2026 COMRADES MARATHON PREVIEW: UP RUN SENDS STEYN AND DIJANA BACK TO PIETERMARITZBURG
The 2026 Comrades Marathon runs on 14 June as an up run, starting in Durban and climbing roughly 88 kilometres inland to Pietermaritzburg. It is the 98th edition of the race and the first up run since 2024. All 22,000 entries sold out in under 10 hours, the fastest the field has ever filled.
The up run reverses the elevation profile of the 2025 down run. Pietermaritzburg sits about 600 metres above Durban, so runners face a net climb across the day, with the worst of the hills, including Polly Shortts, packed into the closing stages when the legs are already gone. Pacing the early kilometres is the central problem of the up run, and the runners who get it wrong tend to fall apart late.
The Women's Race
Gerda Steyn is the runner to beat. The South African owns both the up-run and down-run course records, and she has won every Comrades she has finished since 2019. Her up-run record of 5:49:46, set in 2024, made her the first woman to break 5:50 on the climb to Pietermaritzburg. She returns in 2026 chasing another title on the course where she set that mark.
Steyn won the 2025 down run in 5:51:18, confirming she remains at the front of the field. Her record on the up course gives her a clear benchmark, and the question is less whether she wins than whether she can run close to her own 2024 time.
Steyn has won the race four times across both directions, including the last three editions held in 2023, 2024, and 2025. That run of form has made her the most reliable favourite the women's race has had in years, and a win in 2026 would extend the streak on the course where she holds the record.
The rest of the women's field will form in the weeks before the race as international entrants confirm. Alexandra Morozova, the 2022 winner and a regular podium presence, has finished behind Steyn on the up run before and is the kind of established Comrades runner who can fill the places behind the favourite.
The Men's Race
Tete Dijana holds the men's down-run course record of 5:13:58 from 2023 and won the 2025 down run in 5:25:27. The up run is a different test, and Dijana has not owned it the way he has owned the down course, but he arrives as the most accomplished South African in the field and a clear contender.
Piet Wiersma won the last up run, taking the 2024 title in 5:25:00 in a tight finish. The Dutchman was one of the few non-South African men to win Comrades in recent years, and a return would put him in direct contention on the course he already knows how to win.
The men's up-run record of 5:24:39, set by Leonid Shvetsov in 2008, has stood for more than 15 years. Wiersma's winning time in 2024 came within a minute of it, which suggests the record is within reach if the weather cooperates and the front group pushes the pace from Durban.
What to Watch
The up run rewards patience, and the race rarely settles before the field reaches the climbs in the back half. Expect the leaders to run conservatively through the early sections out of Durban and for the decisive moves to come on Inchanga and Polly Shortts inside the final 20 kilometres.
For the bulk of the 22,000 starters, the race is against the 12-hour cutoff rather than the leaders. The gun closes the line at the finish in Pietermaritzburg, and the scramble to beat it remains the defining image of Comrades regardless of who wins at the front.
The 2026 Comrades Marathon starts in the early morning of 14 June. Results and a full recap will follow here once the race is complete.