Comrades Supplement Comrades Training and Info Guide, January 2014 | Page 7

...Younger
brother Jo
hn Ballingto
disowned
n was alm
in 1949 for
ost
wanting to
bail!

When The Going Gets Tough…
Five-time winner Hardy Ballington was one of
the toughest competitors at Comrades...

Comrades, still entering when he was in his early seventies. (An
interesting sequel to this occurred in 1949, when Marie’s doctor,
John Bennee, ran the Comrades. He said afterwards that he was
inspired by his much older patient – if Edgar could do it, then he
was determined to do it as well.)

Ultimate Tough Guy

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. Several hotels
along the route supplied drinks, and attendants did the rest, but
the runners often lost the latter in the chaotic traffic jams that
plagued the race for many years. Many a runner had to keep
going for mile after mile with nothing to drink except what he
could get from other runners or people along the road. But they
kept going, and kept coming back for more, and today the race
is the biggest ultra-marathon in the world, the Ultimate Human
Race that we have come to love and respect.

However, there are few stories to match that of the legendary
Bill Payn. He was a Durban schoolmaster, Springbok rugby
player and provincial cricketer for Natal, and he was huge, both
in size and character. Payn was talked into running the 1922
Comrades the night before the race, by his house guest, one
Arthur Newton. While the latter went on to win that year’s race
as well as four more in the next five years, Payn was just happy
to finish, because having done no training, he had to rely on his
rugby fitness to get him to the finish. He even ran in his rugby
boots, for lack of anything more suitable!
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 bit of running
every now and again. When he reached Hillcrest, about 34km
into the race, he decided to stop for some breakfast. 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 ‘Zulu’ Wade. They then ran
together to Drummond, where they deemed it appropriate to
toast their arrival at the halfway mark with a cold beer in the
local hotel.
As the story goes, Wade did not leave the hotel, but Payn
did. He still had to get home to Durban, and needed all the
sustenance to be had. He 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. He finished 8th in a
time of 10:56 – without any complaints of indigestion. As if that
were not already a bit much to stomach, he still turned out for
his club rugby side the following day. His feet were so blistered
that he was forced to play in sand-shoes. Strangely, the final
score of that match is not widely known.

7