With Comrades now allowing full year qual (hopefully Oceans to follow suit from 2026), there's plenty of scope for organisers to plug some holes in 2nd half of year. Aug is crying out for attention & CTM’s move from Oct to May in 2026 provides a big opportunity gap to be filled.

SOUTH AFRICAN MARATHONS BY MONTH The marathon schedule tends to revolve around Comrades (& to a lesser extent Two Oceans qualification period). Just over half of the marathons are crammed into 3 month window from February to April. This is actually slightly down from 55% in 2023.

On a personal note, my mission is to run every marathon in🇿🇦. I started the year with +/-30 to go & finished with same number despite adding plenty of new marathons to my running CV. It’s a moving goal post (and a good problem to have) as there were 16 inaugural races in 2025.

HOW MANY MARATHONS DOES SOUTH AFRICA HOST? With a total of 138 events, 2025 offered the largest marathon menu ever. This comprised 112 standard marathons, 25 ultras and 1 combo (Benoni Northerns which offered a marathon and a 48k). #RunSouthAfrica #2025marathonstats

Buffalo City, Comrades, Barberton Makhonjwa Mountain, Rand Water Vaal River City, Emalahleni City, Laingsburg Karoo, Great Kei, City to City 50k, Shikhumba Filling, Kaapsehoop, Bonkolo, Northridge Mall and African Bank Soweto. #RunSouthAfrica #2025marathonstats

Capital City, Legends Township, Santam Bielie Mielie, uMngeni-uThukela Water, Swasap 52k, uMhlathuze Crocs (formerly Tronox), NMC Fast, Highveld, South32 Hippo Richards Bay, Mall of the North, Rising Sun Chatsworth Freedom 52k, Nashua Loskop 50k, Outeniqua, Prince Mangosuthu 52k,

This year an amazing 36 marathons managed to keep their price the same as the previous year (by far the largest number I’ve seen): AECI Mielie, Ottosdal Nite, Aquelle Joburg North City, Balwin Sport Jeppe, Mapungubwe, Kloppers, Aurum Klerksdorp, CDM Polokwane, John Nugent,

[Note: I had a typo in original post spreadsheet with the incorrect Rolando Hillcrest 2024 entry fee which has been corrected - their increase was only R20 and well below top 10 threshold.]

2025🇿🇦MARATHON STATS: Biggest Entry Fee Increases Rising costs and economic pressure meant that many races needed to increase their entry fees. Despite the increases, there are still some ‘bargains’ to be had: e.g. Voet of Afrika and Marakele are phenomenal marathons.

2025🇿🇦MARATHON STATS: Biggest Entry Fee Increases Rising costs and economic pressure meant that many races needed to increase their entry fees. Despite the increases, there are still some ‘bargains’ to be had: e.g. Voet of Afrika and Marakele are phenomenal marathons.

Buffalo City, Comrades, Barberton Makhonjwa Mountain, Rand Water Vaal River City, Emalahleni City, Laingsburg Karoo, Great Kei, City to City 50k, Shikhumba Filling, Kaapsehoop, Bonkolo, Northridge Mall and African Bank Soweto. #RunSouthAfrica #2025marathonstats

Capital City, Legends Township, Santam Bielie Mielie, uMngeni-uThukela Water, Swasap 52k, uMhlathuze Crocs (formerly Tronox), NMC Fast, Highveld, South32 Hippo Richards Bay, Mall of the North, Rising Sun Chatsworth Freedom 52k, Nashua Loskop 50k, Outeniqua, Prince Mangosuthu 52k,

This year an amazing 36 marathons managed to keep their price the same as the previous year (by far the largest number I’ve seen): AECI Mielie, Ottosdal Nite, Aquelle Joburg North City, Balwin Sport Jeppe, Mapungubwe, Kloppers, Aurum Klerksdorp, CDM Polokwane, John Nugent,

Despite inflationary pressures, 5 events managed to drop prices. Washie provided biggest % & rand value drop followed by Gqeberha 50k. The aQuelle Zone 3 Marathon is on the list but it should be noted that the distance also decreased from 48k to a standard marathon.

Final graph tracks cost history from Covid. Up 5.4% from 2024 avg (for interest, pre-covid avg was R4.56 per km). NW went from deflation in 2024 to double digit inflation. Lim/KZN also drove inflationary pressure. EC only province to show a minor reduction in entry fees in 2025.

The Eastern Cape grabs 2nd and 3rd but those in East London will need to travel up or down the coast to get better value for money. North West North, which only has Om Die Dam, is the anomaly with our country’s capital pushing second furthest to the right.

Breaking info down further into athletics province, one should plan a marathon running holiday to the Garden Route: South Western Districts is by some way the cheapest place to run and they would also have a strong argument to boast the most beautiful marathons in the country.

The Northern Cape may not have many marathons but they offer the best fuel economy. The Free State is certainly not free but does also offer good value in 2nd as does the Eastern Cape in 3rd. #RunSouthAfrica #2025marathonstats

2025🇿🇦AVG MARATHON COSTS BY PROVINCE & INFLATION It now costs avg of R7.81/km to get your running fix. KZN remains way out front as most expensive. It’s a tight battle between Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga for positions 2 to 4. All the other provinces are ‘below average’.

Despite keeping entry fee static, Comrades 4th. If you ran all 10 on the most expensive list, cost =R6664. Still much cheaper than running a major/most trail but organisers need to look at creative ways to halt increases or risk excl large portion of the road running community.