Welcome to this edition of Run Talk SA, I’m David Katz, Mr Active. It is post Comrades, all the excitement of the 90th Comrades Marathon is done and dusted. Its recovery time now and we are going into winter, the three coldest months that we have here in South Africa. So the big thing and the first thing I want to hit our guest today with is post Comrades, what should people be doing? You’ve been doing so much mileage, so much training to get to the race, you’re thinking of doing it next year in...
Jun 02, 2015•10 min0
Welcome to this edition of Run Talk SA with myself David Katz, Mr Active and we are less than a week to go now until the Comrades Marathon and a lot of excitement in the air. I went out for a run in Johannesburg this morning, it’s starting to get finally a little bit cold. So a lot of the Comrades runners up here are going to be thankful that race week has arrived. There are plenty of runners around the country heading down to Comrades or up to Comrades this weekend, including none other than th...
May 26, 2015•11 min0
Welcome to this week’s edition of Run Talk SA, I’m David Katz, Mr Active, taking over the podcast from Brad Brown. Many thanks to Brad, he’s done fantastic work on Run Talk SA over the last two years, but we will continue to mould this into a fantastic running podcast. All your questions you can get them into us, all your advice, anything you want people to know or you want to know. You’re welcome to send through to us on Run Talk SA. This week we’re just over a week away from Comrades Marathon,...
May 19, 2015•14 min0
After two years and some amazing content, Brad Brown hands over the reigns of the Run Talk SA podcast to David "Mr. Active" Katz. Here is the introduction.
May 12, 2015•23 min0
One of the biggest stories we have covered here on Run Talk SA was that of the Comrades Marathon cheats. If you missed the story or would like a refresher then make sure you check out this post where Mark Dowdeswell told us about his statistical findings. We then had a look at the numbers from the following year's Comrades Marathon and made another startling discovery thanks to the help of another runners, Cuan Walker. On this edition of Run Talk SA Brad Brown caught up with Comrades Marathon ra...
May 05, 2015•19 min0
What does it take to run a marathon in under 3 hours? For many of us just finishing a marathon is an incredible achievement, running a sub 3 hour marathon is a super human achievement. South African TV and sporting personality Arnold Geerdts has run 63 sub 3 hour marathons. That is not a typo. Sixty three sub three hour marathons, stretching over 4 decades. Less than 40 people have run sub 3 hour marathons in 5 decades and Arnie is on a mission to become the first South African to achieve that i...
Nov 12, 2014•20 min0
9 Time winner of the Comrades Marathon Bruce Fordyce describes Bob de la Motte as follows: “Bob de la Motte truly believed he would win the Comrades Marathon. While other contenders hoped to win, Bob knew he would. When he didn’t, he came back the following year twice as determined. In 1986 he broke the Comrades Marathon record and still did not win. He was the most ferociously determined athlete I ever met” This week on Run Talk SA we catch up with Bob de la Motte, who is in South Africa to pro...
Nov 03, 2014•25 min0
On this episode of Run Talk SA we welcome back Samantha Gash. Samantha, along with Mimi Anderson, have just completed a run of more than 2000km in just 32 days! The first time we caught up with Samantha was a few days before she left Australia to head to South Africa to take on the Freedom Run (You can listen to that interview here). We caught up with her again this morning to find out how it went. If you want to find out more about the Freedom Run, the route Samantha and Mimi ran as well as thr...
Oct 26, 2014•20 min0
This week on Run Talk SA we catch up with Manfred Seidler, one of the top athletics journalists in South Africa about a new initiative that he has started called Athletics Today.Athletics Today is a bi-weekly online video magazine programme that will keep you up to date with the latest news in the world of South African athletics as well as what is happening from an international perspective.On the podcast this week Brad catches up with Manfred to find out how it all started. They also chat abou...
Oct 01, 2014•20 min0
When someone tells you they are running planning on running 80km a day for 32 days, what is the first thing that pops into your mind?The first thing that pops into our mind is “That’s awesome, we’d love to do that too”. If you think the same way, you are going to love our chat with Samantha Gash this week on Run Talk SA.Samantha, along with Mimi Anderson are taking on the more than 2000km Freedom Trail between Pitermaritzburg and Paarl.These two incredible women aren’t just running the Freedom T...
Sep 23, 2014•18 min0
It is hard to put into words the beauty of the Wildcoast Wildrun™. Three days of some of the most spectacular coastal running you will ever experience, on one of the most unspoiled stretches of the South African coastline.This week on Run Talk SA we catch up with one of the Wildcoast Wildrun™ runners, City Press political journalist Carien du Plessis. Carien is no stranger to long distance running having completed five Comrades Marathons and we touch base to find out more about her experience on...
Sep 16, 2014•16 min0
A month ago Irvette van Zyl won the Totalsports Women’s Race in Stellenbosch in a time of 32:50. It equalled Zola Budd’s personal best as the third fastest 10km performances by South African women on the road. Budd ran that time at the age of 17 in Bloemfontein in August 1983. That time still stands as the South African junior record.The only two women to run faster over that distance are former half-marathon world record holder Elana Meyer and Colleen de Reuck.This week on Run Talk SA we chat t...
Sep 09, 2014•21 min0
2015 Comrades Marathon entries opened this week and as it stands as I write this approximately 4000 entries have already been snapped up. On this episode of Run Talk SA we talk the Comrades Marathon with the 2014 Women’s winner Ellie Greenwood.Ellie has had an incredible running career which includes victories at the Western States 100 miler (Including a new course record) as well as the 100km World Championships.Having come close at the Comrades Marathon before, Ellie picked up her maiden win a...
Sep 02, 2014•18 min0
We are suckers for great running stories. Joel Runyon has a fantastic one. From being unemployed, sitting in his parents basement he has gone on to travel the world and do things most people think are impossible.Find out what brought Joel all the way from San Diego to the sleepy hollow of Pietermaritzburg to run the 2014 Comrades Marathon on this edition of Run Talk SA.Joel tells us about his journey to completing the Comrades Marathon as well as some of the cool mantras that got him through thi...
Aug 26, 2014•26 min0
As a runner, once you’ve been around the proverbial block a few times, it is easy to forget what it felt like to complete your first race. Remember your first 5km?Remember making the step up to 10km and how you thought there is no way you could EVER run a half marathon?Once you’ve been running a while and have run a few marathons and ultra’s you quickly forget what a struggle it was to first get going.On this episode of Run Talk SA we chat to Talk Radio 702’s morning traffic guy and gadget guru,...
Aug 20, 2014•21 min0
You know how difficult it is to wake up early in the morning to head out for your midweek Comrades Marathon training runs. Particularly as the days get shorter and shorter as Comrades Marathon race day approaches and the temperature starts to drop.How often have you said to yourself on those mornings “This sucks”?Have you ever considered that it could be worse?Imagine having to start ramping your training up in December and January with only six hours of daylight to contend with. How about Febru...
Aug 12, 2014•20 min0
Have you ever wanted to run the New York Marathon?If you have and have ever tried to get an entry you will know it may be easier to fall pregnant wind pollination. Short of moving to the Big Apple there are essentially 4 ways to get an entry into the New York Marathon.On this episode of Run Talk SA we chat to Mark Lapedus, who runs for Rockies in Johannesburg, about his first New York Marathon.Mark runs us through the 4 ways to get an entry in the New York Marathon as well as the logistics of ge...
Aug 08, 2014•15 min0
In a previous episode of Run Talk SA we chatted about some very irregular Comrades Marathon splits that pointed to, in our opinion, a back of the pack Comrades Marathon cheat. There have been numerous incidents of cheating at the Comrades Marathon over the years from doping to a set of twins running half the race each and bagging a Comrades Marathon gold medal.It seems that back of the pack cheating is becoming more and more prevalent at the Comrades Marathon. We are not saying every one of them...
Jul 15, 2014•26 min0
It has been a month since the 2014 Comrades Marathon and on this episode of Run Talk SA we wanted to share a pretty cool inspiring Comrades Marathon story with you. Douw Prinsloo finished his first Comrades Marathon this year and he has an incredible story to share.Douw woke up one morning in 2009 and decided that enough was enough. Tipping the scales at 133kgs Douw knew he had to make some changes. Already a member of his local gym Douw lined up the personal trainers, made his pick and started ...
Jul 03, 2014•24 min0
As it stands today there are 24 days to until the 2014 Momentum Cape Times Knysna Marathon. Here at Run Talk SA we are really looking forward to heading down to that neck of the woods for the first time to take part in the race. The Knysna Marathon has really established itself as one of the highlights on the South African road running calendar.We’ve spoken about the Knysna Marathon and half marathon before on Run Talk SA, both here and here, but this week we wanted to look at something slightly...
Jun 18, 2014•12 min0
There are always some incredible Comrades Marathon stories that emerge after the race every year. One of the Comrades Marathon stories of 2014 has got to be the 10 Ten challenge. A couple of weeks ago here on Run Talk SA Brad Brown spoke to Hazel Moller, who’s idea it was, about how it all started and what she hoped to achieve.Comrades Marathon Stories – The 10 Ten ChallengeThis week on Run Talk SA Brad caught up with the only one of the trio who was able to complete all ten of the 90km runs in ...
Jun 11, 2014•23 min0
It’s been a couple of days since the 2014 Comrades Marathon and now that the proverbial dust has settled. If you ran on Sunday your legs are probably more painful today than they were yesterday.It was a pretty disappointing weekend for me. I came down with a sore throat on Saturday and then woke up on Sunday morning as sick as a dog. As difficult a decision as it was to make, I decided that I would not run feeling like that. It was just too dangerous. I run to stay healthy, not to run the Comrad...
Jun 03, 2014•22 min0
On this edition of Run Talk SA Hazel Moller tells Brad about the Ten10 Challenge. She plans on running the equivalent of 10 Comrades Marathons in 10 days. Read more
May 16, 2014•15 min0
May. Already. We hope that we are not the only ones struggling to come to terms with how fast this year is moving. Just over three weeks away from the 2014 Comrades Marathon and even better news is that three weeks after that is the winter solstice and then the downhill slide to summer starts! […] Read more
May 06, 2014•17 min0
We get a ton of questions in our email inbox, on our Twitter stream and on our Facebook page regarding the use of pain medication and anti inflammatories during marathons and ultra-marathons like the Comrades Marathon. This week on Run Talk SA, we chat to the Comrades Marathon Coach Lindsey Parry who has some strong […] Read more
Apr 24, 2014•15 min0
As we head into the Easter Weekend here is the next edition of Run Talk SA. On episode 42 of this weekly South African running podcast we chat to: Physiotherapist Hanette Lemke who is busy conducting a study on how runners recover. As discussed in the podcast if you want to help Hanette you can […] Read more
Apr 17, 2014•26 min0
Another week has gone by as we inch closer to our one year birthday. Run Talk SA this week is slightly different. We enjoy chatting to our medical experts and our elite athletes but to be honest, we love chatting to ordinary, everyday runners just like you. This week on Run Talk SA we catch […] Read more
Apr 11, 2014•21 min0
It’s hard to believe we are only 12 episodes away from having been doing this for a year. On this week’s Run Talk SA we: Catch up with Paul Mcrystal from Benoni Northerns about his tenth Comrades this year and also about some of the great stuff that Benoni Northerns are doing. We also find […] Read more
Apr 03, 2014•17 min0
The world half marathon championships take place this weekend in Denmark and on this week’s Run Talk SA we chat to one of the athletes that will be representing South Africa. On episode 39: Rene Kalmer chats to us about racing the best in the world in Copenhagen at the weekend. She also talks about […] Read more
Mar 27, 2014•27 min0
This week on Run Talk SA we have really been out and about! On episode 38 of this weekly running podcast Brad Brown: Caught up with Corne Botha, the chairperson of the CSIR Running club, following the second Modern Athlete Run Talk SA Sprint Series in Pretoria. The pair also spoke about the sprint series […] Read more
Mar 21, 2014•12 min0
