The Comrades Marathon Green Number

The Comrades Marathon is an epic ultra marathon road race run every year between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in Kwazulu Natal. It covers a distance of 90kms that passes through the Valley of a Thousand Hills.
This race alternates yearly and that is why it is referred to as the 'up' run and the 'down' run .. this year was the down run.

When the Jacaranda Marathon Club was founded in Pretoria, in the early 1970's, I became involved in the administrative side and J became an avid road runner. The ultimate for any athlete was to be able to compete in the Comrades Marathon. It was not really a question of competing, it was more a question of completing the distance ...

In 1971, J and friends made their first attempts at the unknown challenge. I was heavily pregnant with our first born and at that time seconding was still allowed from passengers in cars ... what a time we had.

Road running and running the marathon club became a way of life. Wonderful friendships were forged and until this day, about 40 years later, we still have close contact with quite a few running friends.

In all, over the coming years, except for one year, J completed 13 races.

I may mention that some of our friends, when last heard of, had completed at least 35 Comrades events ....

On reaching the tenth year, the race number worn by the athlete that the athlete had been competing in in all the previous nine races, is awarded to him in perpetuity.

This award is not an every day occurance, as many athletes drop out long before they have completed ten Comrades Marathons.

1975 saw the Jubilee year (50th) of the Comrades Marathon.
J was well prepared for this occasion and in this year he ran his finest Comrades (4th race) when he finished 40th in a time of 6h40m.
All athletes that finished below a time of 7h30 were awarded a silver medal.
The first ten got gold.

The image shows what the coveted green number looks like, as well as a few bronze and silver medals.

After completing the race for the twelfth time, J decided to lay off ultra distances and rather concentrated on 20km runs ..

Sixteen years went past and then in the year 2000 the race would be known as the Millennium Comrades Marathon. To many retired runners the name alone was enough to wake the dead, or to make the phoenix rise again.

So, without much ado, the sound of running shoes hitting the tar again, once more became a familiar sound .... training was done, and with quite a few new grey hairs, and a few extra kilo's accumulated over the years, J competed and completed the Millennium event. This time he took it very easy and finished comfortably within the time allowed.

Those were the good old days where everybody suffered together and rejoiced together when the finish line came into sight.

A note of interest: about four years ago about as many as 22,000 athletes (from all over the world) took part in the race. This year the number of entrants has declined to a mere 15,000 odd runners ... this is surely a matter of concern for the organizers. Costs for the athletes seem to carry the blame ....