01 / FIND YOUR RHYTHM2025 baseline
Mile 1/ 56
Pietermaritzburg
0–1 mile · 0–1.61 km
RUN THIS SECTION
Keep the opening effort calm. Let the field settle, avoid weaving, and leave room to see the road ahead.
PIETERMARITZBURG → DURBAN · 2025 COURSE
Know the course.
Save something for Durban.
55.91 mi89.98 km · A road ultra with a downhill sting
FOLLOW THE COURSEChoose your distance units
Elevation profileClick the profile to explore a section
0 mi / Pietermaritzburg28 mi / Drummond55.91 mi / Durban
Silver plan · 7:20 target — change plan ↗
CHOOSE A MILE
Mile 56 is a partial mile. All positions and elevation figures are approximate; the route is an independent 2025 trace. Distance-to-go values use the 2025 finish. Section boundaries use the selected unit; area notes follow the nearest part of the original guide.
SILVER / UNDER 7:30
A patient first half. Legs for the last third.
Choose a published Comrades goal category, then adjust your target time. Each plan starts ten minutes inside its boundary. Use these terrain-aware splits to rehearse, adapting to your fitness, the weather and the final route.
Goal categories from Coach Parry’s published Comrades plans. Ten-minute cushions and all splits are calculated by this guide; they are not copied from official pace charts. Read the down-run pacing advice.
Start to the high ground
Cap effort on the early climbing. Let the opening kilometers feel almost too easy. Do not use Polly Shortts to recover your start-line delay.
Approx. 0–21 km / 0–13 miHold through Botha’s
Stay patient on Inchanga and the climb out of Drummond. Assess your legs after the Botha’s Hill section before deciding to press.
Approx. 21–56 km / 13–35 miDescend with control
Let the terrain help through Kloof, but keep Fields Hill economical. You still need to climb Cowies and keep running through the city.
Approx. 56–90 km / 35–56 miOur planning interpretation; compare Coach Parry’s route advice and Coach Neville’s 2025 guidance. The official silver training sample was written around roughly three-hour marathon fitness, not a guarantee of a medal.
Landmark pace card
Elapsed times include your start delay and a stops allowance spread across the distance. Landmarks are approximate, not official timing mats or cut-offs. This model does not check intermediate race cut-offs; verify them against the final instructions, especially for a finish near 12 hours.
| Landmark | Miles / km | Target gun elapsed | Race cue |
|---|
All 56 mile splits, elevation and pacing
| Mile | Area | Gain / loss | Net | Moving pace / mi | Moving pace / km | Gun elapsed at end |
|---|
How this pacing model works
The model distributes your moving-time budget across the trace using distance plus extra time for climbing, a modest credit for descending, an early restraint factor, and a small late-race fatigue factor. It does not model your physiology, crowding, weather or injury. Stops are spread by distance for bookkeeping; your actual stop locations will differ.
Moving time includes both running and planned walking; the displayed pace is their combined average. Stationary stops use the separate allowance. Moving budget = target gun time minus start delay minus stops. Each small trace segment receives a weight of distance in km + 0.0025 × ascent in m − 0.0006 × descent in m, with a minimum of 75% of its distance; weights are multiplied by 1.03 in the first 25 km, 1.01 from 25–55 km, and 1.02 after 70 km, then scaled to your moving budget. Future extra distance is treated as flat with a 1.02 factor. This is an illustrative heuristic, not an official Coach Parry pace chart.
The 91/92 km settings add a distance-only planning allowance beyond the 2025 finish. They do not move the map pins or predict the 2027 finishing roads. Recalculate once the measured route is published. Check the final timing and medal rules.
EAT EARLY · DRINK DELIBERATELY
Make fueling a rhythm.
What was available
The 2025 instructions list water sachets, Isofit+ and Coca-Cola at the refreshment stations. Selected tables also offered potatoes, oranges, bananas, 32Gi products and Amahewu. 2025 instructions
Carry the fuel your plan depends on. A verified station-by-station chart and gel locations were not available for this guide. No exact aid-station pins are claimed. The orange map reminders are your planned fuel times, not supply locations.
2027 station positions, menus and cut-offs still need the final instructions. “32Gi products” does not guarantee your preferred gel at a particular table. Elite personal-bottle tables are not general aid.
Your hourly rehearsal
Example reminders start after one gel interval from crossing the start line. Treat these as prompts to rehearse, not mandatory feeding times or aid locations. Adjust for any pre-start fuel and follow your gel’s water instructions.
Train the stomach
Practise the intended total from gels, drinks and food. Higher carbohydrate intakes need rehearsal; 60 g/hour is a starting scenario here, with up to 90 g/hour an option for long events when tolerated. Nutrition consensus
Use your own fluid plan
Adjust to thirst, conditions and the sweat losses you have measured in training. Do not force a drink at every table. Count drink carbohydrates and electrolytes in your plan. Heat consensus
Keep a fallback
Carry some familiar spare fuel. If the stomach turns, ease effort and reassess rather than blindly maintaining a target. Confusion, faintness or inability to keep fluids down warrants help from race medical staff.
RUNNER ACCOUNTS · LINKED & SUMMARISED
The course beyond the profile.
Linked accounts put the climbs and descents in context. The summaries below are paraphrases. An individual experience is not a prediction for your race.
BEFORE YOU GO
Small decisions that help on a long day.
Learn kilometers to go
Rehearse converting the distance left into manageable sections. This guide shows both units; use the official distance boards and your group’s gun time on race day, allowing for GPS drift.
Prepare for road pounding
This is a road ultra, with camber, urban turns, steep descents and long exposed stretches. Build downhill familiarity progressively in training and use shoes and socks you already trust. Official training guidance
Plan the finish meeting
Choose a clear meeting point, warm or dry clothing and onward transport once the 2027 finish plan is published. Massyn specifically recommends agreeing on the meeting point in advance. Runner’s advice
THE EVIDENCE BEHIND THE GUIDE
Sources, uncertainty & credits.
Updated 30 September 2026. An independent planning guide, not an official course certification. Official 2027 instructions take priority over this historical walkthrough.
What the map represents
The independent Go&Race GPX is labeled for 2025 and measures 90.916 km geometrically. Distance along it is uniformly scaled to the official 89.98 km for this guide. The line has not been independently surveyed against every race-day diversion; mile and kilometer boundaries, named landmarks and elevation are approximate.
The trace contains about 1,011 m ascent and 1,655 m descent. These are sums of its supplied elevation changes, not certified totals; elevation source, smoothing, bridges and GPS errors affect them. Photos are dated and linked, with regional context identified. Satellite and street imagery may have been captured in another year.
What remains open for 2027
The FAQ announces Kings Park Rugby Precinct and approximately 91 km. The race-information page still uses approximately 90 km. The final measured distance, route turns, aid locations and timing details must come from the final instructions. This guide displays no invented extension to the mapped route.
The pacing and fuel models are editable rehearsal tools. Without your training history and recent performances, they cannot establish readiness for your chosen goal. The full silver band is 6:00–7:29:59 for men and 7:00–7:29:59 for women outside higher medal categories. Medal rules
Photograph credits and reuse licenses
Images are embedded from Wikimedia Commons and remain the work of their credited creators. Display crops are made by the page layout; source files are unaltered. Where applicable, those image crops retain the source image’s ShareAlike license.
Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors. Satellite imagery © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics and the GIS User Community. The map requires an internet connection; course notes and calculations are included with the site.
KEEP EXPLORING
More Comrades planning resources.
Comrades Pace Planner
Choose a finish-time goal, compare even and terrain-adjusted pacing, and export checkpoint splits. Includes an elevation profile and options for how confidently you descend. Its 2027 route assumptions are provisional.
Go&Race: 2025 Comrades course
Explore the 2025 route with satellite and street maps, mile or kilometer markers, detailed elevation and slope tables, a GPX download, and a linked 3D course flyover.
Coach Parry: down-run pacing guide
Read advice on the main climbs and descents, when to run or walk, and how to choose and follow a realistic pacing chart. Useful context for turning a finish-time goal into a race strategy.
Independent guide disclaimer
This website is an independent runner’s field guide. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or connected to the Comrades Marathon Association or the official Comrades Marathon race organizers.
All information is provided for general planning purposes and should be independently verified before you rely on it. Check route details, distances, aid stations, cut-off times, rules, dates and race instructions directly with the official Comrades Marathon organizers. Maps, elevation figures and pacing estimates may be approximate or out of date; current official race instructions take precedence.
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