Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 117, April 2019 | Page 6

ROAD RUNNING
In 2013 Mark Pikker successfully took on a unique multi-race challenge on the
Two Oceans Marathon weekend, and achieved something that quite possibly will not
be done again. This is the story behind the Three Oceans Challenge. – BY SEAN FALCONER
R
unners are prone to taking on what non-
runners consider crazy challenges. Some will
enter a race with a distance they’ve never
attempted before, whether it’s their first parkrun, the
Comrades Marathon, or a multi-day stage race. Then
you get the real nutters who set out to run across a
country, or break a 48-hour world treadmill record.
There is always another challenge to be attempted.
That’s what led to Mark Pikker attempting something
in the 2013 Two Oceans Marathon that had never
been done before, and will most likely never be
done again, given that the rules and regulations of
the event have changed. The 35-year-old electronic
engineer from Cape Town explains how it all came
about. “In 2013 I was running for the Varsity Old Boys
club and training every night at UCT with coach Dion
Middelkoop. We were chatting after a club run when
Dion mentioned nobody had ever done all three the
Two Oceans Ultra Marathon, Half Marathon and Trail
Run in the same year. It sounded like a fun challenge,
so I decided to give it a go.”
“At that stage of my running career I had already run
the Two Oceans Ultra five times, and I had done the
“I was thinking,
what am I doing,
am I crazy? But I
soon got over it”
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ISSUE 117 APRIL 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za