Just over half a century ago, Louis Massyn was sitting in an Odendaalsrus church when he had what proved to be a life-changing epiphany.

Because it was during the bishop’s sermon that running became almost a second religion to the George-born athlete, who only recently returned to his home town after spending 63 years in the Goldfields region of the Free State.

“The bishop used the Comrades Marathon to explain something, at that service back in late ’72; and I decided there and then that I would run this thing called Comrades, the very next time it was staged,” explains Massyn, now aged 74.

Fast forward to 2025, and running has coursed through Massyn’s veins ever since that day in church. On Sunday he became the first runner to finish 50 Comrades Marathons as he finished, helped by some clubmates, in 11:53.14.

 

The bishop used the Comrades Marathon to explain something, at that service back in late ’72; and I decided there and then that I would run this thing called Comrades…

 

When it comes to running and Comrades, Massyn’s memories are razor-sharp.

He remembers the 1973 Comrades Marathon like it was yesterday, and confidently takes us back into a bygone era.

“My late mom offered to buy me a pair of running shoes, and I bought the most expensive pair of shoes in Welkom!

“The guy serving us asked me what I was planning on doing with them. When I told him I was running Comrades, he immediately said: ‘Then you’ll need two pairs of shoes.’”

But Massyn and mom left the sports shop with just one pair, which set them back the princely sum of R23.

R4.99 Shoes
A week before the race, the two travelled to Pietermaritzburg by train from the Free State. “Three days before the race, I went into a sports shop and bought a second pair of shoes.” They cost him R4.99 – and he still has them, to this day!

“The night before Comrades I decided to start with the cheap pair of shoes, and see how they went. They’d cost me about a rand more than the Comrades entry fee.”

Race nutrition was simple back then. “We bought two bags of oranges to make orange juice. Because of course in those days, there were no refreshment stations. I also bought a big tin of Sustagen powder to make my drinks.

“I started off drinking Sustagen, and then got bored with it and switched to a mixture of orange juice and Sustagen. Halfway through the race I noticed that a lot of runners around me were drinking this pitch-black liquid. I had no clue what it was, until someone told me it was Coca-Cola! 

“So I got my seconding team to buy me a few bottles of Coke, and I switched to Coke for the second half.”

“I noticed that a lot of runners around me were drinking this pitch-black liquid. I had no clue what it was, until someone told me it was Coca-Cola!

Massyn had set off in his R4.99 shoes, intending to swop them after a while. In all the excitement, he ended up wearing them the whole way.

“When I took them off, both feet had enormous blood blisters from heel to toe; I ended up being pretty much crippled for two weeks.”

Still, he finished in 1 009th position, in a time of 10:13, beating the 11-hour cut-off enforced in those days.

“I came back to work, and one of my work colleagues thought I’d been in a car crash. He didn’t even know that something like Comrades even existed.”

Massyn has no hesitation remembering both his best and his worst.

“My best time was in 1990, when I ran 6:25. That’s a race I’m very, very proud of. I’ve run 10 silver medals (sub-7:30) – that was my 10th silver, and the day I said: ‘E is for enough’ and decided to just enjoy the race each year from then on.

“But probably my favourite was in 2002, when I ran my 30th Comrades. If I could run that race again, I’d love it. Why? The late Blackie Swart, my clubmate and training mate, would run ahead of me to the various announcers and watering tables, to tell them I was going for my 30th Comrades. And that was very special.”

Dire Straits
On the flipside, he says, his worst Comrades experience came in 2019. “I just managed to finish under the 12-hour cut-off period, in 11:53. Everyone was in dire straits. I knew I’d finish, but it was a really tough day. I ended up being severely dehydrated; driving back to Amanzimtoti, where we were staying, I was shaking like a leaf.

“Zelda, the lady who had the place where we were staying, said it would be a good thing to just get checked up at the hospital. I agreed with her, mainly because two weeks later I was flying out to run the Rio Marathon. 

“I ended up having three intravenous drips, full blood tests and an ECG. And the doctor said I should stay overnight.

“The one thing I absolutely insisted on, though, was having a shower. This was in spite of the fact that it was 2am! The nursing staff were pretty upset, I have to say.

“But the next morning I felt so good, I swear I could have started Comrades all over again. That race taught me that we’re not all nine-time winners like Bruce Fordyce; but every time you finish a race, you’re a winner.”

This story is all about Comrades; but let it not go unrecorded that Massyn has also left his mark on South Africa’s second-most popular ultramarathon, the Two Oceans 56km. In 2025 he finished his 48th edition.

“Both races are very special for me, and should be for any ultramarathoner. What a privilege to be part of both races’ history. “

Memories
Apart from Comrades and Two Oceans, the vast hinterland of the rest of South Africa also holds great memories for him.

“I love the Northern Cape and the Karoo, and actually won a few races there over the years. I ran the Beaufort West Marathon 12 times and won three times.

“Other races were the Karoo Marathon and events in places like Laingsburg, Prieska, Marydale, Kenhardt, Upington… the Daisy Marathon in Springbok,” he recalls fondly.

“I also founded the Kalahari Marathon, with a few of the athletes who lived in Sishen at the time. Later it was actually named the Louis Massyn Kalahari Marathon, in my honour. There have been 33 of them, and I’ve run them all.

“I started the Mielie Marathon in Welkom in 1979 and was the founder member; and then there’s the Dorperland Marathon in Kenhardt, and I have permanent No. 1 for that race.”

How’s this for an outrageous statistic: “I have 49 permanent race numbers, from races all around South Africa!”

Massyn’s memoirs wouldn’t be complete without a look at his international escapades.

“My first overseas race was the original marathon race in Greece, from Marathon village to Athens – what an emotional experience, to run that historic course.”

He’s also done the six City Majors – New York, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and Tokyo – for which he boasts a prized Six-Star medal.

Two of his most memorable overseas races, apart from the Majors, are the Detroit Marathon in the US and the Rio Marathon in Brazil.

“The Detroit Free Press Marathon was special; because you run across the Ambassador Bridge from the US into Canada, and then come back into the States via a tunnel under the river. That was a hair-raising moment… that same sort of feeling you get when you run onto the grass field at the end of Comrades.”

The Rio Marathon was also a revelation to Massyn.

“I was having pasta at a restaurant in New York with a friend, Denise, who I’d met at the New York Marathon. I was wearing a Comrades Marathon T-shirt – a race she’d also run.

“We met some Brazilians, but they couldn’t speak English. Denise can speak English, Spanish and Portuguese, so we managed to converse. Eventually, one guy asked me how many Comrades I’d run.

“At that stage, it was 45; and two of the Brazilians were so gobsmacked, they actually fell off their chairs.

“So they invited me to run the Rio Marathon, which I did. All I had to do was pay my airfare and take some pocket money! I was so spoilt by them for the 13 nights I was in Brazil, and I’m going back there to run the Sao Paulo Marathon in the next few years.

“Every year when those Brazilians come to SA to run Comrades, I make a point of attending their pasta night… they’re truly part of my family.”

Just like Massyn is pretty much a ‘permanent number’ of the entire South African running family!

Diet and Distance
When it comes to his eating and his running regimes, Massyn keeps things simple.

“I’ve never really had a strict diet. Although I do avoid certain foods before a race. One of them is pork – I’ll never eat it before a race, even though I’m very fond of it.

“I love pasta, though. I could even eat it three times a day, even if it’s just simple two-minute noodles.

“On race day I’ve always said, ‘Please, let me never get tired of Coke’ – I love drinking it during races. During certain races, I’ll take a few Gu’s and sometimes, at Comrades, I’ll have one of those energy drinks…” (At this point, Massyn shouts to beloved wife Rita, in the next room: “What’s that stuff that gives you wings?”  “Red Bull!” she yells back.)

“I also don’t eat anything solid along the route, like baked potatoes and bananas. For many reasons, but especially because it’s unhygienic – one never knows how many people have touched them, coughed or spat on them, etc, etc… it’s inviting stomach problems. If someone had made me a sandwich themselves, and I knew where it had come from, and they offered it to me along the road… then I would consider eating it.”

As for training, he says: “I just ran and ran… my longest training run before the 1973 Comrades was 35km, five weeks before race day.

I just ran and ran… my longest training run before the 1973 Comrades was 35km, five weeks before race day

“In the early 80s I followed a programme drawn up by one of SA’s best-ever marathoners, Bernard Rose. I was a huge fan of his, and just adapted the programme to suit my level. And it helped me run my best marathon, in 2:33.

“It also helped me make the Free State team at national championships, on four occasions – twice for the marathon distance, and twice for the half-marathon.”

Comrades Kinship
In terms of Comrades victories, Bruce Fordyce is the undisputed king, with nine wins – eight of them on the trot. As far as number of finishes goes, at 68 years old and now the CEO of parkrun South Africa, Fordyce isn’t going to catch Massyn any time soon. But he’s run an impressive 30 Comrades himself, the last of which was in 2012.

“When it comes to Louis, it’s not the fact that he’s running his 49th; it’s the <training that’s mind-boggling,” says Fordyce. “When I ran my first few Comrades, I couldn’t wait for the next one; because I was getting faster every year, which was motivation.

“It’s the sheer training and racing that he gets through every year that’s impressive. Barry [Holland] runs races very sparingly, and takes a long sabbatical; but Louis just keeps on going.

“My wife Jill and I visited Louis, when he was living in Odendaalsrus, and it’s amazing: he throws nothing away. He even has a bedcover made up of race numbers and badges.

“He’ll get a huge cheer at the finish of Comrades.

“Another interesting thing is that Louis’ and my Comrades permanent numbers are very similar. Mine is 2403, and his is 403 – which just goes to show how far back his history goes.”

Fabulous Forty

If you want to talk about loyalty, you don’t get a much better foot soldier than Massyn, who has only ever worn Adidas shoes.

“I’ve only ever run in the three-stripes brand. In 2012, Adidas invited me down to their head office in Cape Town, and really spoilt me! Gavin Cowley (a multi-talented sportsman in his own right) was the marketing director, and he still said, he couldn’t think of a sport that could claim they’d had someone who’d been loyal to a brand for 40 years.”

At that stage, Massyn had kept every pair of shoes he’d ever run in. “I had plans of filling them with cement and incorporating them into a bar counter. But some of them fell apart too much.

“The Four Zero tribute that Adidas presented me is currently in the Goldfields Multisport Club bar in Welkom. It was just too huge to bring with us down to George – we just don’t have the space!”

As for Cowley, who retired 11 years ago after 27 years loyalty to Adidas, he remembers the day well.

“I used to have regular staff get-togethers, when I’d bring well-known sports personalities into the company; and then we’d have a Q&A session with them, and the staff could ask questions.

“Louis wasn’t a sponsored athlete, but had loyally bought the product over the years. We then sponsored him with some more footwear, and gave him a kit package, etc. He was pretty embarrassed about all the fuss. 

“But what a lovely guy. He reminds me very much of (Springbok rugby legend) Jean de Villiers, who has a whole room of his home that has more than 100 pairs of footwear that was sponsored by us.

“We embroidered some shoes with the number ‘40’, to show that Louis was doing his 40th Comrades. I always felt it important to reward loyalty, even though he wasn’t that well known, because loyalty knows no bounds.

“Interestingly, in those days the running-shoe surveys at the big races used to show that Adidas were always about third-most popular, behind Nike and Asics; but Louis never wavered, and stuck to his very first brand of choice.”

It’s a little-known fact that it was actually (rugby player) Pine Pienaar, now retired, who alerted Cowley to Massyn’s growing reputation. “I was the Adidas agent for Free State and the Northern Cape for 38 years, and we used to be involved with the Kloppers Marathon in Bloemfontein.

“I remember seeing Louis, year after year; and I got chatting to him at a prizegiving, and he told me that he’d always run in our shoes and had kept every pair. And that triggered something in my mind, and I alerted Gavin at head office, who put together that recognition event for Louis. To this day he’s still something of an Adidas ambassador.”

Running Repairs
For someone with so many kilometres on his running odometer, Massyn’s ‘service log’ is remarkably free of major mechanicals.

“I had a bit of a knee problem back in 2021, when a torn meniscus prevented me from running Comrades; but that was my first major injury.

“Last year I had a niggling calf, which was sorted out quickly. But apart from that there’s only been the odd aching muscle here and there, which I sort out quickly, through self-treatment and regular physio/massage treatments.”

 

THE MATHS OF MASSYN

1 – Wife Rita is his No. 1 supporter

6 – Major city marathons he’s raced: New York, Berlin, Boston, London, Chicago and Tokyo

24/10/1950, George – Date and place of birth

47 – he’ll be lining up for his 47th Two Oceans ultramarathon (56km) this year

300+ – the number of ultramarathons he’s run

374 – standard marathons (42.2km) under his belt

1973 Comrades Marathon – first race ever

1975 – the year he ran the original historic marathon, from Marathon to Athens in Greece.

3:41 – his best Two Oceans ultra time

6:25 – his best Comrades Marathon time

READ MORE ON: comrades-marathon Human Race