The 90km Comrades Marathon should be a fringe event with no more than a few hundred entrants.
The fact that it is more popular now than ever, 104 years after it was first launched, is an anomaly unique to South Africa.
It’s not the only ultra-marathon that draws thousands of entrants in this country. The 56km Two Oceans in Cape Town, the 50km Om Die Dam in Hartbeespoort, the 50km Loskop in Middelburg and the 50km City 2 City in Gauteng are also among the nation’s most popular road running events.
But the popularity of those races is thanks largely to the interest in Comrades, which launched a local ultra-marathon boom that has never subsided.
Humble beginnings
When Comrades was first held in 1921, to commemorate fallen soldiers in World War 1, only 34 runners turned up at the start line.
Not only did it survive, however, but by the 1980s it had become the most popular mass participation sports event in South Africa.
International bans increased the interest in domestic sport, and the advent of live television coverage coincided with the rise of nine-time Comrades winner Bruce Fordyce, who became a household name.
And while public interest in some other domestic sports events has waned since the country was readmitted to international sport in the 1990s, the obsession with Comrades has not.
People generally don’t sit and watch the race the whole day on TV anymore, as they did a few decades ago, but there is still a lot of interest.
Nearly 100,000 people turn out to support the participants along the route each year, and it remains the most prestigious road running race in the country (though that might change next year if the Cape Town Marathon receives World Marathon Majors status).
Unnecessary frustration
Most astounding is the interest from within the running community, and the fact that 22,000 entries sold out within 10 hours this week is absolutely incredible.
The record sales have evoked some frustration from runners, with many having missed out because they didn’t enter quickly enough, but they will at least have another chance to secure a ticket when substitution entries open next year.
And road runners should be delighted. Having so much interest in Comrades can only be a good thing, and it suggests there are more people taking up the sport, which will increase interest from potential sponsors.
With other big races experiencing some issues – there is an ongoing battle behind the scenes for control of the Soweto Marathon, and the Cape Town Marathon was recently cancelled due to adverse weather – the interest in Comrades proves that those concerns have done nothing to chase people away from the sport.
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