Bruce Forteis was the only man who had won the race since 1981. In 1989 he decided not to compete in the comrades at all, and Jose rasted on tired legs. That blew the field wide open. Samuel Shabbalala came out on top for the first time in more than 65 years.
If you live in South Africa, you definitely know someone who runs ultra-marathons, probably lots of someones. Here, ultras are the stuff of a whole country’s new years resolutions and mid-life crises. They’re the kind of thing that a totally ordinary, not-athletic person wakes up one day and decides they’re going to do -- and then does. In one of the most economically unequal countries in the world, extreme distance running is a sport that feels like it includes everybody. And improbably, that inclusiveness happened during one of the darkest, most divided moments in South Africa’s history – during the final years of apartheid.
The Comrades