'I wanted to get an ultra medal' - 2:24 at 42km to 4:52 finish. Why Mokoka walked at Two Oceans

It is an exceedingly rare sight to witness a top runner walking to the finish line of a marathon or ultra marathon once the wheels have come off. If things don’t go according to plan and they find themselves with no hope of finishing inside the top ten or earning prize money, most will simply call it a day and wait for the support vehicle to collect them. Yet Stephen Mokoka - a 2:06 marathoner - chose to grit his teeth and walk to the finish of the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon to finish in just under five hours when he had been shoulder to shoulder with the leaders at 42,2km mark.

"I finished the race. There's nothing I could do because the hammies were giving me problems. I climbed with them for almost 2 or 3 Kays but after Constantia Nek when I had cramps, I stopped for almost 30 minutes," he explained. 

"After 30 minutes I just decided to just continue because the bailer bus is going to take forever to come. I must have walked for an hour plus. I was just enjoying the moment. And because I hadn't seen any of the pacer buses I knew that I can walk and get to the finish because there are people who are still going to be on the road for seven hours. The main thing was just to get the medal because I wasn't going to go back home with getting the medal."

Mokoka posing with his hard fought Two Oceans medal. Photo Credit: MWMedia.

For finishing the 56km race in 4:52:00 after passing the marathon mark 2:24:35, the four-time Olympian earned a Sainsbury medal. And with the medal came praise and admiration from the thousands of surprised social runners who encountered the former 50km World Record holder who failed to complete his debut Two Oceans ultra last year, hobbling past Kirstenbosch Gardens towards the finish line at the University of Cape Town Rugby Fields.

"Most importantly I just wanted to go through the whole ultra because I've never finished it. I wanted to get an ultra medal. I've seen people bragging with their medals and I said to myself I’m going for that as well because it was a long journey. There were a lot of people who took snaps and pics of me and gave me worlds of encouragement. Some even said that I’m showing courage and character by continuing. One guy even told me that I’m respecting the road. I got all those comments while I was walking," he told #TheTopRunner.

Mokoka's wife Zintle captured him walking after the 50km mark on the day and shared a video on social media. Photo Credit: Supplied.

With his first medal earned at the World's Most Beautiful Ultra Marathon, South Africa's fastest half marathon athlete of all time (59:36) can now plan his assault on the 2026 edition of the race. Far from giving up and boxing himself as a marathon and track specialist who couldn’t make the step up to the ultras, Mokoka is already planning a strategy for next year's race.

"I don't think I can give up now. I'm still learning. We did have a certain but when we reached 15, 16 kay there was too much wind," he said reflecting on the brisk start that saw him take an early lead alongside Hollywood AC teammates Nkosikhona Mhlakwana and Lindelani Mjwara. "I wanted to run a certain way and I'm happy that Mhlakwana came. But when the wind came we chickened out and went back into the bunch. So talking about it with our elite manager Manfred Seidler after the race we decided that next year we are not going back. We regretted going back into the bunch. I've learnt from that."