The Comrades really is a one-of-a-kind race

The 90km Comrades Marathon should be a fringe event with no more than a few hundred entrants.

- Wesley Botton

The fact that it is more popular now than ever, 104 years after it was first launched, is an anomaly unique to South Africa.

It's not the only ultra-marathon that draws thousands of entrants in this country. The 56km Two Oceans in Cape Town, the 50km Om Die Dam in Hartbeespoort, the 50km Loskop in Middelburg and the 50km City 2 City in Gauteng are also among the nation's most popular road running events.

But the popularity of those races is thanks largely to the interest in Comrades, which launched a local ultra-marathon boom that has never subsided.

When Comrades was first held in 1921, to commemorate fallen soldiers in World War 1, only 34 runners turned up at the start line.