Gerda Steyn won her fifth Comrades Marathon on Sunday, breaking her own Up Run course record and securing a record payout of at least R2.322 million (about $142,700) in the process.
The 35-year-old South African finished the race from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in 5:44:53. The result sealed her fourth straight title and her fifth overall victory at the event billed as the Ultimate Human Race.
Steyn said to IOL Sports that she went into the day determined to hold nothing back.
“I said before the race that I’m going to run as if it’s my last race, and that’s what I did. I didn’t need to leave anything out on the route. I could just give it my all.”
Despite the all-out approach, Steyn was quick to say the run was nowhere near her last.
“Now that I’ve crossed the finish line, I know for a fact it was far from my last time lining up for this race. I can’t imagine life without it now. I can’t imagine life without it.”
The win capped months of preparation. Steyn said she had been working toward Sunday almost from the moment she finished the last Comrades.
“It’s an honour for me to sit here again today and to come away with a new course record. It’s what I’ve been working for and what I’ve been dreaming about since the start of the year, actually since the last time I ran Comrades.”
How the race played out
Steyn ran with Nobukhosi Tshuma for much of the day before pulling clear at around the four-hour mark. She held the gap from there to the finish.
Tshuma took second in 5:53:36, nearly nine minutes back. Irvette van Zyl, running her first Up Run, was third in 6:02:30.
Steyn’s payout came from a stack of bonuses layered on top of the winner’s prize. She earned the first South African home bonus, plus incentives for the fastest Up Run time and her average pace at one of the world’s toughest races.
Kusche pulls off a breakthrough men’s win
The men’s race produced its own up-run record. George Kusche, who carries a 2:13 marathon personal best, took the lead with less than an hour of running left and held on to finish in 5:16:06.
Piet Wiersma finished second in an unofficial 5:19:45. Mbuti Mollo was third in an unofficial 5:21:40.
The men’s field had no clear favourite going in, but Kusche’s measured pacing turned a wide-open ultramarathon into the biggest result of his career, made all the more impressive by his fast marathon credentials.
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