Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 run the Comrades ultramarathon

In the early morning dark thousands of runners waited as South Africa’s national anthem and the swell of Shosholoza gave way to the familiar piano of Chariots of Fire. A cock crowed, a gun fired and the field streamed across the start line of the Comrades, the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon.

The race began in 1921 as a 54.6-mile route from Pietermaritzburg to Durban; it has alternated direction almost every year since, paused only for the second world war and the Covid-19 pandemic, and over 99 iterations has averaged just under 55 miles. What began with 34 white men lining up in 1921, in a race conceived by veteran Vic Clapham, has transformed into a national institution.

Frances Hayward was the first woman to start and finish in 1923; Robert Mtshali was the first black man to complete the race in 1935. The event was desegregated and opened to women in 1975, then brought to a wider audience through television from the mid-1970s, producing memorable rivalries and moments of shared humanity across a divided society.

South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, Durban

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