Sport

Flight From the Asphalt: Why South Africans Are Escaping Municipal Decay on the Mountain Trails

As the dust settles on another gruelling Comrades Marathon, a quieter, more profound migration is reshaping our national running culture. Exhausted by failing municipal infrastructure, rising crime, and the grinding stress of urban life, thousands of middle-class South Africans are turning their backs on traditional road running in favour of extreme ultra-trail endurance races. On the rugged paths of Table Mountain and the Drakensberg, we are witnessing the birth of a global trail running mecca—a movement that is as much a collective psychological escape as it is an athletic phenomenon.