Sweat, tears and camaraderie as 20,000 runners take on world’s largest ultramarathon

The Guardian reports on the 2026 Comrades Marathon, a 55-mile ultramarathon run annually between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where over 20,000 runners competed with a 12-hour cutoff. The article traces the race's history from its 1921 founding as an all-white, all-male memorial to World War I fallen soldiers, through its pivotal 1975 desegregation and opening to women, to its modern status as a culturally unifying event that brings together runners from all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. The reporting is grounded in specific details—William Seleka's personal journey from depression to ultramarathon finisher, historical milestones like Frances Hayward's 1923 completion and Sam Tshabalala's 1989 victory, television's role in popularizing the race, and the finish-line climax where 91% of runners completed the course. Bylined journalists Rachel Savage and James Oatway (photographer) provide on-the-ground reporting with named sources and vivid scene-setting, though the independent search results show coverage of the Comrades exists but primarily corroborates this piece rather than offering independent verification of 2026-specific details; notably, the search results instead surface information about the London Marathon's 2027 expansion, suggesting limited recent third-party coverage of the 2026 Comrades itself. Readers should monitor the race's ongoing demographic diversity trends and whether it maintains its apparent role as a social leveler in a structurally unequal society.