There aren’t many Carlas or Karlas around so I’m always excited when I come across another one. I first became aware of the amazing Carla Molinaro after listening to her speak on a podcast about an amazing adventure she had running across South Africa to start the Comrades race. In fact, I was so inspired, that my great friend Minna and I came to South Africa do the race in 2019.
Since then, Carla’s ultra career has gone stratospheric – she’s sponsored by Hoka, continues to get faster and faster (she ran a rapid marathon PB in late 2024), and has an international following who do her strength and yoga classes online. She’s also loved for her Instagram stories chatting about burgers, naps and training. I asked her about that inspiring run, her burger tips and being a World Champion.
In 2018 we tried to do a run from Cape Town to Comrades. The idea was to run 90km per day for 19 days and then on the 20th day do the race. We all ended up getting various injuries but, in the end, I ran over 900km in the three weeks before, and then did Comrades on the 20th day and came 9th. I then moved to Johannesburg for a couple of years before moving back to the UK, and then back to Cape Town.
I’ve always wanted to live at the bottom of the mountain but also by the sea. Cape Town is an awesome place to live, I think it’s pretty easy place to live too. If you love the outdoors and food, it’s a pretty great place to be. The community and the friends I’ve made in Cape Town are really special too.
Arun Kanna
I was looking for a coach probably 3ish years ago now and I wanted someone who coached trail and road. Martin coached a friend of mine, Robbie to a really good marathon and my friend Beth to a really good trail race. I got in touch with him and the relationship has built from there. We’ve always had a good relationship. Obviously, I can have a bad training day, but I really trust him. I do the training set; I give feedback and then he adjusts it based on what I’ve said or how I’m feeling.
I started running back at school, so I went through 800m, 1500m, cross country and then slowly got longer and longer with the distances. Now I’m an ultra-runner! My favourite session is 4 x 5km with 1km jog recovery and my favourite distance to race is 50km. I find it is a great distance to combine endurance and a bit of speed.
I tend to have a 7-day training cycle. I do a session on a Wednesday and a Saturday, we will do a moderate run (30 seconds slower than marathon pace) on a Monday, and then the rest of the runs are easy. Some days I do double runs, and I also do three strength sessions, 2 core sessions and a yoga session once a week as well. I don’t vary my training with my cycle, and I don’t really have rest days, but I do have some very easy days. I think my next day ‘off’ will be after Comrades in June. If I felt I needed a rest day I’d take one, but I don’t really feel like I do. If I had to do one exercise in the gym it would be a single leg dead left to a high knee. That’s the biggest bang for your buck.
Erin Groll
My favourite place to run is Cape Town. We’ve got the ocean and the mountain which we can see for most of our runs which is pretty cool. I really love running with the group I train with in Cape Town – that’s my running highlight. My top three races in South Africa are Two Oceans the False Bay 50km and Comrades.
My best performance is probably at the 50km World Championships (Carla won gold for Great Britain).It went really well; it was a dream race, and you don’t get those too often. It was really smooth, and I couldn’t have asked for a better result.
I’ve had some bad races too. At the Gun Run last year. It was just a bad day, and I couldn’t really figure out what the reason was. Just one of those that I’ve moved on from. It was only a half marathon, but I wanted to run better than I did.
I’m motivated by the people I train with and the running community in Cape Town. It’s pretty special when you go running and you see everyone out on the prom or on the mountains with you, and everyone greets each other. It’s pretty cool to be motivated by the people I train with every day.
Mentz Germishuis
My favourite bit of kit is probably anti-chafe balm because I need to use it quite a lot because I chafe everywhere! I either use Squirrel’s Nut Butter or Ass Magic (lovely name!). Also, sunglasses and socks – I have a little bit of an obsession with sunglasses and socks at the mo.
I wear different shoes for different things. The Hoka Clifton 9 for easy runs, the Cielo or Rocket X2 for sessions, the Speedgoat for trail and the Mach 6 for more moderate runs. And then a pair of Machs for the gym as well. I’m lucky in that I’ve got lots of different shoes and I tend to be able to wear different shoes every day. If I had to pick one pair to wear it would be the Mach 6.
My worst injury? In 2019 I fell running from the road to the trail and sprained my ankle. This ended up with a stress fracture in my fibula which was a little bit annoying. Luckily stress fractures are in some ways easier to manage. I had to be a boot for 6 weeks and then built my training up again. Luckily, I don’t really get injured other than then and I put this down to strength and fuelling correctly.
Erin Groll
I’m racing a 21km next weekend – the Peninsula 21, then I’ve got Two Oceans in April and Comrades in June. I haven’t thought about the second half of the year yet. I want to do Comrades and see how that goes.
The Burger Club current winner in Cape Town is LA Farms which is very delicious, and I’d highly recommend.
You can find Carla on Instagram @carlamolinaro, and on her wesbite www.carlamolinaro.com.
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