The triumph of South Africa’s first Black ultramarathon winner
When Samuel Tshabalala lined up at the start of the Comrades ultramarathon on a chilly morning in May 1989, few people had ever heard of the lanky railway worker in a candy-striped running jersey.
The race he was about to begin, though, was iconic. Cut off from the international sporting world by boycotts against apartheid, South Africans had become obsessed with this annual 56-mile run between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban. By the late 1980s, it drew thousands of runners, tens of thousands of spectators, and millions of TV viewers each year.
But never in its 67-year history had the Comrades had a Black
