Everything You Need To Know About Comrades Marathon

The Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon. It has been run almost every year since 1921 between the South African cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The 99th edition takes place on Sunday, 14 June 2026, with 21,633 runners signed up to cover 85.77 kilometres.

Here is what you need to know.

The basics

• Date: Sunday, 14 June 2026
• Direction: “Up Run” from Durban to Pietermaritzburg
• Distance: 85.77 km
• Field size: 21,633 confirmed runners from more than 80 countries
• Time limit: 12 hours from each group’s starting gun
• Start times: 05h00 (Group 1), 05h15 (Group 2), 05h30 (Group 3)
• Final cut-off: 17h00, 17h15 and 17h30 respectively

The Comrades alternates direction each year. Up runs go from Durban (sea level) inland to Pietermaritzburg, climbing roughly 750 metres net. Down runs reverse the direction. Despite the names, both routes feature serious elevation, and neither is easy. Sunday’s race is the 50th up run in the event’s history.

A short history

The Comrades was the idea of one man. Vic Clapham, a veteran of the 8th South African Infantry, survived a 2,700-kilometre route march through German East Africa during World War I. He wanted a living memorial to the men who had not come home. His pitch was simple. If infantrymen carrying 27-kilogram packs could march that far, trained runners ought to manage the 90 kilometres between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

The League of Comrades of the Great War turned him down in 1919 and again in 1920. He went back in 1921 and they finally gave him permission and £1 to stage the event.

The first race took place on 24 May 1921, on Empire Day. Thirty-four runners started outside Pietermaritzburg City Hall. Sixteen finished within the 12-hour limit. Bill Rowan crossed the line first in 8 hours 59 minutes.

The race officially opened to women and runners of colour in 1975. That year, Vincent Rakabele became the first Black runner to officially win a medal. Elizabeth Cavanaugh became the first official women’s winner.

In 2010, Guinness World Records recognised the Comrades as the ultramarathon with the most runners, with 14,343 athletes finishing within the time limit.

The course

The route follows the N3 corridor between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, climbing through the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal. Runners pass through Westville, Pinetown, Kloof, Hillcrest, Drummond (the halfway mark), Cato Ridge and Camperdown before the final descent into Pietermaritzburg.

The course is famous for its “Big Five” hills, climbed in order on the up run: Cowies Hill, Field’s Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts. Polly Shortts is the cruellest of the five. It sits at the 80-kilometre mark, by which point most runners are running on fumes, and the climb is steep, narrow, and unlit. If you have never trained for this kind of profile, our hill running guide and tips for running uphill are good places to start.

Drummond, around the halfway mark, is the spiritual heart of the race. Just past it sits Arthur’s Seat, a small recess in the bank where five-time winner Arthur Newton is said to have rested. Runners traditionally greet “Arthur” or leave a flower for luck in the second half.

How to qualify

Every runner had to complete a qualifying race between 9 June 2025 and 4 May 2026. The standard is a marathon (42.2 km) in under 4:59:59. Faster qualifying times earn earlier seeding batches. The qualifying table runs through nine distances:

Distance	Qualifying time
42.2 km	4:59:59
48 km	5:59:59
50 km	6:09:59
52–54 km	6:29:59
56 km	6:59:59
60 km	7:39:59
64 km	8:14:59
80 km	10:34:59
90 km	11:59:59
100 km	13:34:59

Only officially published results count. Garmin and Strava data will not get you in. Runners must be 20 or older on race day. If you are thinking about making the leap from marathon to ultra for next year’s centenary edition, the training timeline starts now.

Demand has never been higher. When general entries opened on 3 November 2025, the 22,000-entry cap was reached in less than ten hours.

How the start works

For the first time, the Comrades will use a three-group start. The change is designed to ease congestion at the start and on narrow parts of the route. Each group has its own colour-coded race number and its own 12-hour clock.

Group	Batches	Runners	Start time	Bib colour
1	A to G	~9,952	05h00	Purple
2	H to M	~6,704	05h15	Orange
3	N to R	~4,972	05h30	Blue

There are no Batches I or O, to avoid confusion with the digits 1 and 0. Batch H sits at the front of Group 2 for Green Number holders (runners with 10 or more Comrades medals) and Race4Charity runners who raised more than R6,000.

Each group still gets the full 12 hours. Starting earlier does not buy more time.

The cut-off system

New for 2026 is a traffic-light cut-off system at intermediate points along the route. Green means runners are comfortably on pace. Amber appears 10 to 15 minutes before the cut-off as a warning. Red means the cut-off has been reached, and runners must board the rescue buses. All cut-offs are calculated based on the final group’s 05h30 start.

Runners cut off the course cannot rejoin. Their numbers are recorded and they are listed as non-finishers.

The elite men

Tete Dijana (South Africa) — The defending champion took his third Comrades title in 2025 in 5:25:28. He also holds the men’s down run record of 5:13:58, set in 2023, when he was part of a year that smashed course records.

Bruce Fordyce’s shadow — Fordyce won nine times, including eight in a row from 1981 to 1988, plus another in 1990. His down run record of 5:24:07, set in 1986, stood for 21 years. No man has come close to his career haul.

The up run record — The mark to beat on Sunday is 5:24:49, set by Russia’s Leonid Shvetsov in 2008. Breaking it pays an extra R605,000 on top of standard prize money.

International contenders — Three international names are worth watching, all of whom qualified through the Adidas Chasing 100 event. South Africa’s Sibusiso Kubheka was the first person to break six hours for 100 kilometres. Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin holds the 100-kilometre and 24-hour world records. American Charlie Lawrence holds the 50-mile world record. The Comrades has a long history of humbling runners with shorter ultra credentials, so how any of these top ultrarunners handle the hills is an open question.

The elite women

Gerda Steyn (South Africa) — The 34-year-old is the runner most likely to add another title on Sunday. She took her fourth Comrades win in 2025, becoming only the second woman to win the race more than three times. She holds both the up run record of 5:49:46 (set in 2024) and the down run record of 5:44:54 (set in 2023). Breaking her own up run mark would pay an extra R605,000.

Elena Nurgalieva’s record — Russia’s Nurgalieva remains the all-time women’s leader with eight titles between 2003 and 2013.

Prize money

Position	Men and women
1st	R925,000
2nd	R464,000
3rd	R334,000
4th	R168,000
5th	R131,000
6th	R76,000
7th	R66,000
8th	R58,000
9th	R49,000
10th	R39,000

The first South African man and woman across the line each get an additional R242,000. The first KwaZulu-Natal athletes (top three) collect a further R77,000, R48,400 and R24,200 from the provincial Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

The medals

The Comrades hands out seven different medals, each tied to a finishing time. The medal a runner earns is part of their identity for life.

Medal	Time / position
Gold	First 10 men and women
Wally Hayward (men)	Position 11 to 5:59:59
Isavel-Roche Kelly (women)	Position 11 to 6:59:59
Silver (men)	6:00:00 to 7:29:59
Silver (women)	7:00:00 to 7:29:59
Bill Rowan	7:30:00 to 8:59:59
Robert Mtshali	9:00:00 to 9:59:59
Bronze	10:00:00 to 10:59:59
Vic Clapham	11:00:00 to 11:59:59

Race numbers also tell a story. International runners wear blue bibs. Runners completing their tenth Comrades get a yellow bib. Anyone who has finished ten or more earns a permanent green number, kept for life as their unique race number.

The traditions

The Comrades start sequence is one of the most distinctive in running. Each group’s start includes the South African national anthem, the miners’ song “Shosholoza,” Vangelis’s “Chariots of Fire,” and a recording of Max Trimborn’s cock crow. Trimborn, a race official, started imitating a rooster at the 1948 start, either out of nerves or as a stand-in for the starter’s gun. A recording of his original crow now plays before each starting gun.

At the finish, the top ten men and ten women each receive a red rose. The leading man and woman carry a scroll containing a goodwill message from the mayor of the starting city to the mayor of the finishing city.

At exactly 12 hours after each group’s start, a final gun fires and a bugler plays “The Last Post.” Anyone crossing the line after that gun receives no official time or medal. The image of runners diving for the line in the final seconds is one of the most enduring in the sport.

The streak runners

The Comrades rewards persistence like no other race. Louis Massyn, 74, last year became the first person to complete 50 Comrades Marathons. He is going for number 51 on Sunday. Behind him: Vic Boston (66) on 47 finishes, Wietse van der Westhuizen (68) on 46, and Alan Robb (72) on 44.

Last year also produced both ends of the age spectrum. Johannes Mosehla, then 83, became the oldest finisher in race history. Xander McNeil became the youngest finisher of the 2025 race at 20 years and 6 days old. The 2025 race was also notable for one of the more harrowing post-race stories in recent memory.

How to watch

The race is broadcast live on SuperSport in South Africa, with live coverage starting before the 05h00 gun and running through to the final cut-off at 17h30. International viewers can usually find a stream through the official Comrades Marathon website and the Comrades Marathon app.

For spectators on the ground, the best vantage points on the up run are:

• The start in Durban — Worth getting to early. The atmosphere through the three group starts, with the anthem, “Shosholoza,” “Chariots of Fire” and the cock crow, runs from around 04h30 to 05h30.
• Pinetown and Hillcrest — Easy access from the N3 and good for catching the leaders working through the early hills.
• Drummond (halfway) — Crowded but iconic. The Arthur’s Seat tradition and the halfway split times draw big crowds.
• Polly Shortts — The last climb of the day, around 80 km in. Brutal for runners, but the atmosphere as people grind up the hill is unmatched.
• The finish in Pietermaritzburg — The atmosphere builds steadily through the afternoon and peaks around 17h30 as runners sprint for the final gun.

The 2026 international field

After South Africa, the largest national contingents this year are:

Country	Runners
Zimbabwe	489
Botswana	293
India	279
United Kingdom	255
Brazil	172
Russian Federation	136
Zambia	118
Eswatini	107
Namibia	99
United States	96

India recorded the biggest year-over-year jump. With ultras steadily eating into marathon’s share of the running calendar, expect those numbers to keep climbing through next year’s centenary edition.