Comrades Marathon Numbers
Cands / 
2 Comments / 
June 10th, 2009 / 
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The final stats from the Comrades Marathon are in!!
Of the 11 346 people who started the race (12 952 entered which means 1 606 people didn’t feel like running on the day) – 10 006 people ran (or crawled or dragged themselves) over the finish line in Durban. That’s a whopping 88.1% finishing rate, for a race of this length I think that is pretty awesome!!
Women made up 17.5% of the finishing field, while men made up the remaining 82.5%
It also seems that at this stage people are starting to contemplate next years run… It is the 85th commemorative race and will be from Pietermaritzburg to Durban again (there has never been a consecutive “down” run) and because it co-insides with the 2010 soccer world cup they are expecting a record number of entries, resulting in the powers that be deciding to limit entries to 20 000.
Now I don’t know if this is an interesting marketing ploy but what is it about making something “Limited” that drives people (especially those who had said NO MORE), to start thinking about entering again, barely 3 weeks after the race? Actually what is it about an 89km race that has people coming back year after year…?
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It’s probably those of us who said ‘no more’ that are first in the queue to enter for the following Comrades. In my case I would like to finish Comrades in a good time but more importantly to feel good at the end – to be able to punch my fist in the air and say ‘I’ve nailed you!’
As for doing Comrades year after year – well as a runner it gives you a goal to work towards! And when that goal in conquered it leaves you fit enough to take on other challenges like MTBing, trail running, hiking and anything else you may set your mind to.
Fortunately we live in ’sunny’ SA where we can do all these things.
SOOO – see you at Comrades 2010!!!
Argh, this puts me in a really awkward position – I’d said no more but the lure of that kind of challenge is proving my rubber arm is what sways my decisions…
Will have to see about 2010…