The Comrades Marathon is by far one of the most prestigious marathons in the world. Boasting a more than 20,000 runners in their ultra-marathon in South Africa. This is a point to point race from Durbin to Pietermaritzburg. However, the course flip flops ever year. The odd years it is an up run with more than 3,800ft of gain. This is an approximately 89 kilometer course which is 56 miles. The race itself begins with the rooster crow right after everyone sings a song together and chariots of fire. This race features a gun to gun cut off points. This means that everyone’s time is gun time, not chip time. Chip time is recorded for personal means only, but the gun time is for cut offs. Regardless of where athletes start in the corrals, the athletes start time is with the first gun. The last gun of the day is fired approximately 12 hours from the first gun. The winner of the 2017 Comrades Marathon, stated this is like the Olympics of ultra-marathon running.
