With just four days left, the 97th Comrades Marathon will be the 49th Up Run, which takes place on Sunday, 9 June 2024, starting at the Durban City Hall at 05:30 and ending 12 hours later at the Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg, covering a distance of 85.91 km.

A big part of the Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) is the charity drive through various programmes to raise funds for the Amabeadibeadi group of charities. This is aimed at fostering wider support for charitable fundraising for the CMA’s six official charities: namely The Community Chest of Durban & Pietermaritzburg, the Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC), Childline KwaZulu-Natal, the Hillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, Rise Against Hunger and SANParks Honorary Rangers.

This year, more than R4.4 million has been raised thus far for these charities through Race4charity and donations from runners alone.

Since 2004, TSAM has been the proud official vehicle sponsor of the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon. South Africa’s largest automotive manufacturer has also supported the Comrades Amabeadibeadi Charity Competition by giving away a Corolla Quest through the Toyota Win-a-Car Competition, However, this year, the prize vehicle will be the Toyota Corolla Cross XI, valued at over four hundred thousand rand.

“As just over 20 500 runners prepare to tackle the challenging 85.91 km course we, as TSAM, are honoured and proud to be with them every step of the way as they push themselves beyond their limits to conquer the world’s greatest ultra marathon,” says Tasneem Lorgat, GM Marketing Communications at TSAM.

This year, as the runners approach the halfway mark on the route, Arthur’s Seat - known as the favourite resting spot for five-time Comrades Marathon winner, Arthur Newton - TSAM will pay tribute to the legend by providing 2000 red flowers for runners to collect and place on the landmark.

As the official Comrades headgear sponsor, marathon runners will continue to be protected from the often-unpredictable elements on the day through the much-loved and specially designed Toyota cap.

Another highlight of this year’s race is that some of TSAM’s most capable vehicles will also be on the ground “running” the race with the long-distance runners in the form of the tough-as-nails Hilux as well as the 1.8-litre Corolla Cross XS hybrid, the lead car for both the male and female races.