the entry fees for the 2026 edition of the Comrades Marathon – the 99th running of the race – remain unchanged, the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) confirmed, as it announced that early entries for Green Number Club runners and CMA members will open at noon on Monday.
Entries for all other aspirant Comrades Marathon runners will open one week later, at 10am on Monday, November 3. The overall entry period will close on November 28, or earlier if the entry cap of 22 000 is reached before that date, the CMA said. This will be the only entry window for the 2026 Up Run.
This marks the second year that runners with Green Numbers – those who have completed the marathon 10 times, earned five gold medals or won the race three times – are being offered the opportunity to enter first, and the first year that the early entry offer is extended to CMA members.
CMA general manager Alain Dalais said the early registration window was a “token of appreciation to all Green Number Club athletes and CMA members, for their many years of loyalty and dedication to The Ultimate Human Race”.
The countdown is on!
There are 6 Days to go until the early entry window opens for Green Number Club (GNC) members and Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) members on Monday, October 27, 2025, at 12PM.
Crucial Notice for CMA Members:
To be eligible for this early entry period,… pic.twitter.com/KTP3aLFP4G— ComradesRace (@ComradesRace) October 21, 2025
Welcome news for the Comrades Marathon community is that the entry fees for next year’s race remain unchanged. The fees for the 2026 race will be R1 200 for South African entrants, R2 000 for those from the rest of Africa, and R4 500 for international runners.
Runners can choose to pay the entry fee in full, or in two instalments – 50% on entering and the remaining 50% by the end of February 2026.
“Also, as a further reward for runners who have shown exceptional commitment to the Comrades Marathon, the entry fee is waived for holders of 25 or more Comrades medals,” Dalais added.
Another aid to runners wishing to enter the race is the continuation of the Comrades Runners’ Relief Fund, an initiative that allows up to 1 500 disadvantaged athletes to apply for a conditional reduced entry fee of up to 50%.
The qualification period for the 2026 Comrades Marathon runs from June 9, 2025 (the day after the 2025 Comrades Marathon) to May 4, 2026. The qualifying criteria remain unchanged, with runners required to complete an officially timed standard 42.2km marathon in under five hours.
The closing date for submission of qualifying details, including seeding upgrade requests and club and licence information, is May 4, 2026.
The 2026 Comrades Marathon will be the 99th edition of the iconic race, and the 50th Up Run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. The race will start in front of the Durban City Hall at 5.30am and finish 12 hours later at the Scottsville Racecourse, covering a distance of approximately 87km.
In the last Up Run, in 2024, Piet Wiersma of the Netherlands won the men’s race in a time of 5:25:00, while Gerda Steyn claimed a third consecutive victory in the women’s race and broke the previous Up Run best time with her 5:49:46 finish.
Steyn made it four wins in a row in this year’s Down Run, finishing in 5:51:19, while fellow South African ultra-marathon star Tete Dijana – the winner in 2022 and 2023 – was first across the line in 5:25:28.
