RACE REVIEW
4 MINS 50 SECONDS
A PILGRIMAGE OF Redemption
Adnaan Mohamed writes a moving account of Denver’ s journey: Ex-Drug Addict Completes Epic 1,770km Pilgrimage of Redemption to Earn Back-to-Back Comrades Medal.
From the Cape Flats to Comrades glory in Durban. From overdoses to overachieving. From a statistic to a symbol. It is finished. But this is no ending- it’ s a coronation.
At 9 hours, 46 minutes and 47 seconds into the 2025 Comrades Marathon, Denver van der Bergh crossed the finish line on the road next to People’ s Park in front of the Moses Mabhida Stadium, not as a man staggering to the end, but as a soul stepping into the light.
With a back-to-back Robert Mtshali sub 10 hours- Comrades medal now resting against his chest like a warrior’ s shield, Denver completed the final leg of his 1,770km odyssey- The Serenity Run to Redemption- and in doing so, carved his name into the very bedrock of human resilience.
For 35 days, he ran the width of a nation. From the sea-salted breezes of Cape Town to the red-dusted roads of the Karoo, through the green folds of the Eastern Cape and the sunlit valleys of KwaZulu-Natal. Every stride is a syllable in a silent sermon. Every blister is a badge. Every ache is a prayer. And still, he wasn’ t done.
Because the last verse of this holy hymn would be the Comrades Down Run- 89 unforgiving kilometres between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
The Final Reckoning
“ I thought I knew pain,” Denver told me just hours after the finish.“ But Comrades, that race has its own
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language. At 60km in, my legs were writing poems in fire.” He chuckled, even as his calves spasmed midsentence.“ But I wasn’ t afraid of the pain. I’ ve met worse demons.”
Sunday’ s race was a brutal mistress- steep descents that shredded his quads, climbs that crept in like old regrets. And though he’ d faced down 35 days of solitude, fatigue, and roadside survival, this was different.
“ It was very emotional for me running the final leg from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg,” he reflected.“ I started faster than last year, when we walked the first half an hour. People started much faster this year and kind of got sucked into that whole atmosphere and adrenaline.”
The climb-heavy first stretch challenged even seasoned runners.“ The first part is a lot of climbing, and you kind of wonder why they call it a down run. There were just hills after hills,” he said.“ But it was just so amazing to have so many people around me because for 36 days I was just running all by myself.”
A Race Reclaimed
Running in solitude across the country, Denver had dodged trucks, slept in borrowed backseats, and prayed beneath open skies. But now, surrounded by cheering crowds, he could finally run free.“ It was so nice not to be on alert every second,” he said.“ So, I could just enjoy it.”
He began with the 9-hour pace bus, surging forward.“ For the first 20km, I was running at a good pace with the nine-hour bus. Then I realised I am pushing too hard to stay in front of this bus. So I just held back and allowed them to pass me, and drove my own bus.” That decision turned the race from torment into transformation.
“ That’ s when I started to enjoy the race and just take it all in. I realised that I forgot why they called it the Ultimate Human Race, because it’ s gruesome and asks so many questions of you. It tests you to your core and your soul.”
And at the very end, when his body should have broken, something entirely different happened.
“ You kind of go into a state where if somebody says there are no more hills, you don’ t believe it. But I just kept focused and ran until I started seeing the billboards and the crowds. I then heard my name, and it was my brother shouting,‘ Denver! Denver!’ And that’ s when I realised I was at the end.”
He paused, voice thick with emotion.“ It was so amazing to cross that finish line and to get the back-to-back medals. It felt so surreal and hadn’ t sunk in yet. It was so emotional. I didn ' t feel it was over because I enjoyed it so much. I just felt content and overcome with joy and elation.”