Photo: Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon/Facebookīilled as “the world’s most beautiful marathon,” the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon is a 35-mile course that runs through the unparalleled beauty of the Cape Peninsula. Once that bug has bitten, it’s a hard thing to shake.įrom the lush coastal stretches of the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape to the imposing, raw beauty of the Drakensberg Mountains, these are the races that’ll make you book a ticket to South Africa. I like to call it “finish line amnesia,” and it’s the reason ultra-runners continue to line up at the starting line despite often swearing mid-race to never to do so again. It can be an awful experience that has you questioning why you entered in the first place, but when you cross the finish line, all that darkness is washed away by a wave of euphoria. To complete an ultra, you need to dig deep, fight off the urge to quit when your body is falling apart, and be willing to go to some pretty dark places before finally crossing the finish line. Showcased in films like The Barkley Marathon: The Race That Eats Its Young, there’s a romanticism to ultrarunning, with those who take it on displaying the grit we all want to find in ourselves.
But a growing community of runners is signing up for these races - all drawn by the allure of completing an ultra. They’re long, often brutal, and certainly not for everybody. An ultramarathon - commonly referred to as an ultra - is any race longer than the traditional marathon distance of 42.2 kilometers (26.2 miles).
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