Marathon Nonni: Suzanne Koonce, Comrades’ Oldest Female Finisher

Late in the afternoon on 14 June 2026 a Comrades record was broken that went largely unnoticed: As she crossed the finish line in 10:43:23 for her third medal, American runner Suzanne Koonce became the oldest female finisher in the history of the event.

At 74 years and 276 days, she broke the previous record set by Petra Myburgh in 2023. Before the 2026 event, Myburgh was the only lady older than 74 years to finish but was a few months younger than Koonce.

I am not one to let these kinds of achievements slip by unnoticed and insisted that Suzanne share her inspiration story with us…

From one mile to the marathon bug

Koonce told me that she was not sporty as a child and had never “run” before she hit the metric marathon age of 42. It was during a period of personal upheaval in 1994 that she headed out the door for the first time. She quickly found that the benefits were both physical and mental, “Heading out the door for that first mile somehow gave me time and space to think.” That first mile soon escalated to four miles, four days a week.

Two years later, a Runner’s World article led her to a fundraising marathon training programme. Her first marathon was Honolulu, which has a notoriously steep climb up Diamond Head around 22 miles. Koonce asked herself the question that countless marathon novices have asked before, “How on earth am I going to get to the finish?” But after grabbing her medal and becoming a marathon runner her mindset had already shifted, “When I finished I was absolutely thrilled and ready to sign up for another one.”

More marathons followed, including New York in 2001, a deeply emotional race in the shadow of the 9/11 attacks. Her brother-in-law had worked in the Twin Towers and thankfully made it home safely that day. But a later family tragedy knocked her into “a bit of a tailspin” and Koonce stopped running and exercising for almost nine years.

In 2010, aged 58, she started again — not with grand plans, but with a simple walk to the corner mailbox and back. Short walks became short runs. Later that year she found Tattersols, a local ladies’ running group, and with weekly workouts, runs, encouragement and accountability, the races returned.

The Comrades seed is planted

Koonce first heard about Comrades in 2018 at the Mountains to Beach Marathon expo. Mike from RaceRaves had recently run it and was, appropriately true to form, raving about the experience. Something in his description lodged in her imagination: the history, the traditions, the people, the Up and Down courses, and the simple but terrifying appeal of running further than she had ever run before.

She entered the 2020 race, which was unfortunately cancelled by the pandemic, but once Comrades fever grabs hold of you, it’s impossible to let it go. Until then, her long-run world had largely been marathon-focused, with a few 20-mile-plus training runs. Comrades demanded a different level of commitment, so she hired a running coach for the first time, trained more consistently and gradually improved enough to run four sub-four-hour marathons.

Durban, Shosholoza and the bus she couldn’t escape

Her first Comrades finally came in 2023. After more than 30 hours of travel, she arrived in Durban and was immediately swept into the Comrades ecosystem: the lively Saturday parkrun, singing groups of runners, the unique pre-dawn start, Shosholoza, Chariots of Fire and the finish-line drama that somehow converts promises of “never again” into lifelong loyalty.

Her race-day challenge was not loneliness but overcrowding. “A big challenge was getting caught up in a bus for about 30km, and I couldn’t get out!” she says. She eventually broke free with around 4km to go and ran down to the finish smiling, feeling as if she could have kept going. In true Comrades fashion, even the problem came with a silver lining: she admits that the bus’s run-walk strategy “definitely saved my quads that day”.

“I just knew I’d be returning for my back-to-back in 2024,” she says. “I was a Comrades finisher!” She duly followed up her 10:44:01 Down debut with 10:29:27 Up in 2024 to claim her back-to-back medal.

A detour via 100 miles

Koonce missed Comrades in 2025 because she chose to attempt the Thames Path 100 in England. She reached 84 miles before stopping after 23 hours, underfuelled and wiser. “It was a rookie mistake not to eat more during the nighttime running,” she says. The unfinished business remains: she still wants to complete a 100 miler, preferably one that is mostly road because, as she admits, she is “not a trail runner” and has a healthy fear of tripping*.

* I have made a mental note to chat to Suzanne about the Washie 100 miler, the oldest road 100 miler in the world, and the race for which many Eastern Cape runners use Comrades as a mere “training run” for.

Her running passport is well stamped: Hood To Coast Relay in Oregon, a marathon in Antarctica, the original six World Marathon Majors completed in 2019, and Sydney on the schedule later this year. But Comrades remains the race that seems to have taken up permanent residence in her heart.

The oldest female finisher in Comrades history

In 2026, Koonce returned to Durban with thoughts of improving her time and, in her words, originally “dreaming” of a Robert Mtshali medal. That medal requires a sub-10-hour finish, but once she realised she could become the oldest female Comrades finisher, the goal changed. The stopwatch mattered less than the finish line. “That became my goal,” she says, “to just get to the finish line even if it meant taking it a bit slower.”

She started training with Bruce Fordyce’s Fordyce Fusion group, describing it as a great experience to be surrounded by people who were “all in” on Comrades. The result was a 10:43:24 finish, a first place in the women’s 70+ category and a place in the record books.

“It was an incredible honor to be the oldest ever female finisher,” she says. “Who would have thought that at almost 75 I’d be achieving something I consider so special?”

The next morning brought another Comrades moment: receiving her medal and trophy at the awards breakfast and finding herself seated with Gerda Steyn and her family. “Wow, how special is that,” she says. Not bad for someone whose comeback was a walk to the mailbox.

Why Comrades keeps calling

Ask Koonce what makes Comrades different and the answer is not just the hills, distance or medal. It is the feeling. “When I’m at Comrades I’m in my happy place,” she says. “I’m doing something I enjoy, that I’ve had success at, that I can challenge myself with.”

She talks about the race as a kind of temporary cure for division: people travelling from around the world to South Africa, running shoulder to shoulder in a country with a painful past and a road-running culture that, for one day at least, offers something close to healing. “If we could all just be the way we are on Comrades Day,” she says.

The kindness of the road

The welcome from South Africans has stayed with her. So has the camaraderie of a race and she loves that your name and age group are displayed on your back bib and strangers run alongside you, chat to you and encourage you. In her first Comrades, she tripped on a cat’s eye and fell. A woman named Brigid stayed with her to make sure she was okay. “That’s not something I’ve experienced in other races,” Koonce says.

Marathon Nonni and the Green Number dream

Back home in California, Koonce says that hardly anyone has heard of Comrades. However, she is doing her best to fix that, slowly spreading the word and she managed to convince two Tattersols teammates to join her this year. Her family are not runners, but they are supportive — especially her husband — and they have given her the perfect nickname: Marathon Nonni.

I half jokingly commented that, “You Just need seven more finishes for a Green Number” but I could tell that she’s thought about this ambitious goal. “I would love to earn a Green Number, if I can remain healthy it’s definitely on my bucket list!” she says before rationalising, “Johannes Mosehla is still running Comrades at 84 so who knows?”

Advice for 60-plus women

Koonce’s message to women over 60 who are considering their first Comrades is simple: “If I can do it, you can do it!” She adds that it is not too late to try something new and challenging, and that while Comrades may look daunting, proper preparation makes it achievable.

Her recommended motivation pack is pure Comrades: listen to Shosholoza and Chariots of Fire, watch videos of the start and finish, read runner stories – and you won’t be able to resist entering. “I guarantee you’ll be signing up,” she says. Koonce no longer needs any encouragement to sign up.

Suzanne Koonce will be on the start line of the 100^th Comrades on 13 June 2027. I fully expect that before sunset she’ll be holding a fourth Comrades medal and that Marathon Nonni will have extended her remarkable record as the oldest female finisher by one more year.

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