YOUR MAY COMRADES MARATHON QUALIFIERS
As May rolls around, those who need a last-minute qualifier for Comrades, want to try and upgrade their seeding or just want a ‘training run’ marathon have eight options to choose from.
Workers’ Day sees the MiWay Wally Hayward Marathon which honours the five times Comrades winner. This year’s event will be run on slightly different route due to sinkholes in Centurion and Gautengers also have a second option with the inaugural MNS Attorneys Carnival City Marathon in Brakpan. For those that want to say they’ve done ‘a Berlin marathon’, you can do the Buffalo City Marathon which starts in Berlin, passes through the vibrant township of Mdantsane and finishes in East London.
The sun rises as the final curtain falls on hopeful Comrades qualifiers at the MiWay Wally Hayward Marathon.
On the first weekend of May there are two marathons and three 50km ultras. The organisers of the Lemo Mall Marathon invited Julian Karp and I to this year’s event so I am looking to see what this flat, circular marathon around Bloemfontein has to offer (Julian ran the inaugural event last year and only had good things to say). Your other marathon option is the Durban International Marathon which offers a fast and flat point-to-point routing.
Life is a highway at the Durban International Marathon.
On the ultra front my recommendation for a great race experience and weekend way would be Bruintjieshoogte in Somerset East, which has returned after an absence of several years. This is a quality 50km race surrounded by the beautiful Eastern Cape landscape -one of the real hidden gems on the race calendar. The route recipe is a 25km climb out of Somerset East to the top of the Bruintjieshoogte and then back again. Top tip: Take some time to unwind afterwards in the awesome Addo Elephant National Park – and practice your game spotting skills along the route keeping a lookout for kudu, gemsbok and the majestic sable.
Termite mounds dominate the foreground as you climb to the Bruinjieshoogte.
Your other options are the North West N12 50km and the Balwin Properties False Bay 50km. As the name suggests, the former is run almost entirely along the N12 between Potchefstroom and Klerksdorp – and yes, that is about as exciting as it sounds. The latter is back after roadworks and repairs have been completed. It’s a point-to-point route from Kleinmond to Gordon’s Bay that hugs the Cape coastline along the R44 Claren’s Drive route. This is still on my bucket list and those who’ve run it in the past say that, although you only see one ocean the entire time, it is both more beautiful and better organised than Two Oceans.
This is the only hill (or landmark) on the N12 between Potch and Klerksdorp.
Stuart Mann is the proud holder of Comrades Green Number 50252. He writes and blogs as ‘The Running Mann’. You can follow him on Facebook, X or Instagram and can read about his marathon running adventures at www.runningmann.com
Full details of all April qualifiers can be found here
A complete list of all 2025 Comrades qualifier marathons and ultras can be found here
