Humorous Anecdotes, Observations & Accounts of Marathon Running & Agile Adventures.
The tables below show the all-time women’s Comrades Up run pace and time charts. I place more emphasis on pace (especially as we had the shortest ever Comrades distance this year).
34-year-old Gerda Steyn replaces 29-year-old Gerda Steyn at the top of the table. Just how much better is Gerda than any other female on the Up run? An incredible 10.42 seconds per kilometre!
Continue reading “Comrades 2024: Women’s Elite Stats”
The tables below show the all-time Comrades Up run pace and time charts. I place more emphasis on pace (especially as we had the shortest ever Comrades distance this year).
Piet Wiersma and Dan Moselakwe both crack the Top 10 whilst Degefa Lafebo secures 15th. Joseph Manyedi and Andrew Davies also make it into the Top 30. Whilst 2024 sees the most finishers (5) in the Top 30, I’d still make a case for the 2000 being the most competitive men’s Up run of all time followed by 1998.
Continue reading “Comrades 2024: Men’s Elite Stats”
The 2024 Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) got off to a slow start. The meeting was due to start at 10:00 and at 10:04 interim CMA Chair Jeff Minnaar got proceedings underway. After giving some special welcomes, he thanked CMA members for sacrificing their Black Friday weekend shopping excursions and promised they’d be able to get their discounted shopping fix around 12 noon. This seemed like an unlikely and overly optimistic estimate – and we had not even got to the first motion on the agenda by 12:30. Any doubts as to the validity of Minnaar’s estimation were further exacerbated with the announcement that the AGM would be delayed “for at least 15 minutes as there is a major traffic jam in Pietermaritzburg.”
This page will be used to provide live updates on the voting, motions and discussions from the 2024 Comrades Marathon Association Annual General Meeting due to start at 10am SAST. Refresh page for latest updates…
That’s over an out after an almost 8 hour AGM. I’ll write up a summary tomorrow.
Top five get two year terms, next two get a one year term. This is a great new Board!
Here’s the final results
Mark Leathers 278
Willie Mtolo 254
Mqondisi Ngcobo 240
Brenda Marolen 240
Carel Nolte 228
Rory Steyn 222
Alan Gray 207
Continue reading “CMA 2024 AGM: Live Blog”
Whilst most of the focus has been on the nominees for the seven available Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Board position at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), there are some other important motions to be discussed and voted for at the 30 November meeting.
Below are details of the CMA constitutional amendment motions, standard motions and consideration for the financial statements.
Continue reading “What’s on the agenda? CMA AGM on 30 November”
The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on 30 November promises to be a watershed in the renaissance of the event that has been mired in controversies resulting from a string of illogical and inexplicable decisions in recent years and is still reeling from well-founded allegations of corruption, maladministration and ineptitude amongst certain staff and Board members.
Seven of the nine elected Board positions are up for election. Both Board incumbents who were standing for re-election have been withdrawn from the ballot: Sweetname Nkibande because he was not eligible as he is not a member in good standing and Celi Makhoba for reasons unknown. Therefore it will be a CMA Board with a very different composition for the 2025 event.
Continue reading “14 Names, 7 Positions: CMA Board elections on 30 November”
I am not sure whether Theo Pretorius saw one of my finish line photos and thought that I needed a sunglasses upgrade or whether he was just concerned for my safety when running in KwaZulu Natal and wanted to give me more anonymity. Regardless, he popped me a message saying that his company has just launched a new running sunglasses brand called Boonies together with the offer, “Would you like to try a couple of pairs?”
Overview: In a recent article, I provided well substantiated evidence about how Rowyn James facilitated highly irregular “Management Fee” payments to finish line volunteer Chris Lombard (who was also the seconder on James’ CMA Board nomination form). This follow-on article provides details of exactly how the allegedly fraudulent payments were done and how finish line casual labourers were exploited.
After allegations of fraudulent payments surfaced, Rowyn James had a conversation with former Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) Vice Chair and current Head of the Finance Committee, Les Burnard. In the conversation, James attempted to provide an explanation for the irregular “Management Fee” payments to volunteer Chris Lombard.
READ MORE: Systemic Corruption at Comrades: Former Manager made Irregular Payments & Assaulted Comrades Legend
James claimed that the payments to Lombard were ‘approved by the Board in 2018’. This was categorically denied by Cheryl Winn, the CMA Chairperson at the time. Board and Finance Committee minutes from 2018 have been checked and there is no record of any approval to pay Lombard. There is also no one I have spoken to within the CMA leadership structures who recalls any discussion about paying Lombard.
Continue reading “How James Jimmied the Comrades Books”
This article contains high level details and, where available, flyers, profiles and route maps for every 2025 South African road marathon and ultra. Updates will be made regularly as races are added, cancelled and confirmed.
The 2025 calendar is brought to you by RaceSpace – the app that has every running and endurance event in the country at your fingertips. RaceSpace are covering some of my marathon running travel costs in 2025 – you can support me and the site by downloading the RaceSpace app on Apple, Android or by using the QR Code below.
This article provides statistics and analysis of South Africa’s 2023 marathon and ultra road running season. Comparisons are made to 2019 (pre-Covid) and 2022 (first full post-Covid season).
There were a total of 114 events, comprising 93 standard marathons and 23 ultras and. This is just below the 2019 number of 119 events but a big increase from the 2022 number of 99 events.
