Comrades reaches its 100th edition in 2027 and sends us roughly 89 km down from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The direction reverses the Big Five hills, but the long descents shred quads and the 12-hour cutoff is enforced to the second. Organizers expect an expanded centenary field, while registration dates and the estimated $180 international fee remain unpublished. We would not mistake the Down Run for the easy version.
Better info coming — we're still verifying 5 fields on this race.
Why we'd pick it
- Serious climbing — 1800 m of gain. Respect the cutoffs.
- Open registration — no lottery to lose.
- Race day usually sits 11–23°C, about 20% chance of rain.
The course
The centenary edition is a Down Run of roughly 89 km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The route reverses the named Big Five hills, including Polly Shortts and Inchanga, but downhill does not mean easy: repeated descents batter quads long before the coast. The stored 1,800-meter gain remains an estimate until the final 2027 measurement is published, and the 12-hour cutoff is still the hard limit.
