#Wednesday Walk - At the 96th Comrades Marathon in 2023.

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

The weekend before last, on Sunday, June 11, the 96th Comrades Marathon took place.

The Comrades Marathon is a well-known ultramarathon and draws athletes from all over the world every year.

The marathon is open to professional athletes and members of the public. You do have to qualify though, by taking part in various marathons throughout the year before you are allowed to enter for the Comrades Marathon.

Every year, the marathon takes place between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa.

One year the race would be from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, which will be an "up" race, meaning that the runners will mainly be running uphill, from the coastal area at Durban, running inland toward Pietermaritzburg.

The next year, the race would be run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, which would then be the "down" race, with the runners running downhill toward the ocean in Durban on the East coast of South Africa.

This year was a "down" race, starting in Pietermaritzburg and ending in Durban. The distance to be completed by the runners was 87.701 KM.

The Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the prize money of last year's marathon. But this year, they were able to restore the prize money to the levels before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

According to the Comrades Marathon Blog, this year they were able to announce that the prize money would be "a substantial R4.31-million, effectively a 90% increase on last year’s R2.27 million".

The winner in the men's category, as well as the winner in the women's category, would each receive R500'000.00 in prize money. As an incentive, they would win an additional bonus of R500'000.00 if they could break the best "down" times for both the men's and women's categories respectively.

As an incentive for South African athletes, the first South African citizen (Man and Woman) to complete the marathon would each receive R200,000.00.

We live close to the Comrades Marathon route and every year, we love going up to where they are running and cheering the runners as they come passing by.

This year was no different.

We went up to the point where they would be passing a couple of kilometers from where we live, coming through Gillits. We stood just before the 60 KM mark.

The race started in Pietermaritzburg at 5:30 am. I wanted to be in time to see the leaders of the race passing by, and we were just in time...

We found parking and still had to do quite a bit of walking to get to where we wanted to be.

Just as we arrived, the guy who was leading the race at that time, came by...

First, we saw the car that was escorting the race leader. As mentioned before, we were just before the 60 KM mark. And as you can see, the current time was 3 hours and 32 minutes into the race.

At this stage, the leader was Jo Fukuda from Japan.

All his hair was colored green...

He was still running very strong, but he ended the race in 20th position.

Then the second guy came by, also running strongly, but I don't know who he was...

Then Piet Wiersma from the Netherlands came through.

He was also running very strong, being in third position at this point.

He (Piet Wiersma) would eventually end in second place with a time of 05h:14m:01s.

Still watching the athletes passing us by at the same spot, not too far behind Piet Wiersma, followed this group of athletes.

The guy running in the front line (to the right in the photo) with his hair dyed blond, is Tete Dijana from South Africa. His goal was to not only win the race but to also set a new record for the "down" time.

To beat the record, he had to beat a time of 5h:18:19s, set by David Gatebe in 2016.

He ended up winning the race in a nail-biting battle between him and Piet Wiersma.

He also did break the record, setting a new record at 5h:13:58s. As you can see, there was less than a minute between him and Piet Wiersma!

These guys were running at a fast pace now.

The second guy to the right of Tete Dijana (with the green beanie on his head), is Edward Mothibi, also from South Africa. He would end the race in third place with a time of 5h:17m:34s.

Running between them (in a white vest) is Gordon Lesetedi from South Africa. He finished the race in fourth place in a time of 5h:20m:43s.

More male athletes passed by, and then, 3h:53m:15s into the race, the first female athletes arrived.

The first lady to pass us was Gerda Steyn from South Africa, surrounded by some male athletes.

This group was also running strong. Gerda looked as fresh and relaxed as she could be.

Gerda Steyn's goal for the day was also not to only win the "down" race, but to also break the "down" record for the ladies.

To do this, she had to beat a time of 5h:54m:43s, a record set by Frith van der Merwe (also from South Africa) in 1989.

Gerda looked as fresh and relaxed as she could be.

She went on to win the female category, setting a new record with a time of 5h:44m:54s.

The second lady to come past us at this point was Carla Molinaro from South Africa.

She was also still running strong, but she ended the race in the female category in third place with a time of 6h:00m:23s.

Now still in third place in the female category, the next lady to pass us was Adelle Broodryk from South Africa.

She was in good spirits, waving at the crowd as they cheered her on.

Adelle Broodryk eventually passed Carla Molinaro, to finish the race in second place in the female category with a time of 5h:56m:26s

The fourth lady to pass us at this point was Dominika Stelmach from Poland. She finished the race still in fourth place in a time of 06H:06m:02s.

So, the South African athletes did really well.

Both Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn did exceptionally well. Winning the male and female categories respectively, both setting new records, and both being the first South African citizens (male and female) to finish the marathon, they both left with a staggering R1.2 Million each.

This is what added to the nail-biting finish between Tete Dijana and Piet Wiersma. Over the last approximately 5 KM, Piet Wiersma got Tete Dijana in sight and started gaining on him.

Tete Dijana saw this and kept looking over his shoulder as Piet Wiersma kept gaining on him.

As mentioned earlier, Dijana crossed the finish line less than a minute ahead of Wiersma.

Less than a minute (or maybe if the finish line was 20 meters further), and it could have cost Dijana not only to be the person who broke the record but also R500'000.00 in prize money!

Piet Wiersma on the other hand, missed that R500'000.00 and the honor of being the new record holder by less than a minute!

To see all the results, you can go here.

To see the breakdown of the prize money for the first ten places, you can go here. The first ten places also received a 1-ounce Pure Gold medal in addition to their prize money.

Thank you for reading my post!

I do appreciate it!

Credit:
All information such as the final results and times achieved, were obtained from the official Comrades Marathon website. The marathon distance was obtained from this post, while the previous record times and this year's prize money were obtained from this post on their official blog.

Note: All images in this post are my own.