Magnolia Road Runners

📣 Comrades Runners: Our 60k Snack & Dash tent is back!

Comrades gets real after halfway. Real emotional. Real painful. Real snacky.

Pack your power treats, label your bag with your name and telephone number, and hand it over at the Chairlady’s Run or Captain’s Braai on 7 June.
Our team will haul it to 60km so future you can high-five past you for thinking ahead.

Pro tip: If it belongs in a cooler box, it doesn’t belong in your race bag. If it melts, smells, or mutates… leave it at home.

A Magnolia tradition. A final celebration.
The send-off. Sunday, 7 June.

Join us at 7am for the final run — the Chairlady’s Run — a chilled 12km filled with good vibes and photo stops. Open to everyone, including non-comrades runners and friends.

Then from 12pm, the Captain’s Braai kicks off — open to family and friends. You bring the meat. We’ve got the fires, salads, and bread rolls.

Come cry, laugh, and carbo-load with us.

The work is done. Now we keep the legs kicking.

Join us for the countdown to Comrades

Introducing our May Magnolian of the Month – Tony Gomes.

Comrades Green Number holder.
Two Oceans Blue Number holder.
Consistent. Dedicated. Humble.

Tony continues to put together incredible performances while making every run look easy, but there’s a deeper story behind those achievements that many may not know.

This month we recognise not only the milestones, but the journey behind them.

Congratulations Tony. Fully deserved.

Read his full story below

Back in high school I was in the Cross Country team, and for a short while had delusions that I was God’s gift to the sport. But my high school was very small, and very English, so when I went to my first Noord Transvaal Landloop meeting, I spent all 8km trailing every kaalvoet Jannie and Thabo who left me and my fancy North Star tekkies eating their dust. So my first running lesson was humility. My second lesson was the realization that the beauty of running is that everyone can do it. Basically everyone can run, because running has no barriers to entry. And when we look at our physiology and human history, running has basically always been part of humanity. When we run we are doing what our bodies were intended to do.

I stopped running after school, and moved onto varsity and newly married life with lots of takeaways. Many moons later, as a chubby new father, with many unhealthy habits, I was looking for a new sport. At the time I was a paddler, who only did well in the parts when we had to get off the water to run with our boats around obstacles. I also had a smoking addiction, and very addictive personality. So one night at 21:00 I decided to quit smoking and switch my ni****ne addiction to a running addiction. Like some Forrest Gump character, I just started running furiously every single night. Every night was max effort time trial, and I went through my running injury growing pains in a few months.

One limitation I did have, was that none of my friends, family or wife ran back then. So I would go about by myself just entering things and learning as I went along. My first marathon was Vaal, and I remember standing on the start line listening to everyone and thinking to myself “I should probably also have some kind of a plan for this thing. I think I will do a hard 21km, and then repeat, yep, that sounds good”. Needless to say it ended badly.

This was also where I joined and learned the value of a good running club – clubs are really the foundation of organised running in South Africa. Without them the running landscape would be much more limited in terms of races, runners would be less prepared and informed, races would be much more expensive, and the whole running experience would be a lot poorer. I have chatted to Magnolia novices before and thought “wow, I wish I was this organised when I started running, it would have made life much easier”. Some of it is generational - younger runners nowadays are more informed, but a lot of it is just the fact that these novices belong to an organized club and can benefit from lots of tips and advice.

Soon I was no longer a lonely runner, but part of a whole community of friends and wonderful people I probably wouldn’t speak to otherwise. After having supported me at my first few Comrades, my wife Alzena also suddenly took up running and we had the good fortune to run her 1st one together in 2017. For many years I was scary obsessive with my running, that I even developed stress fractures in 2020. Having developed friends and then having a partner who also runs kept me training hard for many more years than I otherwise would have. Comrades has always been my favourite race, although we have had a complicated love/hate relationship, where I alternate yearly between just missing whatever medal I want and then coming back and smashing it the next year. It’s a funny old race where humility serves you well, as just when you think you have mastered it the next year it smacks you down again.

Look, I was hesitant to join this club as I was deeply traumatized at age 12 by Magnolias, when a friend and I walked into the wrong cinema at Sterland and instead of watching The Bear, sat watching Steel Magnolias. After a bit too much grannies drinking tea and no bears, we realized our mistake, but weren’t allowed to move and had to sit through the whole thing. But pushing aside my phobia for all things Magnolia, I nonetheless joined the club, and found a very diverse club with a range of ages and capabilities – a whole happy community. And the fact that it is also super organised is a huge bonus. I am very happy to be a Magnolian, and even more blessed to be a runner.

- Tony Gomes

The 3rd annual Solomon Challenge.
IYKYK

Great training run with great people 4 weeks ahead of Comrades.

The training is done. Now to keep the legs ticking until we start the taper.

📸 .bergh

Join us tomorrow for the final climbs

The route is simple - Solomon Mahlangu. Starting from Castle Gate Shopping Centre to Lynnwood road and back.

24k | +400m elevation | 6am | R25
Castle Gate Shopping Centre
Meeting point planet fitness

Please wear bright colours and headlamps. No black shirts please.

Come run with us 🫡

Four Sundays.
One goal.

From the Solomon Challenge to our Comrades send-off, we’re building toward race day the Magnolia way.

Run with us on The Road to Comrades.

Now that the long runs are done, it’s time to take on one last climb… the Solomon Challenge. The final hard run before we start dialing it down a little.

Starting from Castle Gate at 6am
24k | +400m elevation | R25

Here’s your weekly rundown.

Have a great week. See you on the road 👊

A big weekend for many Magnolians.

From our Long Run crew and volunteers, to those taking on the Midrand Long Run, Wings for Life World Run, and Wendy racing all the way over in New Zealand — there were Magnolia colours everywhere this weekend.

Big congratulations to everyone out there 👊

Hey everyone. Just a few things for tomorrow.

- entries open 5am.
- run starts 6am.
- Arrive early to avoid the rush.
- online entrants need to sign in and show proof of payment, email or screenshot will suffice.
- everyone will receive a coloured wristband indicating the distance paid.
- cash and card payments accepted.
- ⁠parking in the field next to the clubhouse
- ⁠fully stocked water points every 3km
- follow arrow markers indicating the route
- *and once again, please arrive EARLY*

Looking forward to seeing you all in the morning 🫡