Running Comrades: How to Train, Enter, and Conquer the Up Run

The Comrades Marathon does not describe itself as a race. It calls itself the Ultimate Human Race — a title that reflects both the event's ambition and its particular relationship with the people who run it. The Comrades is not trying to be the fastest ultra, or the most technical, or the highest. It is trying to be the most complete test of what a human being can produce in 85.777 kilometres of net uphill running.

In odd-numbered years it runs Up, from Durban on the Indian Ocean coast to Pietermaritzburg in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. In even-numbered years it runs Down, reversing the route. The Up Run is considered harder. Most Comrades runners will tell you the Down Run is harder, which is also true. The Comrades Marathon is hard in both directions.

This guide covers the Up Run — the direction the 2026 race uses. Everything below applies in principle to the Down Run with directions reversed.

The Route

Start: Durban City Hall, Dr Pixley Ka Seme Street, Durban — sea level, subtropical coast.

Finish: Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal Midlands — approximately 760 metres above sea level.

Distance: 85.777 kilometres.

Net elevation gain: The Up Run gains approximately 1,800 metres cumulatively across the course, though the route undulates and includes significant descents as well as climbs.

The route follows the N3 highway corridor and its supporting arterials through Durban's western suburbs and out through Pinetown, Hillcrest, Botha's Hill, Drummond, and Cato Ridge before approaching Pietermaritzburg from the south. It is not a trail race. The surface is tarmac throughout — both the quiet suburban roads of the coastal approach and the more exposed plateau sections of the later course.

The Big Five Climbs

Every Comrades runner organises their race around the Big Five — the named climbs that structure the course's difficulty.

Cowies Hill (km ~10): The first test and the pacing examiner. Cowies Hill sits in the early kilometres when a 21,000-person mass start is still generating surplus adrenaline and the legs have not yet calibrated to marathon pace. The runners who tackle Cowies Hill correctly — at sustainable effort, not carried by crowd energy — are the runners whose second 40 kilometres go better than average. It is neither the longest nor the steepest of the Five, but it arrives first.

Fields Hill (km ~25): The most unforgiving of the Big Five in terms of placement. Fields Hill descends steeply through Pinetown before reversing into a sustained climb — a combination that extracts energy from both the descent's eccentric muscle loading and the climb's concentric effort. By Fields Hill, a Comrades runner is in the race. There is no going back from Fields Hill. The question is only what pace remains.

Botha's Hill (km ~40-45): The race's strategic checkpoint. Athletes who are on target for their goal times at Botha's Hill generally finish on target. The climb itself is measured and sustained — less steep than Fields Hill but longer, arriving at the race's psychological midpoint. The views from the Botha's Hill plateau back toward Durban are striking; most runners are too focused to notice them.

Inchanga (km ~55-60): The climb that empties the middle-section reserves. Inchanga arrives when the race's early optimism has been fully expended and the finish is neither close nor distant — it is simply a fixed quantity of suffering ahead. The gradient here is demanding, the surroundings become more rural and quieter, and the mental arithmetic of remaining distance begins to produce anxiety in runners who are behind their target.

Polly Shortts (km ~75): The final act. With approximately 10 kilometres remaining, Polly Shortts presents a climb that a fresh athlete would find unremarkable. At the end of an 85-kilometre Up Run, it is the race's most honest section. Polly Shortts does not destroy runners through gradient — it destroys them by arriving when nothing genuine remains to defeat it with. The athletes who get over Polly Shortts with pace still available tend to negative-split the final kilometres into Pietermaritzburg. The athletes who walk sections of Polly Shortts — and there are many — are experiencing the Comrades Marathon exactly as intended.

Entry to the Comrades Marathon requires a qualifying standard. As of 2026:

• Men: A certified marathon in under 5:00:00
• Women: A certified marathon in under 5:00:00

The qualifying marathon must be run in the calendar year preceding the Comrades (i.e., a 2025 marathon for the 2026 race) and be submitted to the Comrades Marathon Association for verification. The deadline is typically November/December of the preceding year. Charity entries may be available with different qualification pathways; check the official Comrades Marathon website for current entry structures.

Seed categories are assigned based on qualifying time. Faster qualifiers start in earlier corrals; the seeding system reduces congestion on the narrow early sections of the course.

Training

The Comrades Marathon requires a training volume and approach different from road marathon preparation:

The minimum standard: A runner who can comfortably complete a 42km road marathon should not assume Comrades readiness. The additional 43 kilometres, plus the sustained climbing, represents a fundamentally different physiological demand. A 5-hour marathon qualifier who has never run beyond 42km needs 4–6 months of specific Comrades preparation.

The weekly structure: Peak Comrades training weeks typically include 100–130km across 5–6 runs. The critical sessions are the long runs — two per week in peak training, with the Sunday long run reaching 50–65km in the final build.

Back-to-back long runs: The Comrades training community's consensus is that running a long run on Saturday followed by a long run on Sunday — consecutive load days — is the most effective preparation for the race's extended demands. A 40km Saturday followed by a 25–30km Sunday is a typical peak week combination.

The Long Slow Distance principle: Comrades training is not marathon training at Comrades pace. Most training kilometres are run at well below race effort — building the aerobic base, the muscular endurance, and the mental tolerance for prolonged time on feet that the race demands. Running too fast too often produces injury before race day.

Tune-up races: The Two Oceans Marathon (Cape Town, April — 56km) is the most popular Comrades tune-up race and serves as an intermediate test of long-distance readiness. Many Comrades runners use it as their final preparation assessment before the June race.

When to Run and What to Know About the Route

The Up Run is in odd-numbered years: 2027, 2029, etc. If you are planning a trip specifically for the Up Run, the year matters.

Altitude change over the course: The coastal departure is at sea level; the finish in Pietermaritzburg is at approximately 760 metres. The cumulative climbing across the undulating route is substantially more than the net 760-metre gain would suggest — the route climbs and descends repeatedly before finishing at the Midlands' altitude. Runners who have trained at sea level feel the change from approximately 50 kilometres onward.

Cutoff: 12 hours. The Comrades cutoff is 12 hours from the gun. Athletes on the road at 12 hours receive official DNFs regardless of their distance. The cutoff is the organising principle of the race for the majority of finishers — Comrades medals are awarded to all sub-12-hour finishers. Gold medals are awarded for top 10 finishes; Gold-with-timing and other category medals reflect specific sub-group performances.

Getting to Durban and Pietermaritzburg

By air: King Shaka International Airport (DUR) is 35 kilometres north of Durban's city centre. Direct flights serve Johannesburg (55 minutes), Cape Town (2 hours), and regional African cities. International connections require routing through Johannesburg.

By car: Johannesburg to Durban is 6 hours on the N3 — the same highway the Comrades runs on. The N3 south from Johannesburg passes through all of the race's key points including Pietermaritzburg.

On race day: The Comrades organisation runs shuttle buses from the Pietermaritzburg finish area back to Durban after the race. Most runners base in Durban for the week before the race and travel to Pietermaritzburg only for the finish logistics. If arriving by car, parking at the finish and busing to the start is the standard strategy.

Where to Base in Durban

The Berea and Umhlanga areas of Durban provide the most convenient pre-race accommodation for runners: close to the city-centre start, accessible by the race day shuttle system, and with the flat beachfront as a final easy shakeout running surface the morning before the race.

Pietermaritzburg is worth a night post-race for athletes who want to experience the finish city without the fog of immediate post-race exhaustion. The city's colonial architecture and the race's finish area at Pietermaritzburg's City Hall form a coherent end-point to the journey.

The Comrades Atmosphere

No description of the race is complete without noting what the Comrades does to a city. Durban's western suburbs — the communities through which the route passes — line the course with support from early morning to the final hour of the cutoff. The support is not the distant, commercial enthusiasm of large-city marathons. It is the local, consistent, specific knowledge of a community that has watched the Comrades pass its doorstep for 99 years.

The crowd at Polly Shortts specifically — positioned at the last major difficulty with hours of the cutoff remaining — is the most concentrated experience the race produces. The runners passing through Polly Shortts in hours 10 and 11 are not elite athletes. They are the people for whom the Comrades is genuinely the ultimate human race: ordinary runners attempting something that will take most of their available capacity and perhaps a little beyond it. The crowd at Polly Shortts knows this. It cheers accordingly.

Frequently Asked

What is the difference between the Up Run and Down Run? The Up Run (odd years) goes from Durban to Pietermaritzburg with net uphill. The Down Run (even years) reverses the route. Both are 85-87km depending on the course measurement year. The Up Run is conventionally considered harder due to the sustained climbs on tired legs; the Down Run produces more muscle damage from the extended descents. Both are the Comrades Marathon.

Can a first-time ultra runner complete Comrades? Yes, but not without specific preparation. A runner completing their first ultra of any kind at Comrades without prior experience of long distances beyond the marathon should plan 6+ months of structured training and expect to run the majority of the race conservatively.

What is the significance of coloured race numbers? White: first entry. Green: 10 finishes. Blue: 25 finishes. Double green: 10 medals in both directions. Each number category carries specific start corral and recognition protocols.

Can I run the route without entering the race? The route follows public roads and can be run at any time outside race day. Many Comrades entrants make training runs on sections of the Big Five in the months before the race. Contact the Comrades Marathon Association for formal guided route experiences.

Where can I find Comrades training partners? Connect with runners training for Comrades and based in KwaZulu-Natal via Find Athletes in Durban/PMB on ZealZag.

For today's race-eve coverage and elite field preview, see our Comrades Marathon 2026 field report. For today's trail running coverage from Andorra, see our Trail 100 Andorra UTMB route guide.