There are, at last count, nine different medals you can earn at the Comrades Marathon, a historic 55-mile race that runs between the South African cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Gold medals are awarded to the top 10 men and women. The rest depend on hitting certain time standards. To earn a silver medal, for example, you have to finish the race in less than seven and a half hours. To earn a Robert Mtshali medal, named for the first Black runner to complete the race, you have to break 10 hours. And to receive a finisher’s medal and be listed in the official results, you have to break 12 hours. Run any slower than that, and you not only lose out on a medal: After half a day grinding yourself to exhaustion, you aren’t even allowed to finish the race.
As each time threshold approaches, the stadium announcer and spectators count the seconds down. For the final 12-hour deadline, a group of race marshals gathers in the finishing chute. When the countdown reaches zero, they lock arms to block the finish line. Either you make it or you don’t. When I
