Comrades 2010
The Comrades marathon is the world's oldest and largest ultramarathon run over a distance of 89 km (55.9 miles) between the capital of the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, and the coastal city of Durban. The direction of the race alternates each year between the 'up run' starting from Durban and the 'down run' starting from Pietermaritzburg.
The race is run over a strenuous course which can be best described by 'The Big Five'. The Big Five are hills on the route. On the 'down' run there are an equally challenging set of hills, and many runners are surprised that a race described as 'down' still has some exceptionally tough hills to climb. Download the route map of 2009 (PDF 500 KB) for detailed information about the race profile.
Athletes currently have 12 hours to complete the course, which was extended from 11 hours in 2003. There are a number of cut-off points along the routes which runners must reach by a prescribed time or be forced to retire from the race.
Race history
The Comrades was run for the first timeon Empire Day in 1921, and with the exception of a break during World War II, it has been run every year since. The 2009 event was the 84th race. To date, over 300,000 runners have completed the race.
The race was the idea of World War I veteran Vic Clapham, to commemorate the South African soldiers killed during the war. Clapham, who had endured a 2,700-kilometre route march through sweltering German East Africa, wanted the memorial to be a unique test of the physical endurance of the entrants. The constitution of the race states that one of its primary aims is to 'celebrate mankind's spirit over adversity'.
From 1962 to 1994 the race was run on Republic Day, 31 May. After this public holiday was scrapped in 1995 by the post-apartheid South African Government, the race date was changed to Youth Day on 16 June. However, in 2007 the race organisers (controversially) bowed to political pressure from the ANC Youth League, who felt that the race diverted attention from the significance of Youth Day, and changed the race date to Sunday 17 June for 2007 and 15 June for 2008.
In 2010, the date will be changed to 30 May to accommodate football's FIFA World Cup South Africa.
