An independent running calendar, built by a runner.

RunningCalendar has listed South Africa's road, trail and ultra races since 2016. It's independent — not a club, not a federation, not a brand — and every event is checked by a human before it carries a verified tick.

Why it exists

Planning a weekend race in South Africa has always meant hunting across club Facebook pages, WhatsApp groups, hand-typed PDFs and the odd flyer pinned up at the running shop. Dates move, distances change, venues swap — and nobody updates the flyer. RunningCalendar started in 2016 as one honest, maintained list. Today it covers 1,109 races across 1 countries in Southern Africa. Every listing is free, and every event is checked by hand.

What "verified" means here

A race is marked Verified when its date, distance, venue and entry details have been confirmed against the organiser — not auto-imported from a scraper. When you see the green tick, a person has checked it.

How it's funded

Three honest, clearly-labelled revenue lines keep it free to use: Google AdSense banner ads on the free site; an optional R29/month ad-free tier for runners who'd rather not see them; and an affiliate partnership with Coach Parry's training programmes. Listings are free and always will be — nothing you pay changes a race's place in search or on the calendar.

Ads & your privacy

Because AdSense funds the free site, Google's advertising cookies can load — but only after you consent through the cookie banner (the site runs Google Consent Mode v2 and a self-hosted Klaro consent manager, and you can change your choice any time). Prefer none at all? The R29 ad-free tier removes them. Full detail is in the privacy policy.

What it's not

Not an entry platform — you're sent to the organiser's official entry page. Not affiliated with ASA, any provincial body, or any club. If a race is wrong, there's a real person at the other end — [email protected] (or use the Contact page).

Our principles

Runner first

When a decision helps the runner reading the page, that wins. Affiliate links are disclosed; verified means verified.

Free to list

Every race — club fun-run to world-label marathon — gets a free listing. Nothing you pay changes search ranking.

Hand-checked

No blind auto-import. A person verifies events and the page shows when it was last checked.

Independent

Not owned by, affiliated with, or paid by any federation, club or organiser. Sponsored content is clearly labelled.

Transparent funding

Ads and an affiliate partnership keep it free, and the ad-free tier is always an option.

Consent-based tracking

Advertising cookies load only after you opt in, and your choice is revocable.

Who runs it

RunningCalendar is built and run independently by Johan Havenga, with the South African running community flagging changes and corrections.