Comrades Marathon - 100 years old | Ultrarunning History

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By Davy Crockett

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The Comrades Marathon (about 55 miles), held in South Africa, is the world’s largest and oldest ultramarathon race that is still held today with fields that have topped 23,000 runners.

The year 2021, marked the 100^th anniversary of Comrades Marathon “The Ultimate Human Race.” Because the pandemic cancelled the race for the second year, the anniversary was celebrated on May 24, 2021, with a 2.2 km “1921 Tribute Run.” The field of 34 invited runners included twenty-one former winners from South Africa dating back to 1976. Also included were some runners who had completed more than forty editions of Comrades. In total thirty-four runners participated, matching the size of the field in 1921.

Comrades today is one of the most paramount ultrarunning events on the international calendar. It has a rich 100-year history packed with amazing accomplishments by more than 400,000 finishers through the years. How did it start and what kept it going for a century? This episode will cover the first two years of the race in 1921 and 1922.

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Vic Clapham

Vic Clapham (1886-1962) was a train engineer from Durban, South Africa and became the founder of the Comrades Marathon. He was born in London and went to South Africa with his parents when he was 13 years old in 1899 while the Anglo-Boer War was taking place between the British Empire and two Boer states who were fighting against British rule. Diamonds and gold had been discovered in those states. As a boy during the war, Clapham enrolled as an ambulance man in the Cardock Town Guard. Thousands died on both side of the conflict, especially women and children Boers.

As a youth, Clapham attended Wynberg Boy’s High School, one of the best academic schools in Cape Town, and second oldest in South Africa. He would often walk about eight kilometers to school each day from his home. Usually he was given a three-penny “tickey” each day to pay for a train ride home so he could help in his father’s grocery store. Once he spent the money on sweets and instead walked back home. That resulted in a beating from his grandmother, and he never repeated that offence.

He married Nellie in 1912 and they eventually had six sons. World War I broke out in 1914 when Clapham was age 28. As South Africa entered the bloody conflict, Clapham signed up with the 8^th South African Infantry and was sent to German East Africa, now Tanzania. During his service he went on a 1,700-mile march in East Africa. He came down with blackwater fever, dysentery, malaria, and was close to death because of the diseases. In 1917 when he was mostly recovered, he travelled home by wagon and on a hospital ship where he was deemed medically unfit. Once home he worked for the local government railway as a fireman.

The Idea for Comrades Marathon

Returning British soldiers formed the “League of Comrades of the Great War” to represent the rights of veterans of the war. Clapham was interested in establishing a memorial to the suffering and deaths of his comrades during the war. Instead of creating a statue, he wanted a living memorial that would grow and embody the spirit of fortitude, endurance and bravery that typified his fallen comrades. He produced an idea to organize an event on foot from his hometown in Pietermarizburg to the coastal city of Durban, a distance of about 56 miles.

Clapham was inspired by the London to Brighton walking races that were held before World War I (see episode 58) and wanted to create a similar race in South Africa. It was reported, “He felt that if infantrymen, drafted into the armed forces from sedentary jobs, could endure forced marches over great distances, trained athletes could cover the distance between the two cities without great difficulty.”

Clapham approached the League of Comrades about the idea in 1918 but received no support. They thought that the idea was crazy, far too strenuous for even trained runners. But he did not give up over the next several years, and eventually received approval for the event to be held in 1921. The League wanted their name associated with the event and sponsored it by lending Clapham one pound sterling which needed to be repaid.

Comrades Marathon Planning

Clapham did his own organizing and marketing for the race. He had a letter published in the local newspaper announcing the event and asked for donations of prizes. A Mr. JR Walker served as his secretary. Clapham had neither a car nor telephone, so all his contacts were made by mail or in person.

Clapham’s son, Eric, gave assistance in those early years. He wrote, “Runners would descend on our home before the race. My dad, an arch-scrounger, got donations of tea, milk and biscuits for all. I would have to give up my bed and sleep on the floor so a runner could have a comfortable night’s rest. On the morning of the race, my brother Douglas would have to cycle around Maritzburg at 4.30 a.m. in the freezing air with notebook and pencil to rouse the local runners. Each had to sign he’d been wakened. My mother would fry thick steaks on the coal stove in the kitchen. Each runner would get a massive steak topped with a couple of eggs for breakfast.”

The runners were told that during the race they could receive refreshments from certain hotels along the route. An interesting feature involved a letter of greetings from the mayor of Pietermarizburg to the mayor of Durban, which was to be carried by the runner in the lead.

The Comrades Marathon Course

The 1921 Comrades course started in Pietermarizburg, also called Marizburg for short. The city was founded in 1838 and is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The mostly dirt road and path route to Durban included many obstacles, steep hills, and even water crossings and cattle gates. Only a few final kilometers in Durban were tarred.

The course is sometimes referred to as “the five big hills.” With barely a single continuous mile of flat road, it can best be described as mountainous instead of hilly. In the early years, it truly was a mountain trail ultra. There was no concept yet of an “up year” or “down year”, but 1921 was on the “down” course direction with still about 2,500 feet of climbing. In the following years, the course direction mostly alternated each year.

At about the seven-kilometer point is the first big hill, Polly Shortts. In the 19th century, the British government sent a Scottish doctor to examine Napoleon Bonaparte, who was in exile on St Helena. During the trip, the doctor’s wife produced twins. She and one of the children died in childbirth. The surviving son, Polly Shortts settled outside Pietermaritzburg on a farm called Shortts’ Retreat, about a mile away from a popular pub where Polly was a regular visitor and had a fiery temper.

At the bottom of Polly Shortts hill, runners climb two kilometers gently to Ashburton (10 km). Next up is a climb up to the highest point of the course, Umlaas Road (18 km). Camperdown (25 km) is reached and then Cato Ridge, a railway junction marks roughly the 30 km point. Hill #2, Inchanga Hill (37 km) climbs about 450 feet in about two kilometers after which a downhill takes the runner down to the halfway point in Drummond (43 km).

After Drummond, Botha’s Hill (49 km) is climbed, where battles for first place are often won, passing by a famous point that in the future was named Arthur’s Seat, a place that five-time winner Arthur Newton was said to stop and rest. The descent of Botha’s Hill is steep followed by an undulating and slightly downhill stretch to Kloof (61 km). Field’s Hill (64 km) is the longest and steepest downhill on the course. Cowies Hill (72 km) is about a mile long uphill with about seventeen kilometers to go.

After passing Westville (78 km), the home stretch is near, with only two minor hills remaining. A short but steep Tollgate ascent brings the runners to the final six kilometers to the finish in Durban with a total distance of about 89 kilometers (55 miles). Durban is a large city, the third largest in South Africa.

The 1921 Comrades Marathon

The first Comrades Marathon was held on “Empire Day” on May 24, 1921, the 11^th birthday of the Union of South Africa. Forty-eight runners entered the inaugural race, but only 34 runners started. Most of them were former infantrymen. At 7:10 a.m., the mayor of Pietermarritzburg, D. Sanders, started the race with a pistol shot and the mayor of Durban served as the race judge.

Historian John Cameron-Dow wrote, “The race, in an important sense, belongs to the people of KwaZulu-Natal. Right from the first race in 1921, the local population have made it their event. Lining the route, they are just as much part of Comrades as the athletes. The interaction between runner and spectator is the very essence of the race.”

Butcher Purcell of Greytown took the early lead, crossing the bridge over Umsinduzi River first. He was challenged by Harry Phillips, of Marizburg and Bill Rowan, age 26, a farmer from Koster in the Transvaal.

“Leaving the city, a dusty sand road meandered over the hills and through the valleys all the way to Durban. Purcell, Phillips and Rowan were still together at Cato Ridge, but by the foot of Inchanga, Purcell had fallen two minutes behind.”

The halfway mark was reached at the sleepy little village of Drummond. Rowan, who had been pacing himself well went into the lead, followed by a convoy of bicycles, motorcycles and cars. He maintained and increased his lead over Phillips who was suffering from a chronic knee injury.

With about eighteen miles to go, he had built up a two-mile lead on Phillips. A motorist on the road reported, “Rowan’s a marvel. He was running splendidly when I saw him.”

The Clapham sons provided some crew support. “The runners brought their toiletries and clean clothes in small suitcases. We took these on a truck, which my dad had scrounged, and accompanied the athletes. If we saw a runner sitting at the roadside in pain, we’d massage his muscles with Ellerman’s liniment. Every now and again, we’d see a guy pooped out and ready to pack up and we would find his suitcase and wait while he quickly dressed and climbed on to the truck with us, before we pulled off looking for someone else who needed a drink of water, a rub-down, a word of encouragement or, finally, a suitcase full of warm clothes.”

In later years, farmers set up aid station along the route and picnic parties were held by spectators who also handed out food to the runners.

During the race, Vernon Jones, age 12, a future Comrades historian was camping with boy scouts along the road. He recalled, “As the cars approached, I was able to make out the figure of a bedraggled runner, caked with sand, Bill Rowan.”

Rowan, who must have been well-trained, had predicted finishing in nine hours. Running down West Street in Durban, covered in dust, Rowen led the convoy to the City Hall and crossed the finish line in 8:59:00, beating his prediction by just one minute. Phillips finished second, 41 minutes later. (Phillips would go on to represent South Africa in the 1924 Olympics at Paris, France.)

In the spirit of Comrades, several runners finished together. Sixteen finished within the 12-hour cutoff time. L.E.W Pearson brought up the rear, finishing in 12:20 and given a special bronze medal. Decades later, copper medals, known as the Vic Clapham medal, were awarded to those athletes who finish the race between 11 and 12 hours and Bill Rowan medals were awarded to runners who finished between 7.5-9 hours.

Arthur Newton brings Comrades into the Limelight

The race received good newspaper press coverage and was noticed by Arthur Newton (1883-1959), age 38. Newton had been born and raised in England. In his early adult years, he joined his brothers who were living in Durban, South Africa. Newton first became a teacher and took up running to get to work. His running progressed and he started to win some short races. In 1909 he returned to England for a while, joined the Thames Hare and Hounds cross-country club, and started to wear his famous cross-country “X” on his racing jerseys.

In 1911, Newton became a farmer in South Africa. He struggled, went to serve in World War I, and returned to find out that his farm had been neglected and much of it destroyed by fire. The government did not give him the help that he wanted, and he became convinced that he first needed to become famous.

He came up with a bizarre idea. He decided that his route to fame was to become an elite runner. He believed, “Genuine amateur athletics were about a wholesome as anything on earth. Any man who made a really notable name at such would always be given a hearing by the public. I took up long-distance running solely with the object of focusing public attention on the treatment to which I had been subjected.” He set his sights to win the new Comrades Marathon.

Training for 1922 Comrades

In preparing for the 1922 Comrades race, Newton, established a serious training program using any literature he could find on the subject. This ultra-distance would be much further than his cross-country races of previous years and he believed he was old, so thought it would be hard on him.

He knew that the 1921 winner, Rowan had trained doing 20-mile runs on his farm. But when Newton tried to run instead of walk, he would end up very stiff and out of breath. He finally admitted to himself that if he was to succeed, he would have to put aside his smoking after 20 years of the habit. He finally decided to allow himself two pipes a day including a post-run pipe as a reward for hard training.

Running started to come easier. He timed all his runs, trying to improve them on particular routes. By March, with race day just ten weeks away, he attempted a long run under race conditions. His competition was the local train that went on a route through the hills with several stops. He wanted to race the train for about 40 miles. All was going well until he experienced serious pain in his chest on a steep climb. That spooked him into thinking he had a heart problem.

Newton went away from his time-trials, ignoring his watch. Instead, he concentrated on distance, not speed. He discovered the benefit of the long, slow run. His runs worked up to 25 miles and he dropped his weight by ten pounds to 132 pounds. After more than a month, he returned to race that train again and beat it. It was his longest run during his training, and he knew that he was almost ready.

1922 Comrades

More than 100 men entered the second Comrades race to be held on May 24, 1922. They came from all walks of life, with some experienced runners. A few days before the race, Newton traveled to Durban on the train and did some light running to stay loose. He slept very little the night before the big day, being nervous and restless. “When I arrived at the starting point early in the morning, I kept away from the great bulk of the competitors so as to be able to sit quietly and rest instead of being called upon to talk loudly amidst the general bustle and noise.”

There were 89 runners who started at 6 a.m. for the uphill long run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, the “up” version of the course in the Drakensberg Mountains. They were cheered on by crowd of 2,000 people. The mayor of Durban fired the starting pistol, and they were off followed by helpers in cars, rickshaws, bicycles and motorbikes. Newton held back his pace and was made fun of by some spectators for being in the back of the pack. But soon he started to move up and pass runners. By 20 miles he was passing undertrained runners who were walking. He was mid-pack by the halfway point and still not worried about the front-runners.

By mile 30, Newton passed the previous year winner, Rowan, who went out too fast and was battling cramps. Only three other men were ahead. The race director, Clapham received word that an unknown runner “77” was among the front-runners. He said, “There was a scramble for programmes to see who this number 77 was. It turned out to be a chap called Newton, from Ihluku. All I could say about him was that he was a farmer.”

By mile 32 Newton moved into second place, passing a runner who had been 45 minutes ahead but now was stopped on the side of the road being massaged. By mile 38, during a grueling climb, Newton spotted the leader, Butcher Purcell, as a white speck going over the top. Newton soon went into the lead. He quickly built a large 30-minute lead over the runners limping behind him. With four miles to go and Pietermaritzburg in view, he knew victory was his. After some brandy at a hotel, he attacked the final stretch.

Newton wrote, “With a swarm of cars and cycles behind, I guessed there would be a crowd ahead. The moment I was sighted, I saw people beginning to run and in less than half a minute there was a dense crowd. The people swarmed up so suddenly from every side that I was only just able to get through with the aid of the police.” At the Sports Ground he ran on the track and thousands cheered him on as he ran the last stretch around the track. He said, “At last I saw the tape ahead and ran to it in a tumultuous roar and cheering from all sides to get a handshake from the city mayor.”

Newton finished in 8:40, nearly 20 minutes faster than Rowan’s 1921 win in the downhill direction. A crowd lifted Newton off his feet and paraded him on their shoulders off the field. Reporters followed and photographed. His friends took him away to recover. By the time the second-place runner, Phillips finished in 9:09, Newton had already had a bath and dressed in every-day attire. Rowan finished third in 9:13.

Newton told reporters that he did not think he would try to run that far again. “After all, I’m 39 and getting on in years.” Newton became a national celebrity overnight and went on to win Comrades four more times.

Later Years

The Comrades Marathon grew each year and eventually attracted international runners. Some Comrades history facts:

Robert Mtshali

The first woman ran unofficially in 1923, Frances Hayward, who finished in 11:35.
Robert Mtshali was the first unofficial black finisher in 1935 with a time of 9:30.
Comrades was not held during World War II from 1941-1945.
In 1948 a tradition began to start the race with a loud imitation of a cock’s crow instead of a pistol shot.
Wally Hayward (1908-2006) became the first person to break the six-hour barrier in 1953 with a 5:52 finish.
In 1962 the race started to attract foreign runners.
In the 1970s the race had 3,000 runners and was widely broadcast on both radio and television.
In 1975, blacks and women were finally allowed to officially run.
Bruce Fordyce of South Africa won Comrades nine times, eight in a row during the 1980s. He has finished the race 30 times.
Sam Tshabalala

Sam Tshabalala became the first black winner in 1989.
For a time, Americans and others were not allowed to compete by running associations until apartheid was lifted in 1991.
In 1995 cash prizes were introduced and the event became more commercialized. By 1996 it was the largest sporting event in South Africa.
The largest race was in 2000, with a massive 23,961 runner field. An amazing 20,000 runners finished in the allowed 12 hours.
In 2012, Antony Clapham, the great-grandson of the race founder successfully finished Comrades.
Camille Herron wins Comrades in 2017

There have been at least seven deaths during the race.
American, Ann Trason won Comrades twice, in 1996 and 1997. In more recent years, Camille Herron won in 2017. She said it is “the ultimate race to do as an ultrarunner.”
American ultrarunning legend, Dave Obelkevich, finished Comrades eleven times.
Barry Holland and Louis Massyn of South Africa have 47 consecutive Comrades finishes, 1973-2019.
As of 2021, Comrades has been held 94 times

Other articles about Comrades legends:

Sources:

John, Cameron-Dow, The Ultimate Human Race
Morris Alexander, The Comrades Marathon Story
“How it all began”
The Ultimate Human Race
Comrades History
Arthur Newton, Running in Three Continents
Rob Hadgraft, Tea with Mr. Newton: 100,000 Miles – The Longest ‘Protest March’ in History
Mark Whitaker, Running for their Lives: The Extraordinary Story of Britain’s Greatest Ever Distance Runners
Comrades Marathon turns 100 years old
A Soldier’s Dream

80: Comrades Marathon – 100 years old

By Davy Crockett