NEW LOOK COMRADES MARATHON PACESETTERS APPOINTED

On Sunday 8 June, when the 98th edition of the Comrades Marathon takes to the roads between Pietermaritzburg and Durban, many of the 22,677 runners will be looking for some extra assistance to reach the finish, either within their goal time or before the final 12-hour cut-off gun is fired. To help them, the Official Comrades Marathon Pacesetters will once again be on duty to assist get them home on time, but this year’s race will feature a number of pacing innovations or firsts.

The Comrades pacesetters, often referred to as ‘bus drivers,’ are all unpaid volunteers who carry flags denoting their target time so that runners can easily spot them, hop on the ‘bus’ of their choice, and rely on the Pacesetters to guide them home on time. These buses have been an official part of the Comrades Marathon since the early 2000s, i.e. run with the official sanction of the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA), and in the past the buses have helped bring thousands of runners home, with the sub-12:00 buses in particular proving hugely popular and often growing to a huge size.

There will be 38 pacesetters in the 2025 Comrades Marathon, divided amongst 10 different pacing buses, with anything from three to five pacesetters running with each bus. All of the 38 selected pacesetters either have substantial experience running the Comrades Marathon, or have proven their pacesetting credentials in other races. The pacesetting group thus includes:

• 14 returning Comrades Marathon Pacesetters, including vastly experienced Bus Drivers such as Jeff Ramokoka (9 times as a Sub-11:00 Driver) and Shahieda Thungo (6 times as a Sub-12:00 Driver).
• 14 Green Number holders, including Joe Faber and Abraham Mahlangu (both on 26 medals), Ramokoka (24 medals), and Petrus Ndlovu and Sagren Moodley (both on 23 medals).
• 29 South Africans from 8 different athletic provinces.
• 9 International pacesetters from 8 countries.
• 32 male and six female pacesetters.
• A combined total of 355 Comrades Marathon medals!

These 38 Pacesetters were carefully selected from a list of more than 180 applicants. In the past, Comrades Marathon Pacesetters were all drawn from the ranks of a number of voluntary provincial pacing associations, such as KwaZulu-Natal Pacesetters, Gauteng Pace Setters and Western Province Pace Setters, and the selection was done by a leadership group drawn from these organisations. This year, for the first time, the application process for pacing at Comrades was opened to the entire field, and then a selection was made by this leadership group in conjunction with the CMA, with an emphasis on growing the Comrades Marathon pacing pool and also giving some international pacesetters the opportunity to carry a flag in the race, just as many South African pacesetters are currently being entrusted to do in races all over the world.

New-look Buses

As in previous years, there were will be buses aiming to run sub-9:00 to sub-12:00 times, with a bus scheduled to come home on each hour and half-hour in between, i.e. Sub-9:00 for a Bill Rowan medal, Sub-9:30 for a safe Robert Mtshali medal, Sub-10:00 for a Robert Mtshali medal, etc. There will be a total of 10 pacing buses, with three starting in Group 1 and carrying purple pacing flags denoting their target times, and seven starting in Group 2, carrying orange pacing flags. This is where another innovation for 2025 has been introduced.

“With two Start Groups 15 minutes apart, we decided to include Sub-10:45 and Sub-11:45 buses in Group 2 as well, so that runners from Group 1 can still use the Sub-10:45 bus from Group 2 to make the sub-11:00 cut-off, and similarly, if there are any Group 1 runners trying to make the sub-12:00 final cut-off, they can hook on to the Sub-11:45 bus from Group 2,” says Joe Faber, part of the Pacing Leadership group, a long-time driver of the Sub-9:00 bus, and also a member of the Comrades Marathon Race Organising Committee.

Each bus will have a Lead Driver carrying the larger (main) time flag at the front of the bus, with a Co-driver alongside, also carrying a larger flag. Behind them will be Bus Conductors, carrying smaller flags that have the word Conductor printed on them as well as their target time. While the Drivers will be responsible for the pace of the bus and meeting the overall target time, the Conductors will be responsible for maintaining the shape and size of the bus.

“We know that many runners love the vibe and spirit of the big buses, but others have complained that the buses sometimes fill the entire route, either making it hard for non-bus runners to pass the bus, or bumping and impeding other runners as the bus passes them. With this in mind, we’ve made provisions this year to have Bus Conductors running slightly further back to help keep bus passengers on one side of the road, so that non-bus runners can still pass a bus, or be more comfortably passed by a bus,” says Faber.

Comrades Marathon Association General Manager, Alain Dalais, adds, “Another reason for the CMA requesting the buses to be kept more in check this year is to do with safety concerns, in order to make it easier for emergency services to move on the route, if needed. Therefore, in light of these safety concerns and initiatives, runners should take note that only the official Comrades Marathon Pacesetters will have permission to run with pacesetting time flags during the race. Runners carrying unofficial pacing flags will be asked to discard them, in order to ensure that the route does not become too congested with multiple buses. Finally, we’d like to thank the Official Comrades Marathon Pacesetters for their service to the race and their fellow runners, as they always add an incredible layer to the vibe and camaraderie of our event.”

Runners who would like to join one of the Official Comrades Pacesetting Buses should look for the prominent flags carried by the Pacesetters, and should take note that both the Bus Drivers and Bus Passengers will be asked to stay on one side of the road throughout the race, so as not to block the whole road for other runners.

The Full list of 2025 Official Comrades Marathon Pacesetters is:

Start Group 1

Start Group 2

Note to journalists: As per ASA rules introduced at the beginning of 2019, there is a clear difference between ‘pacing,’ which benefits contenders for prizes, versus ‘pacesetting,’ which is aimed at slower, non-contenders. Pacing is only allowed when officially sanctioned by athletics officials (national or provincial), while pacesetting is allowed as long as the race organiser has approved it.