South Africa’s new, popular, and ambitious ultra and half marathon is back for its third installment. Legends Ultra Marathon & 21km, and 5km fun run, takes place on Saturday 03 October 2015.
The Legends Marathon, boasting well over a R1million in prize money runs from Bhisho to East London and attracts international and SA’s top athletes in the road running scene. The 21.1 half marathon is an out and back route and there is little in the way of flat running.
In its inaugural running in 2013, (2x) World IAU 50KM (current) champion, Zimbabwe’s Collen Makaza, took the gold. In 2014 Makaza attended the World Championships, which he won for the second time, and thus was not able to defend his title, which was claimed by well-known athlete, Marko Mambo. Both will be back this year, along with an extremely strong contingent of South African and international athletes, to vie for the generous prizes.
East London, like many cities in South Africa is sport mad. In 2013 it successfully hosted, alongside the Legends 68km Ultra Marathon, the South African Half Marathon Championships, a qualifying event for the World Championships in Denmark, Copenhagen.
The Marathon is named appropriately to celebrate the legendary spirit of the people of the Eastern Cape and its Legends. It celebrates the Eastern Cape, its people, physical spaces and spiritual beacons, identified by the people themselves, amongst them the world’s Legend, Nelson Mandela and many. The Eastern Cape government has undertaken a very important step of repositioning the province as the “Home of Legends”. In her state of the nation address in 2012 the Premier of the Province Hon Noxolo Kiviet made a clarion call for this vision to be embraced, nurtured and supported.
Road running is a popular sporting code for South Africans. Scores of people pound the streets daily, either as amateur keep-fit enthusiasts or serious professional athletes. There are hundreds of running clubs in South Africa catering for thousands of athletes. South Africa is internationally recognized for hosting a diverse range of marathons such as the Comrades Ultra Marathon, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, The Two Oceans Ultra Marathon run in and around Cape Town, and the Soweto Marathon in Gauteng.
Legends Marathon is a qualifying event for both the Two Oceans Marathon and Comrades Marathon.
We present the Eastern Cape’s Premier Ultra Marathon- the Legends Ultra Marathon – Running for a Cause. Every runner must have a cause to run for, in this way, we create goals and personal commitment.
