Comrades reaches its 100th edition in 2027 and sends us approximately 91 km down from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The long descents shred quads and the 12-hour cutoff is enforced to the second. General entries use a September 9–22 ballot, the international fee is R4,500, and every entrant must post a sub-5:00 marathon by May 3. We would not mistake the Down Run for the easy version.
Better info coming — we're still verifying 4 fields on this race.
Why we'd pick it
- The 1800 m climbing estimate is useful for planning, not a verified pacing number.
- Opens Sep 9 · Lottery — set the date before the ballot window starts.
- Race day usually sits 11–23°C, about 20% chance of rain.
The course
The centenary edition is a Down Run of roughly 89 km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The route reverses the named Big Five hills, including Polly Shortts and Inchanga, but downhill does not mean easy: repeated descents batter quads long before the coast. The stored 1,800-meter gain remains an estimate until the final 2027 measurement is published, and the 12-hour cutoff is still the hard limit.
