Comrades Marathon: honouring fallen South African World War soldiers

THE Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest ultra marathon run over a distance of 90km between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.

The race was the idea of first World War veteran, Vic Clapham, who wanted a living memorial to honour South African soldiers who were killed in the war.

Clapham, who had endured a march on a 2 700km route through what was then known as German East Africa, wanted the memorial to be a unique test of the physical endurance of the entrants.

The Comrades Marathon first took place in 1921, and has been run every year since, except from 1941 to 1945 when it was stopped during the second World War.

Forty-eight runners entered the first race, but when the starting shot was fired, only 34 had the heart to tackle the daunting task – not surprising when one considers that the course was tarred only for the last few kilometres into Durban.

A time limit of 12 hours was set for the race, and Bill Rowan became the inaugural winner, clocking 08:59 to win by 41 minutes from second-placed Harry Phillips.

Of the 34 starters, only 16 completed the race.