marathon, 1:01:31 half marathon, 12th London Marathon 2024 (top Saffa), 11th fastest South African All-time WORDS: RACHEL 'Big Dog' BEATON Adam Lipschitz is a serious runner. But at first glance, he’s the most un-serious serious runner you’ve ever met. A Castle Lite? Sure. Backpacking in India? Why not. A 2.08 marathoner? If you insist. In his own words: “Somebody has to live this life.” One of South Africa’s fastest runners, Lipschitz boasts a marathon PB of 2:08 (Valencia, 2023), a half-marathon best of 61:00 (Gun Run, 2023), and a 12th-place finish at the London Marathon this year, all while managing multiple successful businesses, owning a running club, and maintaining a colourful social life. The 31-year-old has carved out a space in the…

ONE WEEK BEFORE the 2018 New York City Marathon, Olympian Jared Ward received a package from Saucony, his shoe sponsor. Inside were three early prototypes of what eventually became Saucony’s first super shoe, the Endorphin Pro 1. Ward’s typical marathon race-week workout is four 1-mile repeats at marathon pace. He decided to convert the session into an experiment, with the help of Iain Hunter, an exercise science professor at Brigham Young University. Ward ran the workout on a treadmill while Hunter measured his running economy, which is how much oxygen is needed to run at a given speed. Improve your running economy, and you can either hold a given pace for longer or you can cover a set distance faster at the same effort level. Ward ran each 1 600m repeat…