Comrades Supplement Comrades Training and Info Guide, 2017 | Page 42

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Bill Payn

The Legend

that was
Bill Payn

The story of Bill Payn’s 1922 Comrades Marathon run
remains one of the all-time great legends to come out
of the Ultimate Human Race’s rich history. The 2017 race
campaign is ‘It Takes All of You – Zinikele,’ but in Payn’s
case it would have been more appropriately called ‘It
Takes All You Can Eat!’ – BY SEAN FALCONER

However, even the majority of those intrepid
Comrades pioneers came nowhere near
the incredible feat of the legendary Bill Payn
in the second Comrades. He was a Durban
schoolmaster, Springbok rugby player with
two tests to his name, and also represented
Natal Province in cricket, athletics, boxing
and baseball. He was usually described as
huge, both in size and character, and his
sense of humour and spirit of adventure
added to his larger than life persona.

Challenge Accepted
The story goes that Payn played host to a
certain Arthur Newton on the eve before the
race and after a hearty meal and a few stiff
drinks, he was talked into joining the race by
his house guest. While Newton went on to
win that year’s race in record time, as well as
four more in the next five years to become
the first legend of the Comrades, Payn just
went for a finish, having done no specific
training for a long-distance running event.

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Comrades Training & Information Guide 2017

Instead, he had to rely on his rugby fitness to
get him to the finish. Added to that, he even
ran in his rugby boots, for lack of anything
more suitable.

In an attempt to consume as much sustenance
as possible to fuel his running, Payn reportedly
ate some 36 oranges during the second half
of the race. He also drank plenty of water
and tea, as well as a glass of home-made
peach brandy offered to him by a woman
who lived near the road on the outskirts of
Pietermaritzburg. Just before finishing, he
stopped for tea and cake with his wife’s
family beside the roadside, and then, quite
remarkably, he crossed the finish line eighth
in a time of 10 hours 56 minutes – without any
complaints of indigestion, apparently.

Battered, but not Broken
As if that were not already a bit much to
stomach, he still turned out for his club rugby
side the following day, but his feet were so
badly blistered that he could not get his
rugby boots on, and was forced to play in
casual sand-shoes. Unsurprisingly, nearly
100 years after his legendary run, nobody
remembers the score of that rugby match,
but many people know exactly what Bill
Payn ate and drank the day before!
It has jokingly been said that Payn ate his
way to the finish, but this is not far from the
truth, although he did do a lot of running
in between. When he reached Hillcrest,
about 34km into the race, he decided to
stop for some breakfast, and while eating
some eggs, he rubbed his blistered feet with
brilliantine. At the top of Botha’s Hill he was
invited to share a curried chicken casserole
with fellow-runner and old friend ‘Zulu’
Wade. They then ran together to Drummond,
where they deemed it appropriate to toast
their arrival at the halfway mark with a few
cold beers in the local hotel. As the story
goes, Wade did not leave the hotel, but
Payn got himself going again.

Payn’s story illustrates the tough conditions
the early Comrades runners had to endure.
There were no water tables, and they had
to supply or find their own refreshments, with
several hotels along the route supplying
drinks, and attendants doing the rest.
Nowadays there is a refreshment station
every few kilometres serving water and
other drinks, plus energy supplements and
various snacks, not to mention thousands
of spectators along the route with their
‘skottels’ and picnics, so no Comrades
runner has to go thirsty or hungry on
Comrades race day. Bill Payn would have
loved it!

Images: Courtesy CMA

T

he Comrades Marathon of today
is barely recognisable as the
descendant of the earliest editions of
the race in the 1920s. It is still a gruelling
trek over some monster hills between Durban
and Pietermaritzburg, and neither modern
running shoes nor scientifically developed
power gels can guarantee a successful finish
and a medal. But when one looks at all the
help and support the modern runner gets
from these and other running accessories,
plus a horde of volunteers stationed along
the route to look after their every need, and
tens of thousands of spectators to cheer
them on as well, it really puts in perspective
just what the early Comrades runners
undertook, and achieved.