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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Diamond Marathon (Roughing it amongst the diamonds)

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[MARATHON #240 / Unique Marathon #140 / 7 March 2020]

The chance to run a golden jubilee marathon happens once every 50 years. The chance to run the golden jubilee of the Diamond Marathon is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Therefore, when it came to planning my 2020 race schedule, the first race that went down in ink was the Northern Cape’s oldest marathon.

Congratulations to Kimberley Harriers Running Club on your golden jubilee (and thanks for the wonderful hospitality). (Photo from Kimberley Harriers’ Facebook page)

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The Admirals of Two Oceans: Tony Abrahamson & Louis Massyn

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Inspiring OMTOM Stories

On the 6th of April 1985 two men completed their 10th Two Oceans Marathon voyage in just under four hours to cap their Blue Number run with a silver medal. Louis Massyn, clocking in at 3:57:30, received Blue Number 35 and less than a minute later Tony Abrahamson, 3:58:18, lined up behind him to collect Blue Number 36.

That was 34 years ago – a year in which Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union, Michael Jordan was named NBA “Rookie of the Year”, a 17-year old Boris Becker won Wimbledon for the first time and Marty McFly went Back to the Future. It was a long time ago but neither of these proud 1985 Blue Number recipients has missed a Two Oceans Marathon since then.

Together, they have a combined grand total time of 211 hours 25 minutes and 54 seconds on the Two Oceans route (that’s about 17.5 days). Although Louis has a faster PB (3:41:15 to Tony’s 3:52:12) and six silver medals (to Tony’s four), Tony ‘s average time of 4:55:01 betters Louis’ average of 4:59:07.

A friendly rivalry – Louis and Tony in the Blue Number tent after their 41st voyage.

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Meerkat Marathon (The One With A Presidential Sendoff)

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[Marathon #204 / Unique Marathon #114 / 2 February 2019]

Once a year, I take out the one wood for the long drive to Kimberley – five to six gruelling hours along the N12. I am slowly working through all the Kimberley and Northern Cape marathons in my quest to run every marathon in the country. When scheduling my races, the annual trip to Kimberley is one of the first to go into the plan – but I can only face doing the drive there once per year.

Took out the 1-wood for the long drive to Kimberley to run the Meerkat Marathon.

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Mielie Marathon (The Amaizeing Race)

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[Marathon #202 / 2nd Mielie Marathon / 19 January 2019]

When I was young and naïve I thought you had to wait until the end of January to run your first marathon of the year. Luckily, I’m older and wiser now – and this new-found wisdom has unearthed two great options for those that want to get their first marathon done a week earlier: Either go digging for diamonds in the Kalahari Desert or butter your mielie in Welkom.

Mielie is a flat marathon through the Free State gold and cornfields.

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