COMRADES MARATHON

For those that read my blog outside of South Africa, here is a brief overview of the Comrades Marathon.

The Comrades Marathon is the world's oldest and largest ultra marathon run over a distance of approximately 90 km or 56.1 miles between the capital of the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, and the coastal city of Durban

The first Comrades Marathon took place on 24th May 1921, Empire Day, starting outside the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg with 34 runners. It has continued since then every year with the exception of the war years 1941-1945, with the direction alternating each year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the so called up & down runs.

The number of entrants today is around 18,000 and this year is being held on Sunday 1st June and is a "down" run and believe it or not I ran my first Comrades in 1991...yes you read correctly, I ran this iconic race in a time of 10 hours and 11 minutes and loved every minute of it.

So to all those that are running tomorrow...

Have a great run and enjoy every step.