Qualla: Comrades Marathon

Comrades Marathon: Introduction

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Upjav, CC0. Before dawn on race day, 20,000 runners stand in the dark and listen. First the South African national anthem. Then Shosholoza, the old mining song, sung by thousands of voices. Then Chariots of Fire through the speakers. And finally, a recording of a rooster crowing -- a tradition dating to the 1940s, when a runner named Max Trimborn replaced the starting gun with a live rooster's cry. The gun fires. The field surges forward into 88 kilometers of hills, heat, and history between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The Comrades Marathon, first run on 24 May 1921, is not simply a race. It is the oldest and largest ultramarathon in the world, and its story is inseparable from the story of South Africa itself.

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Image: Upjav | CC0

Comrades Marathon: A Soldier's Impossible Idea

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Elefuntboy at en.wikipedia., Public domain. Vic Clapham came home from World War I carrying something heavier than his kit. He had watched men endure unimaginable suffering in the trenches, and he wanted to honor their resilience with a test of physical endurance -- something civilians could attempt that would approximate,...

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Image: Elefuntboy at en.wikipedia. | Public domain

Comrades Marathon: The Big Five

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ra.ua and JMK, CC0. Five hills define the course like characters in a novel. Cowies Hill, Fields Hill, Botha's Hill, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts -- the 'Big Five' -- appear in different order depending on the direction. In an up year, runners encounter Cowies, Fields, and Botha's in the first half, ...

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Image: Ra.ua and JMK | CC0

Comrades Marathon: Breaking Barriers on the Road

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit I created this image. JMK (talk) 20:37, 22 June 2011 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0. For its first five decades, the Comrades reflected the exclusions of the society around it. Black runners and women were not officially permitted to compete until 1975, when Vincent Rakabele became the first black runner to officially earn a medal and Elizabeth Cavanaugh became t...

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Image: I created this image. JMK (talk) 20:37, 22 June 2011 (UTC) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Comrades Marathon: Legends of the Long Road

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JMK, using ChartGo, an easy to use chart tool, CC BY-SA 4.0. Arthur Newton dominated the 1920s with five victories, and today a small recess in the roadside embankment near Drummond is known as Arthur's Seat -- tradition holds it was his resting spot on race day. Runners still greet 'Arthur' or leave a flower as they pass, hoping for luck ...

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Image: JMK, using ChartGo, an easy to use chart tool | CC BY-SA 4.0

Comrades Marathon: Twelve Hours to Belong

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Upjav, CC BY-SA 4.0. Runners have twelve hours to finish. Miss the cutoff by a single second and the gates close in your face -- a heartbreak that plays out on live television every year. Along the route, five intermediate cutoff points enforce the pace, forcing retirement on anyone who falls behind ...

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Image: Upjav | CC BY-SA 4.0