The Comrades Marathon can make you and break you, all in one day

On the road between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, somewhere on the descent down Field’s Hill near Pinetown, you can still find pieces of my shattered soul.

Back in 2005, at the age of 22, I completed the Comrades Marathon ‘down’ run for the only time. And it was a nightmare.

After climbing for most of the first half of the course, the downhill sections in the second half hammer your legs into submission, and by the time you get to Durban it feels like tiny ninjas are stabbing your muscles with miniature swords.

Chasing the cut-off

For the last 30 kilometres, I couldn’t focus on anything but the next step on the long road to the finish, eventually arriving at Kingsmead with a little more than 15 minutes to the final cut-off.

In terms of physical pain, it remains the worst day of my life.

More importantly, it was a personal triumph that ensured it was one of my best days too.

At one point, with around 25km left, I was persuaded by a fellow runner to keep going after taking my shoes off at the side of the road.

I don’t know why, or how, but I got back up, and surrounded by hundreds of other wounded figures, we hobbled our way through the latter stages of the race.

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Of my few attempts at Comrades, it was my only ‘down’ run. And it was my slowest finish. It was also easily the hardest.

Few things can humble a person more than the battle that has to be waged within oneself to finish an ultra-marathon, especially on a day when things just aren’t going well.

On that day in 2005, I learned that I was tougher than I ever realised, and nearly two decades later when life throws me a curveball, finishing the Comrades that year reminds me that I can handle it, whatever it is.

That’s the point. It’s the reason so many people keep participating.

Personal battles

Events like Comrades provide a platform for individuals to wage and win their own personal battles, learning something about themselves along the way. And they offer a tremendous sense of achievement.

On that long road to Durban, it’s not just my broken soul that has been left splintered over the years. Thousands of others have crashed there too.

But from that same battle, on that same brutal road, average people emerge as heroes and heroines every year by winning internal wars and challenges.

The 96th edition of the gruelling race on Sunday will be no different and all runners who are able to fight hard enough to cover the distance can be celebrated for their efforts. They are all champions.

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