‘Race the Comrades Legends’ sees strong Dolphin Coast turnout

Hundreds of Dolphin Coast runners took to the road on Sunday to take part in the inaugural “Race the Comrades Legends” virtual event, the same day the 95th edition Comrades Marathon was to take place.

As hundreds of Dolphin Coast runners braved the early morning cold to take part in a shortened “virtual Comrades Marathon” on Sunday morning, Andrew Erasmus, Gary Henwood-Fox and Isaac Molelekoa were three local runners who completed the full 90km distance as most opted for either the 5km, 10km, 21.1km or 45km race.

The “Race the Comrades Legends” virtual event on Sunday, the day the 95th Comrades Marathon was due to take place before being cancelled by lockdown, attracted an impressive 43 788 entrants from 103 nations in the world’s biggest virtual run.

While 150 members of the Dolphin Coast Striders running club took on runs of varying lengths from 5km to 21km, club members Isaac Molelekoa, Gary Henwood-Fox and ultra-trail runner

Andrew Erasmus joined the ranks of 686 South Africans who completed the full 90km distance.

Isaac finished in an impressive time of 8:18.

Andrew, a past podium winner in the gruelling Karkloof 100 (160km) followed the 5km ‘Hunt loop’ through Ballito in his quest to log in 90kms.

The Ballito father circumnavigated the 5km route a staggering 18 times, finishing in a time of 9:15.

He was joined by his twin brother, Steven, for the first 35kms.

Gary Henwood-Fox finished in 12:48, which in a normal year would have been outside the 12 hour cutoff.

This year runners had 24 hours in which to complete their run.

Comrades veteran Barry Holland (68) took part in the 21km event and clocked an impressive time of 1:46.

Holland would have run his 48th consecutive Comrades this year.

The ultra-marathon stalwart has earned himself a place in Comrades history by holding the record for the most consecutive finishes in the history of the event as well as jointly holding the record for the most completed.

He completed his first Comrades in 1972 at the tender age of 20.

*This story was corrected to read that Andrew Erasmus had not circumvented the ‘Hunt loop’ 450 times. Although it must’ve felt like 450 laps, it was actually 18.

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