Comrades Marathon race guide

Key dates for 2027

Entries are closed, but if you have a place there are still deadlines. The most important is 3 May 2027, the last day to submit a qualifying time.

1. 31 January 2027
   Balance due for part payments

   Miss it and you lose the entry and the 50% already paid. Residency and relief-fund documents are also due.

2. 3 May 2027
   Qualifying deadline

   4:30 p.m. Qualifying details, medical questionnaire and seeding upgrades must be in. Nothing is accepted after this.

3. 10 June 2027
   Race pack collection opens

   Durban Exhibition Centre or Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg, until 12 June.

4. 13 June 2027
   The 100th Comrades Marathon

   5:00 a.m. start in Pietermaritzburg.

5. 30 June 2027
   Race4Charity fundraising closes

Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

How to get a place

For 2027 places were released in stages from August 2026: first to runners with 9 or 10 or more finishes, together with 1,000 guaranteed charity places, then to members of the Comrades Marathon Association, then by a general ballot with redraws. Entries officially closed after a final redraw on 1 October 2026. Withdrawals and substitutions will be handled through a process due early in 2027.

Runners from outside Africa can still get a guaranteed place with a travel package from Marathon Tours & Travel, the official international tour operator, while packages last.

You must be at least 20 on the day you qualify. Entry fees are R1,200 for South Africans, R2,000 for the rest of Africa and R4,500 for international runners, plus an admin fee. Runners with 25 or more medals enter free. Fees are not refundable except through the official substitution process.

• How race entry systems work

The route

The 2027 Down Run starts outside Pietermaritzburg City Hall and finishes at the Kings Park Rugby Precinct in Durban, a new finish venue. The official distance will be measured once roadworks are complete. The organiser has given estimates of 89, 90 and 91 km, the most recent being about 91 km.

The race is famous for its "Big Five" hills: Polly Shortts, Inchanga, Botha's Hill, Fields Hill and Cowies Hill. On a Down Run, Polly Shortts comes early as a steep, dark descent. Inchanga leads down into Drummond at halfway, where runners pass Arthur's Seat and the Wall of Honour. After Botha's Hill and Hillcrest comes the long drop down Fields Hill to Pinetown, and Cowies Hill is the last big obstacle before Durban. Downhill does not mean easy: the descents are hard on the legs.

Cutoffs

You have 12 hours from your own group's gun, an average of 8 minutes per km. Intermediate cutoffs are deliberately generous in the first half. If you miss one, you take a rescue bus to the finish and are recorded as a non-finisher. The 2026 Up Run added a traffic-light warning system, with amber shown about 10 to 15 minutes before each cutoff.

• Plan your splits in the pace planner
• How to read cutoffs

These are the 2025 Down Run cutoffs, timed from the second group's 6:00 a.m. start. The 2027 cutoffs, start groups and route are announced nearer the race, and the 2027 start is at 5:00 a.m. Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

Medals

Every finisher gets a medal, and your time decides which. The bands below are from the 2027 race rules.

Rules

• Supporters may hand you drinks and food while standing still, anywhere except within 100 m of a refreshment station. They cannot run, cycle or drive alongside you.
• Private pacing is not allowed. Official volunteer pacesetters, known as buses, carry target-time flags and anyone can join them.
• You must move under your own power. Runners who are carried or held up may be disqualified.
• In 2026 there were 49 refreshment stations and eight medical stations along the route.
• Running in someone else's number, or swapping numbers, means disqualification and a ban of at least two years.

How many people finish?

Comrades has a very high finish rate for an ultra: in 2026, 18,276 of 20,349 starters finished, 89.8%. In 2025, the biggest Down Run, more than 18,000 finished.

Records and results

Both Up Run records fell in 2026. George Kusche ran 5:15:56, breaking Leonid Shvetsov's record from 2008, and Gerda Steyn ran 5:44:53 for her fifth win. Steyn also holds the Down Run record of 5:44:54 from 2023, when Tete Dijana set the men's Down Run record of 5:13:58. Course lengths vary from year to year, so records depend on the route.

Prize money is the same for women and men. In 2027 the winners receive R1,000,000.

Source: official race website, checked 19 October 2026.

History

Vic Clapham, a veteran of the First World War, created the race as a living memorial to South African soldiers who died in it. The first Comrades started at Pietermaritzburg City Hall on 24 May 1921 with 34 starters, and Bill Rowan won in 8:59. The Bill Rowan medal for sub-9-hour finishers is named after him.

Frances Hayward ran unofficially in 1923 and Robert Mtshali in 1935, before women and black runners were allowed to enter officially in 1975. In 1989 Sam Tshabalala became the first black winner.

Training for Comrades

Comrades is a road race, so your training looks more like marathon training stretched longer than trail-ultra training. Qualify early so you start further forward, build up long road runs, and practise long descents for a Down Run: the quads take the beating. Walking short sections and following an official bus are common strategies for a 10 to 12-hour finish.

• Follow the 100K training plan

Getting there and watching

King Shaka International Airport is north of Durban. Race packs are collected at the Durban Exhibition Centre or at Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg from 10 to 12 June 2027, and there is no race-morning collection. In 2026 official buses to the start were sold in advance only.

Crowds line much of the route. The race has been on South African television for more than 45 years, and in 2026 it was streamed worldwide for the first time, with live tracking on the Comrades app.

• Official international tour operator

Running for good at Comrades

The Amabeadibeadi charity drive, started in 1996, gives back to communities along the route. The 2026 race raised R7.17 million, and for 2027 there are eight official charities, including the Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC), Childline KZN, Gift of the Givers and Rise Against Hunger. Charity places cost the entry fee plus R10,000, and Race4Charity runners who raise R6,000 or more start in a dedicated batch.

About 5,000 volunteers staffed the refreshment stations in 2026. A Comrades Relief Fund helps up to 1,500 South Africans on low incomes with up to 50% off their entry.

• Amabeadibeadi charities
• More on running for good

Questions people ask