The Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) marked 150 days to the race day on Wednesday, with more than two-thirds of the 15 000 entry limit taken up so far.

The popular ultra marathon takes place on August 28 and the entry tally stands at 11 019.

The CMA said runners from nearly 60 countries have entered so far, to tackle the official race distance of 90,2 km from Pietermaritzburg to Durban this year. Most of the foreign entries have come from United Kingdom (160), India (137), Zimbabwe (111) and Brazil (71).

Race director Rowyn James said in a statement:

“This means that aspirant Comrades entrants who did not enter the 2020 Comrades and therefore could not secure their entry in the first entry window period (March 23-31), will have the chance to do so in the second entry window period (April 20 to May 16).

“The CMA is still receiving calls from Comrades hopefuls to get their entry in and secure their place on the start line of this year’s Comrades. We urge runners to enter as soon as the second entry window period opens on April 20 to avoid the disappointment of not securing a spot,” he said.

Entry fees in the second window period will be R1 200 for South Africans; R2 000 for other African runners and R4 500 for everybody else. But entry is free to all runners who have completed the Comrades 25 times or more. Current ASA rules only allow for online entries and these can be done via the Comrades Marathon website. This will be 95th Comrades and 47th down run, starting at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall at 5.30 am at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on August 28.