Comrades green name awards for marshals

The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) hosted its 2014 Community Marshals’ Green Name Awards function at Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday.
According to Delaine Cools, Media Officer for CMA, the event was held in recognition of the community marshals who have been of service to the Comrades Marathon for 10 years now.
“Consisting of a 100-strong team, the Comrades Marathon Community Marshals Programme was implemented by the CMA in 2005 in response to a need for greater runner safety. Since then, this special band of people has ensured the safe passage of Comrades Marathon runners along the Comrades route from Cato Ridge to Inchanga, year in and year out,” she said.
These do-gooders have performed their duties with pride and a deep sense of responsibility for the safety and protection of Comrades Marathon runners along this stretch of the 89km Comrades route.
“The CMA has in turn provided training and support for this dedicated marshaling team on an annual basis in the run up to the ultra-marathon. Thanks to such training and skills transfer, many of these volunteers have also gone on to secure meaningful jobs for themselves,” she added.
Each of the 24 Green Name recipients was honoured with a ‘Green Name Certificate’ and a special Comrades gift by the Chairman of the CMA, Macdonald Chitja and other officials.
Since its inception, the project has been viewed as a community initiative, the engagement had started with Nkosi Mlaba and his Induna and has continued in this vain until today.
Though individuals were awarded the Green Name Certificates, the function is a celebration of the involvement of the entire community.
“This is a special moment to celebrate a decade-long contribution of such dedicated volunteers to the Comrades Marathon. We are very grateful to each of these 24 Green Name recipients for their esteemed 10 years of service to the world’s biggest ultra-marathon,” she concluded.