The 2026 Comrades Marathon, an Up Run from Durban's Moses Mabhida Stadium to the Scottsville finish in Pietermaritzburg, is locked in for Sunday 14 June with an entry cap of 22,000 and a 12-hour cut-off from gun. Race organisers confirmed in their pre-race briefing this week that the 2026 route measures 85.777km, the shortest officially recognised Up Run in the event's modern era, and have signed off the final mile-by-mile cut-offs. With six weeks to go, attention now turns from the substitution-ballot administration and last-licence cut-off of 4 May to the elite field and the climb-by-climb tactics for what could be the fastest Up Run on record.
The men's race will turn on the now-familiar Tete Dijana versus Piet Wiersma question. South Africa's Dijana has won three of the last four Comrades, leaning on a punchy uphill economy that has historically been more useful on Up than Down years. Wiersma, the 2024 winner, has already worked the Polly Shorts gradient in altitude blocks at Dullstroom this autumn and is expected to attack from earlier in the race than Dijana would prefer. Bongmusa Mthembu, three times a Comrades winner, and 2019 champion Edward Mothibi round out a top tier likely to settle the medal positions before Cato Ridge.
The women's race features a different question entirely: can anyone keep Gerda Steyn in sight long enough for it to be a race? Steyn is targeting a fifth Comrades title and a fourth in succession, building 2026 around an altitude block in Dullstroom that overlaps with her European track-marathon programme. Her early season has produced a 31:14 10km road effort and a sub-2:24 half on the Two Oceans course, both of which point at a higher ceiling than the field has seen in two years. The chasing pack of Adele Broodryk, Dominika Stelmach and Carla Molinaro have not historically held her past the 60km mark.
The bonus structure is sharper this year. The Comrades Marathon Association has confirmed a R605,000 bonus for any winner who breaks the existing Up Run best, and stacked sponsor top-ups and pace-window incentives on top, lifting the total prize pool comfortably above R8 million. Race director Alain Dalais has said publicly that he expects the men's record of 5:24:49 from David Gatebe in 2016 to come under direct threat given the shortened route and bonus structure, while the women's Up Run best of Frith van der Merwe is now considered overdue for a serious look. Whether records actually fall will hinge as much on the day's weather as on the elites' tactics.
For the wider field, the 2026 Up Run keeps the entry fees from last year unchanged at R1,200 for South African citizens, R2,000 for the rest of Africa and R4,500 for international entries. The substitution ballot has now closed, so the start list is as locked as it will get, with international entries running at the highest level since the post-pandemic comeback. The CMA has confirmed a slightly redrawn cut-off pattern at Drummond and at the top of Polly Shorts to align with the shorter overall distance, alongside the standard 12-hour gun-to-mat finish that defines the event.