Among the colourful current of runners moving along the breathtaking route will be a group of volunteers who act as steady navigators through the tides of effort and fatigue. With flags rising above the field like beacons, the pacesetters provide rhythm and direction to thousands of runners during the race weekend, on Saturday 11 April for the Ultra Marathon and Sunday 12 April for the Half Marathon. Together, they guide runners targeting times from 4:30 to 7:00 in the Ultra, and a range of goals in the Half from 1:30 to 3:30.

Their task sounds simple in concept, but it’ s complex in execution. It’ s a delicate balancing act of shifting terrain, rising heat, and human emotion. It’ s a massive responsibility for pacesetters to carry the clock for the field. If the race is a symphony of pounding feet and laboured breath, the pacesetters are its conductors, ensuring the tempo neither surges too early nor fades too late.

Conductors of the Orchestra

At the centre of the pacing programme is Paul Murphy, coordinator of the Western Province Pace Setters group and a Two Oceans Blue Number Club runner( BNC 5933). Since 2015, Murphy and his team have orchestrated the pace of the race. For the 2026 edition, the

programme features 41 pacesetters in the Ultra Marathon and 28 in the Half Marathon, each responsible for guiding runners looking to run specific finishing times. Seven pacesetters in the Ultra Marathon have BNC status, with another three running their 10th Ultra this year. In the Half Marathon, six of the pacesetters have attained BNC status.

The evolution of the race start has reshaped pacing strategy. Gone are the days of a single rolling mass start. Today’ s batch system sends runners off in tightly controlled waves, and the pacesetters are now carefully distributed across batches, according to expected finish times.“ We try to place a pacesetter in each batch that is appropriate to that batch time,” says Murphy.“ We are involved with the seeding process, so we know roughly what the times of the runners in that batch are.”

Even with data and experience, the ultramarathon resists precision.“ It’ s not an exact science,” Murphy admits.“ Particularly in the ultra, there can be a huge range of finish times for a particular qualifying time. Predicting people’ s finish times is not an exact science, but we do that as best we can.”

A Nationwide Network

Behind the flags lies a community that stretches far beyond race day. The pacing programme draws from a national network of volunteers, connected through shared experience and a willingness to serve.“ We’ ve grown the pacesetting community to about 200 people across the provinces. They’ re all connected through a WhatsApp community and that’ s where the application form goes out,” says Murphy.

Selection is collaborative and deliberate.“ Within our pacesetting community, we have leaders in each province, and they help with the selection,” he explains.“ They might flag if someone was unreliable before, or confirm someone who has a strong track record.” The programme even has an international flavour.“ We’ ve got a couple of international pacesetters for the Ultra, and we’ re encouraging more of them to come,” adds Murphy.

The Science Behind the Stride

Every pacesetter runs with a plan etched as carefully as the route itself. Their pacing charts are shaped by years of data, and the unforgiving profile of the Two Oceans course.“ We follow a slight positive fade approach. It’ s route sensitive, so we are slower up the hills and slightly quicker on the downhills,” says Murphy.

This strategy reflects the reality of endurance running.“ The positive approach means we allow for people getting slower in the second half of the race. That’ s based on analysis of real results of real runners,” he adds, and the statistics back the philosophy.“ People who analyse results say maybe ten percent of runners achieve negative splits, We cater for the ninety percent.”

If there is one lesson Murphy repeats, it is restraint.“ The danger is going out too fast in the first half, when it’ s nice and flat, and you think it’ s easy,” he warns. However, the early part of the route can be deceptive – the real test lies deeper into the race, where Chapman’ s Peak and Constantia Nek rise like stern examiners.“ My advice is not to go quicker than the bus,” says Murphy.“ Once you’ ve reached the top of Constantia Nek, you have about ten kilometres of mostly downhill to the finish. If you’ ve got energy, there you can run away from the bus.”

Images: Two Oceans Marathon, Action Photo SA