Green Number Archives - The Running Mann

7th June 2025

Not your average grandmom (the Malie van der Walt story)

The history of the Comrades Marathon is full of unlikely legends. No one who knew Malie van der Walt growing up thought that she’d ever run Comrades one day, let alone be lining up for her 30^th medal in 2025. As a youngster she showed no inclination for athletics of any kind and was not able to participate in sport at school as she suffered from rheumatic fever which affected her heart.

1st February 20251st February 2025

Comrades 2024 Full Field Stats

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).

3rd June 2019

How a 70-year-old man with a bad back won the Comrades Ladies’ Race (The story of #483)

There is no human alive who loves the Comrades Marathon more than Dave Jack. He’s had had a six-decade long love affair with the race – and his unbridled passion shows no sign of abating anytime soon. Dave’s run it 14 times, done live reports on the event for Radio 702 for 18 years driving alongside the race leaders, stadium announcing and prize-giving MCing for over a decade. He’s served on the Comrade Organising Committee (the forerunner to the Comrades Marathon Association) and is one of the very few people to have earned a ‘running’ Green Number (for 10 finishes) and well as a ‘serving’ Green Name (for 10 years or more in service of the race).

Dave Jack finishing his first Comrades in 1968.

Dave told me, “I’ve done everything there is to do at Comrades except win the race!” Well, actually that’s not quite true – and that is why I am writing this article. But the story of how Dave Jack won the 2018 ladies race takes some explaining and requires a detailed backstory – so here goes…

Continue reading “How a 70-year-old man with a bad back won the Comrades Ladies’ Race (The story of #483)”

24th August 201819th May 2023

Comrades Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run

[MARATHON #190 / Comrades #9 / 10 June 2018]

The human brain is a complex network of neural circuits. The two most intense emotions humans can experience are ‘love’ and ‘hate’. Many people think that ‘love’ is the opposite of ‘hate’ but recent neurological studies have shown that the two are so closely related that they even run on the same neural circuits. A better opposite for both ‘love’ and ‘hate’ is apathy. Apathy is not a word one associates with running Comrades – but wild bouts of love and hate are likely to flow through the neurological pathways of one’s brain over the course of a very long day.

The scientific studies did determine one key difference: The cerebral cortex – this is the part of the brain associated with logic, judgement and reasoning – becomes largely deactivated during bouts of love but remains fully functional during hate. I am a rational, lucid and objective human being which explains why I seem to hate Comrades so much more than I love it.

Continue reading “Comrades Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run”

19th August 201823rd October 2018

A List of Valid Comrades Excuses

Once you’ve entered Comrades there is no backing out. There is no greater sin in South African road running than having a valid Comrades entry and failing to arrive at the start line unless you’ve got a really, really good excuse.

I am only aware of three valid excuses. Continue reading “A List of Valid Comrades Excuses”

7th April 201820th September 2018

Umgeni Water Marathon (One Dam Marathon After Another)

[MARATHON #182 / Unique Marathon #98 / 25 MARCH 2018]

After Om Die Dam the previous week and Kosmos (around Lake Umuzi) the week before that, I headed down to Midmar Dam for the Umgeni Water Marathon – in what was quite literally a case of just one dam marathon after another!