Runners Platform SA

  Are They Worth The Money? Welcome, fellow runners and fitness enthusiasts. Walk into any running shop and you'll see them stacked at the top of the wall: carbon-plated shoes, priced like it's personal, promising to shave minutes off your marathon. Some runners swear by them. Others think they're an expensive way to look serious about running. Honestly, both camps have a point. Since the Vaporfly showed up and marathon records started falling, every major brand built its own version - Adidas, ASICS, New Balance, Puma, Saucony, Hoka, Brooks, Mizuno, all of them. In South Africa that's R4,000 to R7,000 a pair. Not pocket change. So what are you actually paying for? What's in the shoe A thin carbon plate sits inside the midsole. It doesn't launch you forward like some kind of trampoline; that's the popular myth. What it does is stabilise the foam around it, so your stride transitions more smoothly from landing to toe-off. Studies have found runners often...

Every winter there's a morning when the alarm goes off and the blanket wins. Some runners cut way back, some stop entirely, others just run without any plan at all. That break can do you good - your body gets a rest from months of pounding, your head gets a rest from targets and mileage totals. Then spring races start showing up on the calendar and the itch to get serious comes back. The instinct is to pick up right where you left off. I get it. It also rarely works. Fitness doesn't vanish as fast as people think, but your tendons and joints still need time to catch up to what you're asking of them. Ease back in and you'll rebuild strength without ending up injured in March. Where you actually are Week one is about honesty. Forget the pace you were holding before the break, forget your PR from last October - the only fitness that matters right now is whatever you've got today. Your usual pace is going to feel harder than it should. That's normal. Cardio fi...

The Nelson Mandela Marathon Cape Town runners have a new date to write into their diaries. On 18 October 2026, the city will host the first Nelson Mandela Marathon, a road running event that slots into the Western Province Athletics calendar alongside the club races, cross country leagues and school meets that already fill most weekends here. The race is organised by Golazo, working with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Entries open at midday on 22 May 2026, and organisers are expecting around 20,000 runners and walkers across the various distances on offer. The main event is a full 42 km marathon starting on Strand Street and finishing at the Grand Parade. There's also a 21.1 km half marathon, a 10 km and a 5 km, so there's room for people who want to race hard and people who just want to be part of the day. Why the timing matters Race week runs from 11 to 18 October, and every entrant, regardless of distance, gets the bib number 466/64. That was Mandela's prison num...

  A Lightweight Trainer That Actually Earns the Name The EVO SL borrows its name from the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1, a shoe known for costing a small fortune and appearing on elite marathon podiums. The EVO SL is not that shoe. It costs far less, weighs very little, and is aimed at runners who want the lightweight, fast-feeling experience without the financial commitment. After putting it through easy runs, steady efforts, intervals, and longer weekend sessions, the clearest thing I can say is: this is a lightweight training shoe that enjoys going fast. Not a racing shoe dressed up as a trainer. That's actually an important distinction, plenty of shoes blur this line and end up being awkward at both ends. First Impressions It looks quick before you lace it up. The design is stripped back, no bulky overlays, no thick padding layers, nothing that looks like it's there to justify the design budget. Picking it up the first time is slightly disorienting if you're used to daily...

   What Your Body Really Needs After 85.78 Kilometres Welcome, fellow runners and fitness enthusiasts. The finish line of the Comrades Marathon carries a particular feeling that is hard to describe to anyone who has not been there. For months your life revolves around training runs, early mornings, nutrition plans and endless conversations about kilometres. Then it is over. The medal is around your neck. The photographs appear on social media. And the training schedule that dictated every weekend simply disappears overnight. Many runners spend so much time preparing for race day that recovery barely gets a thought. That is a mistake and a surprisingly common one. Running nearly 85.78 kilometres puts serious stress on the body. Muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and even the immune system take a beating over those many hours on the road. Recovery is not a matter of resting for a few days before returning to normal training. It is the process through which the body actually...

  Three Days Out: The Training Is Done There is a specific kind of quiet that settles over a runner in the final days before Comrades. The alarm still goes off early out of habit. The legs feel oddly restless. You find yourself checking your race number again even though you checked it yesterday. This is normal. This is the taper talking. If you are reading this with race day less than 72 hours away, there is one thing worth saying before anything else: you have already done the hard part. The kilometres are banked. The body has adapted. Whatever fitness you were going to build from months of early alarms and long Sunday runs - it is sitting in your legs right now, waiting for Sunday morning. Nothing you do this week will add to it. A hard session today will not sharpen you. A long run on Friday will not fill a gap you imagine is there. What it will do is cost you, and the bill comes due somewhere between the 60km mark and Polly Shortts. The temptation to do more is real. Runn...