The Comrades Marathon is the world's oldest and largest ultramarathon, first run in 1921 and held each year in KwaZulu-Natal between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. The route is roughly 87 km and alternates direction annually, climbing inland on the "up" run and dropping to the coast on the "down" run. For an international runner, it is a bucket-list event, but it is also a logistical project that begins months before race day. This guide breaks the planning into its main parts.
You cannot simply sign up. Comrades caps its field — recent editions have filled 22,000 places, sometimes within hours — and every entrant must post a qualifying time to keep their spot. The standard requirement is an officially timed marathon of at least 42.2 km, completed under an approved athletics body's rules within a fixed window and set time — a sub-five-hour marathon is the baseline, with faster qualifiers earning better seeding. Longer races can also serve as qualifiers, each with its own required time, so a slower marathoner is not automatically shut out.
International results are verified through the qualifying race's organizers, and the details must be submitted before a hard cut-off. In practice, book a qualifying marathon well ahead and treat that date as fixed rather than as a formality you can arrange later.
Comrades is close to twice a standard marathon, and the terrain is the real test. The up run gains height across a sequence of long climbs — Cowies, Field's, Botha's, Inchanga and Polly Shortts — so a flat city-marathon build-up will not prepare you. You will need months of high mileage, back-to-back long runs, and deliberate hill work. The race day is a matter of running against a strict 12-hour cut-off, with earlier cut-offs along the route, and medals are graded by finishing time, from gold down to the final sub-12-hour medal.
It is worth studying how a recent edition actually unfolded: the last up run drew around 20,000 starters and returned a finish rate near 90%, but it used three seeded start groups whose success rates differed sharply — close to 98% for the first group against roughly 73% for the last. That gap is the clearest argument for chasing a faster qualifying time. First-timers should not be put off, though: novices made up close to a quarter of that field and still finished at a rate well above 85%.
The shape of the race creates a problem that city marathons do not. Comrades is point-to-point: you start in one city and finish around 87 km away in the other, so you need transport arranged for the pre-dawn start and for the return on tired legs. Most international runners also want a vehicle for the days around the race — to drive sections of the route in advance, and to move between accommodation and the start. Across a multi-week trip, the transport bill grows quickly, and the daily rental rate that suits a weekend rarely suits a month.
For a longer stay, you can choose among paying the daily rate, negotiating a long-term rental, or leasing. Before accepting any monthly leasing figure, it helps to see how it is calculated; you can estimate the value by considering the vehicle price, residual value, term, and finance rate, for instance.
Whichever way the race runs, Durban is the natural hub: it is warm in the winter race season, well connected by air, and close to many other attractions. The city sits within easy reach of a range of weekend trips along the coast and into the interior — the South Coast beaches, the Midlands, the Drakensberg foothills, and Pietermaritzburg itself, which is only about an hour away by road. That makes it practical to settle in one base, review the course, and still fill the days before the race without long transfers.
If you are driving yourself, keep the basics in mind: South Africa drives on the left in right-hand-drive cars; a foreign license printed in English is accepted (an International Driving Permit is required otherwise); and it is worth confirming your insurance cover before you set off.
A Comrades trip can be a poor use of a long-haul flight if you leave the day after the race. Recovery time is a good excuse to see the province, and there is far more to KwaZulu-Natal than the road between the two cities — Big Five reserves, some of the oldest protected wilderness in Africa, Blue Flag beaches, the Drakensberg's rock-art trails, and quiet inland towns. Legs that have just covered 87 km will not thank you for another climb immediately, but a slow week along the coast or a self-drive through a game reserve is an ideal way to wind down before the flight home.
Handled in this order—qualifier, entry, training, transport, and accommodation—the Comrades Marathon becomes a manageable project rather than a last-minute scramble. Plan ahead, allow time to explore KwaZulu-Natal, and you'll leave with far more than a medal—you'll have experienced one of the world's greatest road races and one of South Africa's most rewarding regions.
Sara Essop is a travel blogger and writer based in South Africa. She writes about family travel and experiences around the world on her blog "In Africa and Beyond". Although she has been to 53 countries thus far, she especially loves showcasing her beautiful country and is a certified South Africa Specialist.
