Josh Marais
Josh Marais
Josh Marais
Josh Marais
Josh Marais

#TeamRed athlete Josh Marais prepares to secure a coveted Comrades silver medal.

Running to victory!
#TeamRed athlete Josh Marais is a passionate runner who is preparing to secure his back-to-back Comrades medal by running under 7h30 to earn a coveted silver medal.

Josh is also passionate about supporting the running community as a coach and the co-founder of the Natural Running Co.

ATHLETE PROFILE
  • Lives: Northcliff, Johannesburg
  • Qualifications: BSc Computer Science. Qualification in bodybuilding and contest prep
  • Occupation: Full-time Coach
  • Age: 29
  • IG: @joshdylmarais
  • Race PBs: 5K – 19:11; 10K – 39:25; 21.1K – 1:28:00; 42.2K – 2:58:22

What initially sparked your interest in running?

Coming from a personal training background, I slowly fell out of love with spending every day indoors in a gym with my headphones in and not communicating with anyone.

I decided to attend a group run one day and immediately loved how I was able to meet and engage with so many people from all different walks of life. I started attending these runs more regularly and started going for runs on my own. The combination of the community aspect and the tangible improvements I felt each week after every run got me hooked! I now visit the gym (which I do, a lot!), it’s to do workouts that help improve my running rather than just make me ‘look good’.

Being a leader and leading by example, along with my desire to see how far I can go. I am a coach to over 25 athletes, and in my personal story, I have so much more I still want to achieve. In my eyes, this is still the start of my story.

I am currently training for a Comrades silver medal. My weekly mileage is between 80-100km. I also visit the gym twice a week to do my runner-specific leg workouts and pedal on the Wattbike.

Josh's weekly training split:

Monday: Aerobic base miles + gym
Tuesday: Aerobic base miles
Wednesday: Double threshold day (1 morning and 1 afternoon session)
Thursday: Recovery run
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Long run
Sunday: 1-2 hour long run workout incorporating some gnarly hill sets.

Being the co-founder of a running crew, it’s completely a part of me and my lifestyle, whether it’s my planning events, leading community runs, coaching my athletes, or completing my own training.

Runner-specific strength work is paramount. All forms of cross training are beneficial to the cardiovascular system too, but I mainly use these modes when I’m not in a big block or during the off season.

Consistency is everything in this sport. In running, more so than any sport, a strong work ethic beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

There are many elements but I think the biggest two are taking myself to the wall in training and having a core group of extremely consistent and solid athletes around me all chasing the same goal. I also included days in the block when I had to train on tired legs during a huge week where I needed to show up and run a marathon pace tempo or huge hill set. These sessions took absolutely everything from me physically and mentally. Experiencing the pain of a sub 3 marathon before I had even run it prepared me to break that barrier.

These races are iconic and steeped in history. You cannot become a big name in South Africa’s running scene without it. I also love the mental side of ultra marathons and hope to take that a step further in the coming years looking towards 100km and 100-miler trail races.

I eat a lot of good micronutrient-rich foods and take supplements, including vitamins. The emphasis is on putting back what hard training takes out and refuelling my body correctly.

Daily supplements

Race fuel

The rule of thumb is 80-100g of carbs for every hour of activity. So gels and chews are 20-30g per serving, shared between watermelon and salted baby potatoes as my whole foods and chicken nuggets sometimes.

Shop Josh’s Supplement Stack: