This is Ask Coach Parry and today our question is short and sweet.  I think it is a follow on from the Comrades Marathon medal series we did a short while back for Vic Clapham, Bronze, Bill Rowan and Silver medals.

It comes from Awie and he wants to know if it is true that you have to be a sub 3 hour marathoner to run a silver at the Comrades Marathon?

Brad Brown: This is Ask Coach Parry and today our question is short and sweet.  I think it is a follow on from the Comrades Marathon medal series we did a short while back for Vic Clapham, Bronze, Bill Rowan and Silver medals.

It comes from Awie and he wants to know if it is true that you have to be a sub 3 hour marathoner to run a silver at the Comrades Marathon?

Lindsey Parry: No it is not true that you HAVE to run a under sub 3 to get a silver at the Comrades Marathon.
But there are very few people who run slower than a 3 hour marathon and go on to get a Silver Comrades Marathon medal.

I know we posted that series on the Comrades Marathon page of facebook. There was one guy in particular who did a 3.15 marathon and he ran a silver Comrades Marathon.

But by his own admission; he said when he ran a 3.15 marathon he was running very easy because it was part of his training for the Comrades Marathon.

Will it help?

He didn’t feel that at that time of the year it was appropriate to push a marathon. The reality is that he probably would have gotten very close to a sub 3 marathon is terms of ability.

You should be running a sub 3, but it is important to note that a sub 3 doesn’t guarantee you that silver Comrades Marathon medal either.

The silver at the Comrades Marathon is a particularly tough marathon. I am using a bit of poetic licence here because I don’t know the exact numbers, but there a probably close to 1000 (to 1500 perhaps even) guys that run sub 3 hour marathons and line up at the Comrades Marathon, but then on the up run there’s well under 600 people that achieve the silver Comrades Marathon medal.

So it does help to do it. Of those – let’s call it 400 / 450 – that get silver on the up run, you’ll probably find that less than 20 of those have not run a sub 3 marathon. So no, you don’t have to have don’t it – but it is highly advisable that you are a sub 3 hour marathoner to run silver.

If you have a question you would like us to answer about what it takes to get silver at the Comrades Marathon, please feel free to pop us an email by using the form on the right hand side of this page.