Writing about the Comrades Marathon five years ago, a Financial Times journalist who’d come out to run the race said that everywhere else in the world runners aspired to complete a marathon: here, however, they aspired to the two ultramarathons, Comrades and Two Oceans — treating marathons as just the warm-up.
At a time of general gloom and doom, the excitement of this year’s record-breaking Comrades was a hugely welcome lift for SA spirits. The second-time winner of the men’s race, Tete Dijane, quit his job as a security guard to focus on ultramarathon running.
He broke the down-run record. So too did ladies race winner Gerda Steyn who came in well under six hours to smash the record set in the 1980s by Frith van der Merwe.
At nearly 90km the Comrades is a crazy and a gruelling race. But it’s always been a very special one. From the start almost a century ago it has focused on values such as comradeship and courage, as well as inclusivity. Black people — and women — were allowed to compete officially from 1975, almost two decades before democracy. The Comrades has long embodied principles of nonracialism and altruism. It’s ever more important to reinforce those now.
The impeccably organised race, still the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon, does its bit for tourism And a corporate sponsor such as Nedbank, whose running club dominated the winning line-up, got great value for money.
More than anything though, it was running that won on Sunday.
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