Comrades Archives - The Running Mann

1st April 20252nd April 2025

Breaking News: Comrades to take CTM’s October race date in 2026

[For anyone late to the party, this article was published on 1 April as an April Fool’s joke – but it does provide a satirical commentary on the South African road running scene.]

In a surprise move, Comrades have announced that they will be moving their 2026 race date to the October slot recently vacated by Cape Town Marathon (CTM). Comrades has traditionally been run on the second Sunday in June which would be three weeks after CTM’s new 23 May race date.

7th March 202510th March 2025

Staggered Starts (Comrades introduces the Two Pot System)

Just when South African runners thought it was safe to go back onto the internet after Cape Town Marathon’s new race date announcement, the Comrades Marathon decided it was time to get their share of the social media limelight with the announcement of staggered starts for the first time in the race’s 104-year-old history.

22nd February 202522nd February 2025

Lies, Damn Lies & KZN Athletics Media Statements

First off, let’s give some credit where it’s due. KwaZulu Natal Athletics (KZNA) Vice President Mandla Mngomezulu is a masterful spin doctor, perhaps even surpassing his boss Steve Mkasi (the Surgeon General of spin doctoring), with this latest press release. If Spin Dr. Mngomezulu had written a press release for Manchester United after they were beaten by Tottenham Hotspurs last weekend, you would swear that United had won the game and were still in the title race rather than hovering just above relegation.

Unfortunately, it appears that the KZNA executive take their runners for fools. Fortunately, no one is buying their nonsense. I doubt anyone outside of the undemocratic Republic of Mkasistan would give much credence to anything coming out of the KZNA offices these days. However, lest there be any doubt, I’ve taken the time to dissect the document.

20th February 202521st February 2025

Another Victory for CMA Members against overbearing KZNA

Today the Pietermaritzburg High Court gave a final ruling on the urgent interdict that Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) members brought against KZNA. The origin of the urgent interdict was after KZNA attempted to institute an autocratic ‘locals only ruling’ less than 48 hours before a contentious Special AGM in August 2024. The SGM was called by CMA members after a series of scandals involving corruption, maladministration and racism at Comrades House which was further ignited by Zinhle Sokhela’s disgraceful ‘Vanillagate’ WhatsApp message.

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).

24th January 202524th January 2025

Comrades 2024: Start Line Stats

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).

8th January 20259th January 2025

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

Earlier today, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) announced that the qualification time for the 2025 event would revert to 5h00 for a standard marathon. The qualification time was changed from 5h00 to 4h50 for the 2019 event. This article provides statistical analysis on the Comrades finish rates between various qualification times and a brief history of Comrades qualification criteria.

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*.

8th December 202424th January 2025

Comrades 2024: Women’s Elite Stats

All Time Fastest Up Times & Pace

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!

5th December 20245th December 2024

Comrades 2024: Men’s Elite Stats

All Time Fastest Up Times & Pace

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 15^th. 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.

1st December 20241st December 2024

CMA 2024 AGM: Wrap Up

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.”