Comrades should make us all proud

The Annual Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Pain – which some people call the Comrades Marathon – will see 16 000 runners tackling the 90.2km “down” run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on Sunday.

This will be the first “normal” event since the Covid pandemic caused huge disruptions to gatherings and sporting events … but it still underlines Comrades’ position as the world’s largest (and oldest) ultra-marathon.

The achievements of Bruce Fordyce – who won an unprecedented nine times between 1979 and 1990 (including eight on the trot) – helped bring the event to national prominence during the height of apartheid, when South Africa had to deal with global sporting isolation.

In those days, the event was overwhelmingly white and male (some cynically dubbed it “white men running away from reality”) … and even though it still is, the makeup of participants (and winners) has changed dramatically over the years.

Comrades does, though, show that the human spirit can triumph over physical adversity and that pain knows no gender or colour… It also shows that South Africans, who sometimes quit at the slightest difficulties in their lives, are capable of feats of discipline, courage and commitment equal to those of any other people on our planet. That should make us proud.

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