Runner Marissa Groenewald to tackle Comrades — and human trafficking — with a skipping rope

Daily Maverick

28-04-2025

The 'rope runner' has made history by completing the Two Oceans marathon and has set her sights on the ultimate human race next.
Both running and skipping a rope are arduous forms of exercise and each has its own set of demands, physically and mentally. One South African woman has combined the two to conceptualise a whole new sport.
Marissa Groenewald (41) recently competed in the Two Oceans Marathon, completing the road race in just under seven hours. Finishing a 56km ultramarathon is commendable on its own, but she accomplished it with a skipping rope, setting a distance record in the process.
Groenewald described her unusual Two Oceans race as a 'wonderful experience' and expressed her gratitude for all the spectators and fellow runners who helped propel her over the finishing line. It was her second Two Oceans, but her first with a skipping rope in hand.
'The overall experience was so positive and enjoyable. I was ecstatic when I crossed the finishing line, overcome with emotion, because it was a massive thing to have been accomplished,' she told Daily Maverick.
Accidental start
Groenewald stumbled upon rope running, as she has termed it, a little over a year ago while she was recovering from an injury.
'I'm a road runner and a trail runner. With all the running, I had a hip injury and I heard that skipping is good for recovery,' said Groenewald, who lives in Durban.
'So last year in January, I started skipping in the gym and it got boring pretty quickly. And I thought, let me do something more interesting. Let me try to run with a skipping rope in the gym.
'It seemed easier than I thought it might be. Long story short, I then went to a very quiet, secluded road up in Hillcrest where no one could see me. And I thought, let me try this running with a rope on a road and see if it's doable. That's how rope running was born,' said Groenewald.
'The longest distance when I initially started rope running was maybe a kilometre and a half, and that was exhausting. On the back of that, I started adding more and more distances. So, it ended up becoming a half-marathon. It was a whole transition from 10km to a half-marathon to 30km to a full marathon and now the Two Oceans.
'With the progression of the distances in rope running, once I completed a 10km rope run, the penny dropped that this is actually doable. Yes, it's hard work and it takes a lot of effort to do it, much more than road running or trail running, but it is doable.'
Because traditional skipping ropes are not made for the way Groenewald uses them, she has resorted to making her own custom ropes that are far more durable, especially now that she is doing marathons.
Regular skipping ropes would only last about 20km or 30km, she found.
A family affair
Groenewald, one of four children, grew up all over South Africa, living in six provinces and attending five different schools. She says she has always been active and athletic.
She has two children of her own, a boy (9) and a girl (7), and says they as well as her husband and extended family offer great support as she skips herself into the history books.
'The fact that I'm the only human in the history of mankind doing this inspires them,' Groenewald said.
'So, my boy would often bring me things that he thinks he's the first to have done, because he's inspired. His mom's the first to do something like this – why can't he be? My daughter wants to be a rope runner when she grows up.'
Groenewald's family will have even more inspiration to tap into in a few months. After crushing the Two Oceans, she now has her sights set on skipping to the finishing line at the 2025 Comrades Marathon, which is scheduled for 8 June.
Known as the 'ultimate human race', the Comrades will be much more gruelling, not to mention more than 30km longer than the Two Oceans. Groenewald knows this and is deep into her preparation.
'Even if it's goals that no one has ever achieved, I keep on thinking to myself, you know what, I thought it was impossible, but now I can do a marathon. And I thought the Two Oceans was impossible and now I have done it. It's going to be the same for the Comrades as well,' she said.
'My mind and my mindset have increased in capacity and grown with this new so-called sport. [Now I believe] it is actually possible if you put in the hard work and train hard, and secondly, if you apply your mind correctly to it and just drown out all the noise of the outside world.'
Greater good
More than trying to rewrite history while pushing her mind and body to the limit, Groenewald's rope-running mission is spurred by a cause close to her heart: the fight against human trafficking.
As she races into history, she hopes to amplify awareness of the issue. To this end, she has partnered with Love Justice International, an organisation that works to stop human trafficking by intercepting trafficked individuals at strategic transit points.
'The reason it's close to my heart is because my parents used to live in Asia for about 10 years. My mom was very involved in helping trafficked women and girls get back into society, restoring their dignity to them, teaching them how to make jewellery and sell that – just restoring their lives. That had a huge impact on me,' Groenewald said.
'I realised that trafficking is a massive issue that is highly undercommunicated and needs to be exposed for what it is.' Groenewald aims to raise R500,000 for Love Justice International through her rope running this year, and she has opened a Back-a-Buddy account to reach this target. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.