Walking around the three-day Comrades Expo , it soon became clear that the South African ultrarunning community had been eagerly awaiting the return of the race . So many conversations started with “ It ’ s so good to be back here again ,” but with a little trepidation mixed in as Comrades regulars and newcomers alike began to wrap their heads around what lay ahead on Sunday 28 August . After all , it had been more than three years since the last Comrades – not counting virtual challenges in 2020 and 2021 – and those 90km between Pietermaritzburg and Durban looked even more daunting that before , even for the experienced runners with Green Numbers .
There was inevitably also a lot of talk about the later race date in 2022 , at the end of August instead of the early June date that had become the norm for a number of decades . It was obvious that many runners had found it immensely challenging to train through the winter months , struggling not only with the motivation to head out in the early hours of the morning in freezing temperatures or winter rain squalls , but also with typical winter flu and cold bugs
that threatened to derail their carefully-crafted training programmes .
Of course , once the roughly 13,000 starters had lined up in Maritzburg , sung the National Anthem , had their heartstrings tugged by the hauntingly beautiful Chariots of Fire , and heard the recording of Max Trimborn ’ s famous cockcrow , it was time to put all those thoughts aside and get to work . The late August date did mean a lighter , slightly warmer start than normal in Maritzburg , and many who remember really cold , dark starts to the ‘ Down Run ’ were now noticeably happier about the revised race date .
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