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Run the Comrades Marathon

The gun for Comrades is a recording of a cockerel crowing, fired in the dark at 5:30am when you can still see your breath. Vic Clapham, a World War I veteran, organised the first race in 1921 to honour fallen comrades, and 34 runners started it. It has run every June since, alternating an 'up run' from Durban to Pietermaritzburg with a 'down run' the other way, so the same brutal hills never fall in quite the same order twice. Somewhere past forty kilometres your legs stop belonging to you. A woman in curlers rings a cowbell at four in the morning and shouts your number like she's known you for years. You finish, if you finish, before the cutoff gun fires at twelve hours.

Practical

Cost
$150–300 entry, more with travel
Best time
June, Southern Hemisphere winter
Difficulty
Hard
Time it takes
12-hour race day; 4–6 months training beforehand
What people get wrong
Runners on the down run often trash their quads by descending too fast early on, then can't hold pace on the flats; others train only for hills and misjudge the pacing needed to beat the 12-hour cutoff.
With
A group

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