GEORGE NEWS - Twenty athletes from Outeniqua Harriers, the oldest running club in the district, were among the anxious crowd of 18 884 Comrades Marathon runners on the start line in Durban on Sunday 9 June.
The 97th edition of the greatest ultra running road race in the world ended in Pietermaritzburg, which had not seen the finish of a Comrades since 2019.
Like all the previous 48 up runs, it is pretty much uphill to the halfway mark at 44km, then another nasty climb up the sharp ridge of Inchanga, passing through the magnificent Valley of a Thousand Hills.
It is at this point that the course offers a little respite on the way to Umlaas Road, the highest point of the marathon, from where it is about 21km to go.
If the race were to start here it would be an easy half-marathon, but not so when a runner has already trudged 65km with hardly a flat road in sight. 17 313 runners completed the 2024 edition of the Comrades Marathon within the allotted 12-hour cut off.
Willard Jussah, Thembikosi Sojola, Samuel Mandlazi and Kobus Boshoff, all from George, beat the elusive seven-and-a-half-hour cut-off, earning them a traditional silver medal.
Boshoff also completed his 10th Comrades, earning him a permanent number. In total, 17 Outeniqua Harriers athletes finished the marathon, one of them being Louis Massyn who completed his 49th Comrades for the Outeniqua Harriers.
Massyn will attempt to complete his 50th Comrades Marathon in 2025 alongside Barry Holland.
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