Local athletes prepare for Comrades
The first Comrades was run on May 24, 1921, with 48 runners of whom only 16 reached the finish.
This year sees the 90th Comrades with more than 22 000 athletes competing.
It has grown every year since then with the exception of the war years from 1941 to 1945, with the direction alternating each year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the so-called up and down runs.
This ultimate human race, is in less than two days and the first runners will start running bright and early on Sunday, May 31 – quite a few local runners will be in action as well.
The official distance is 87,72 kilometres, making it one of the longer up runs in recent history.
The route has been changed slightly for this year’s race day.
The deviation occurs between the 69 and 67 kilometre Bonitas marker boards.
An additional 877 metres has been added to the route that was run in the 2013 up race.
