The Terrible Tale of Tiaan CONradie: The Lying Dutchman

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This has not been a pleasant article to write. I knew Tiaan when I first started running in the early 2000s. He managed the Fourways Runner at the time, we both ran for Fourways Road Runners and he seemed like a “good guy”. Although we did not train for the race together, we both ran our first sub-3 marathon at Kaapsehoop in 2008 (and Tiaan featured in my race report). Tiaan has 19 Comrades finishes to his name including 3 silvers with a best time of 7:11:10 in 2012. He was an excellent runner and was perfectly entitled to give himself the moniker “The Flying Dutchman” (or TFD for short). Unfortunately, it turns out that he is also a master con artist and the “The Lying Dutchman” would have been much more appropriate.

When I got a message from a running friend asking, “Do you know Tiaan Conradie? I think he’s scammed us for shoes”, I was sceptical – surely there must be some kind of explanation. A couple of weeks later I received a similar message from a second running friend asking if I could apply my investigative skills to one Tiaan Conradie aka The Flying Dutchman. The result is this article and the hope that it will prevent others from getting caught in similar scams.

Tiaan Conradie, who likes to go by the moniker The Flying Dutchman or TFD, will happily rob you of the shirt off your back and give you kudos on Strava afterwards.
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Comrades 2024 Full Field Stats

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This is part of a tetralogy of articles providing an in-depth statistical analysis of Comrades 2024. The articles on Elite Men, Elite Women and Start Line Stats are already available.

From the Cradle to the Grave

The graph below is a hurricane funnel answering the often-asked question, “What happens to all the entries?”, plotting the fate of the 24,094 Comrades 2024 entries. There was a 21.6% attrition rate to get to the start line which is very similar to the most recent Up runs in 2017 (20.8%) and 2019 (22.4%). However, almost 94% of starters crossed the finish line (although 350 of these did so over 12 hours).

The three percentages are based on total entries, starters and finishers respectively (e.g. 3.6% of entries finish under 7h30, 4.5% of starters and 4.9% of medallists). There is more detailed analysis on the medal breakdowns as well as overall finish success rates comparisons later in this article.

Note: The finisher numbers are for all people earning that medal or better. For example, the ‘Vic Clapham’ 17305 are all finishers (i.e. 12 hours or better) and the ‘Bronze’ 11398 is everyone finishing 11 hours or better (i.e. it includes all Bronze, RM, BR, etc. medals).
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Mdantsane Marathon (Get in the ring)

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The whole of South Africa slows down in December and good marathons are hard to find (but a hard marathon is always good to find). Luckily the Eastern Cape provides some festive cheer for the obsessive marathon runner, hosting the only two pre-Christmas options – the 1City Marathon in Gqeberha and the Mdantsane Marathon just outside East London. Unfortunately, this presents a Christmas predicament for the marathon enthusiast as they were both run on the first Saturday in December in 2024. Having run the 1City Marathon in 2023, Julian and I opted to head to Buffalo City and tackle the hills of Mdantsane.

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An Ethical Call: Pulling my Column from Modern Athlete

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Sadly the current issue will be my final column for Modern Athlete. After 6 years of sharing humorous marathon reports from every corner of the country, I have decided to pull my monthly column (which I write for free) with the news that editor Sean Falconer has left Modern Athlete. I found this out recently when I contacted him to chat about ideas for upcoming editions, and I was shocked when he informed me that he had resigned his position a month ago and sold his shares in the business to his now former partners, Roxanne Martin and Richard Laskey.

I do not feel comfortable having my articles continue appearing in the magazine, because while I have the utmost respect for Falconer as an editor and journalist, I don’t feel I can say the same for Martin, who was editor of the infamous 2024 Two Oceans Marathon Digimag, published by Modern Athlete on behalf of the Two Oceans Marathon and was caught out in the deceit and dishonesty that followed the cutoff controversy. (https://runningmann.co.za/2024/04/30/two-oceans-2024-copycat-cutoff-chaos/)

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Comrades 2024: Start Line Stats

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This is a part of a series of articles covering statistics from Comrades 2024. Other articles are Comrades 2024: Women’s Elite Stats, Comrades 2024: Men’s Elite Stats and Full Field Stat (to come). Depending on time, I will also do a detailed article on Qualifier Marathon Stats.

Note: Most of the content was originally posted on social media so there might be some past case / future case errors I missed when transcribing.

First Record Broken at Comrades 2024

The class of 2024 were officially the oldest group of starters at any Comrades Marathon where age records exist. As you can see from the graph below, the average age of the Comrades runner has steadily increased since 1990 from 35 to over 44 post-Covid.

Two noticeable step changes happened. The first was a full year increase from 39 to 40 in 2003 when the cutoff time was permanently increased to 12-hours. However, the biggest increase was the first post-Covid event which went from 42.1 in 2019 to 44 in 2022. I believe this is largely due to new joiners to the great sport of road running being “lost” during the Covid shutdowns with no road running fixtures (and most participants in 2022 were already “marathon runners” pre-Covid).

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2024 Marathon & Ultra Statistics

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Total Events

There were a total of 129 events, comprising 106 standard marathons, 22 ultras and 1 combo (Benoni Northerns which offered a marathon and a 48k). This is 10 more than the pre-Covid number and the highest since I’ve been tracking marathons. On a personal note, I still have 29 (plus whatever new marathons arise in 2025 to run).

There were 16 new races (marathon unless otherwise noted): Air Force Base Makhado, Mapungubwe, Johannesburg City, Festival of Running, Gazamed, Lemo Mall, Nedbank Coastal Marathon, Musina, Mpumalanga, Masingita Mall, Makhuduthamaga Mayor’s, Fetakgomo Tubatse, Midvaal MADMAC, Waterberg, Hope Challenge and NRB Harriers Challenge.

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The impact of 4h50 vs 5h00 Comrades qualification (and a short history of Comrades qualification criteria)

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The requirement to run a qualifying marathon was introduced in 1975 (the same year that women and non-white athletes were officially allowed to take part). At that stage Comrades could only accommodate 1,500 entrants, was heavily oversubscribed and the 4h30 qualification was a way to ensure that those entering Comrades had the best chance of being able to finish. There was not (and never has been) a medical reason requiring the running of a qualification marathon.

Did it work? I would say, “Yes”. The 1975 Comrades had a finish rate of 91.5% which was the highest ever up to that point. However, the impact might not have been as dramatic as some would expect – the preceding five Comrades had finish rates of 84.3%, 87.7%, 82.7%, 89.7% and 86.1% respectively*.

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