BOB NORRIS
The 2026 Discovery Surfers is all but upon us and thus far the 17.5km “original” Surfers has been extensively covered, while last week the 5km and some of the youngest runners also made the GO pages.
This week the Surfers, which is run from outside the Gonubie Hotel to the Nahoon Beach finish, is in the spotlight.
Known to most as the 10km, it always comes as a surprise to those who have a smart watch giving them the distance covered, when it reads 2km and a couple of hundred metres further. Be that as it may, it is good to know in respect of a runner’s capacity at distance running.
There have been a good few tight races, with the Nahoon River crossing often the deciding factor.
It was recently brought to the Go’s attention that one of the top runners, who will be competing again this year, has been taking swimming lessons specifically to be more competitive come race day. That cannot be considered anything other than positive.
The first race over the Gonubie to Nahoon shorter distance was in 2014 and was won by two top athletes.
Luthando Hejana and Monde Polisiti raced to the finish with the former man winning by 21 seconds.
In the women’s race, two of the top women distance runners in the province also competed.
Hanlie Botha had already won five of the longer Surfers and now she ran a 41 min 54 sec in the shorter one with her Easy Equities Born2Run club mate, Stephanie Smith, finishing second. That time remains the fastest by any woman.
Interestingly, Botha is also the second fastest with a 43:04 recorded in 2016.
Smith also ran again, finishing joint third with her friend Jenni Petersen, and when pregnant with her first child. Such is the allure of Surfers and friends.
Caryn Lategan, Border’s top marathon distance runner has won the race on five occasions, while her sister Lauren Ranger has come in first twice.
A visitor from Johannesburg, Michelle Redelinghuys, came especially to run Surfers in 2017 and won, while her sister Nicole, was fourth behind Caryn.
Hejana won the race on four occasions and the longer version once.
He has registered the fastest time from Gonubie to Nahoon with a 38:00 in 2019, which was 54 seconds faster than a year previous.
A few youngsters have migrated from the 5km in recent times and registered as podium finishes, which is what is meant to happen as athletes progress in the sport.
There were 1,050 entrants in the race in 2025, rebuilding from the heights of 2019 when 1,456 entrants were attracted to the Gonubie race alone. That was of course before the lockdown and no race in 2021.
All will be revealed on race day on February 21.
