Facts and History about the Comrades Marathon
The Comrades marathon is more than a 90km race between two cities. It spirit spiritual journey, testing not only the limits of human endurance but also the meaning of human courage and camaraderie. As Ann Ashworth has said on many occasions, “Comrades is South Africa at its best. It’s the one day of the year when it doesn’t matter what colour your skin is, what religion you are or what your political views are, we are all out there, helping each other. Striving towards a common goal.”
What makes Comrades unique is its history and traditions. The first Comrades Marathon was run on 24 May 1921, starting outside the Town Hall in Pietermaritzburg and ending in Durban. The following year it was run from Durban and ended in Pietermaritzburg, thus starting the tradition of alternating Up Run and Down Run years. There have been a number of consecutive years when the race was run in the same direction two years in a row, however, these were exceptions.
The Comrades Marathon was started by war veteran, Vic Clapham, to commemorate the fallen soldiers who paid the ultimate price in the First World War. After the final cut-off gun fired at 12 hours on Comrades day, The Last Post is played on a bugle – another tradition.
Comrades Marathon training requires more than just a programme. The Ultimate Human Race is a rite of passage for endurance runners. Whether you dream of a single hard-earned medal or you’re chasing a Comrades PB, A-Team Coaching gives you the personalised training, race strategy and support you need to reach your target. Our coaches combine elite results, decades of experience and modern coaching technology to build programmes that match your goals and lifestyle.
At the 1948 edition of the race, a runner by the name of Max Trimborn, imitated a rooster crow sound just before the starting gun was fired. He continued to do this at the start of every Comrades Marathon for the next 32 years. When he passed away a recording of Max Trimborn’s famous rooster crow was played and continues to this day.
Arthur Newton, a local farmer from Natal, won the Comrades 5 times, between 1922 and 1927. Legend has it that he used to stop for lunch and smoke his pipe while looking at the view of the Valley of 1000 Hills. A tradition was born that when you pass a cut-away in the rock where he allegedly sat, known as ‘Arthur’s Seat’, runners must doff their cap and say, “Good Day Arthur”, and this will ensure that they have a good run for the remainder of their journey.
As the first Male and Female runner enters the final few hundred meters of the finish, they are handed a scroll. This is symbolic of a message of good will that the runner is said to have carried from the Mayor of the starting city to the Mayor of the finishing city.
A-Team for YOUR Comrades coaching
Comrades success starts months before race day. Whether you’re aiming to finish, earn a gold or chase a time-based goal, A-Team Coaching builds the exact programme you need and supports you every step of the way. Get in touch with A-Team Coaching.
Every Comrades athlete needs individualised load management, nutrition advice, pacing and mental strategies. That is exactly what our coaches deliver using a GPS-integrated platform that tracks workouts and provides personalised feedback. Our coaching team includes 2018 winner and former Comrades Marathon Race and Operations Manager (ROM) – Ann Ashworth, Comrades Marathon Green Number and multiple silver medalist and head coach – David Ashworth, the ‘voice of South African road running’ – Cuan Walker and Comrades Marathon Gold Medalist – Kerry Koen. Each coach brings first-hand Comrades success and specialist insight to your plan.
Up Run vs. Down Run — training is not the same
Comrades alternates annually between an “Up Run” (Durban to Pietermaritzburg) and a “Down Run” (Pietermaritzburg to Durban). The profile, pacing and muscular demands are fundamentally different and your preparation must reflect that.
The Up Run is a sustained climbing challenge. While the total distance is roughly 87 km, the first two-thirds contain long, grinding climbs where uphill strength, aerobic durability and conservative pacing win the day. Training for an Up Run emphasises sustained threshold work, progressive long runs with uphill sections, hill repeats for strength and a careful build of aerobic volume so you can carry pace up long gradients without blowing up. As part of an athlete’s mental training, practising patience and breaking the race into manageable sections, is equally crucial.
The Down Run looks easier on paper but punishes runners in a different way. The typically longer course sees runners pounding down the lengthy, steep gradients causes eccentric muscle damage, ITB , knee and quad soreness are amplified if unprepared. Down Run preparation focuses on downhill conditioning – strengthening the eccentric capacity of quads and hips, leg turnover work, and long runs that include hill specific training to simulate race fatigue. It also requires smart pacing early on. Many athletes let the excitement, fresh legs and adrenaline push them too fast and then pay later. Route variations also make the Down Run slightly longer in some years, so accurate course-specific planning matters.
What A-Team gives you that matters
A-Team Coaching sets up an Individualised periodisation by tailoring weekly volume and intensity to your life, goals and injury history so you arrive at race day fit and fresh. The focus is on race-specific sessions and emphasise that every workout has purpose. Advice on Nutrition & fuelling plans so that your race feeding schedule and real-world race simulations get you ready to take on the Comrade Marathon with confidence. A-Team Coaching uses cutting-edge tech and human experience by integrating a tech-savvy training platform with a real coach’s hands-on approach, enabling adjustments in real time. No matter how rigid the structure of a plan, there should always be flexibility.
Learn from coaches who live Comrades
Ann Ashworth isn’t just a coach, she has intimate knowledge of the course, logistics and elite race tactics. David Ashworth brings a wide spectrum of endurance experience, having achieved his Green Number (10 Comrades finishes) with multiple silver medals and a practical, athlete-first coaching philosophy. Cuan Walker adds years of race analysis and elite event experience, helping athletes with race intelligence and pacing nuance at the Comrades Marathon. Comrades Gold medalist, Kerry Koen, specialises in empowering runners, especially female athletes with her evidence-based plans. Their combined experience reaffirms the title of the A-Team, giving athletes both the know-how and the confidence to tackle any Comrades Marathon edition.
Ann Ashworth’s contribution as Race and Operations Manager of the Comrades Marathon 2024
Ann’s career as an Advocate and her involvement in the Comrades Marathon ensured that she has the skills and knowledge to put on a world-class event. The nature of eventing requires quick and informed decision-making and the ability to foresee situations before they arising. A certain amount of competence in contractual writing is necessary too. Not to mention negotiation skills – as demonstrated by Ann closing a 4-year, multi-million Rand sponsorship deal between Cell C and the Comrades Marathon.
As a runner, Ann possesses knowledge and skills that few others (if any) have. She has run the Comrades socially, she has won the Comrades as an elite athlete. She has coached social athletes that run Comrades, she has coached and managed an elite team of athletes, winning the ladies team prize at comrades. Ann and David have also been on running club committees for many years and hosted and assisted at club races. They are the founders of Born2Run Athletics Club as well as Team Massmart – a ladies elite running team.
The feedback on social media platforms, mainstream media and directly from athletes showed that Ann was undoubtedly the best candidate to step into the position of Race and Operations Manager (ROM) in 2024. Perhaps due in part to her willingness to listen to runner’s requests, her vision, and innovation to build to the 100th running of the event in 2027.
The improvements made in just 7 months included the most water points/ aid stations in the history of the race, the introduction of the first officially recognised wheelchair race, and elevated start- and finish-line experience, the introduction of dignity towels for finishers who perhaps had stomach issues along the route, introduction of elite water points to level the playing field for top men and woman, a substantial goodie bag (including the introduction of a pair of Comrades branded SOX), a video version of the race briefing/rules in english and isiZulu, the introduction of a finishers jacket, a hot-spot incentive prize, the introduction of ladies only toilets, sanitary items for ladies along the route, an improved finish at Scottsville Race Course to simulate a street finish that is popular at the World Marathon Majors, a winner’s circle at the finish where the top 10 men and women can relax and enjoy their time, and more. Ann went out of her way to ensure that office staff stayed healthy in the demanding buildup time to race day by purchasing immune boosting vitamins for them.
On race day, you wouldn’t have seen Ann marching up and down along the finish line in an attempt to get some TV time, but rather, she was getting her hands dirty with what needed to be done to assist in crowded areas, with injured athletes, and with security and medical issues. Where ever help was needed, that’s where you would have found Ann.
Read more about the improvements at the 2024 Comrades Marathon here.
Comrades success starts months before race day. Whether you’re aiming to finish, earn a gold or chase a time-based goal, A-Team Coaching builds the exact programme you need and supports you every step of the way. Get in touch with A-Team Coaching.
printing in the Souvenir Magazine
David Ashworth, while coaching full-time and training for his own Comrades run in 2024 (finishing in 6h15), helped out where ever he could. This included graphical designing of the Comrades 2024 route for print in the Souvenir magazine, volunteering as the elite liaison to elite team managers and offering up time to be on his feet at the expo for 3 days leading up to race day. It is vital elite race numbers and goodie bags are handed to the correct team managers and elite athletes as they arrive each day. The handover includes elite armbands with a table number and bottle position written on them, to ensure each athlete will receive their drinks which are placed at confidential spots within the elite water stations.
Confidentiality ensures that there is no sabotage risk to athletes who entrust their drinks bottles to the team responsible for setting up the tables at each of the drinks stations. Kerry Koen volunteered to take up the responsibility of being the elite drinks table manager in 2024. As a Comrades gold medalist herself, Kerry fully understands the importance of getting the drinks stations set up perfectly for athletes. She also understands the risk factors associated with contamination/sabotage. Fortunately, the many moths of preparation paid off and with her team and support, the drinks tables were a huge success.
A level playing field is important. In 2023, we saw how Piet Wiersma missed his nutrition at club seconding points. This put him as a severe disadvantage, especially knowing that he was an international runner and had no friends or family along the road to support him. Piet Wiersma, Alexandra Morozova, and Wayne Spies personally expressed their gratitude to Ann and her team for introducing the elite water stations and the innovations in the 2024 Comrades Marathon.
The ‘Big 5’ Comrades hills, in water colour, by Colin Milliken, displayed on the wall in Comrades House, Pietermaritzburg:
– By Colin Milliken
– By Colin Milliken
– By Colin Milliken
– By Colin Milliken
– By Colin Milliken