Comrades Cutoff Calculator
Comrades is 90 km between Pietermaritzburg and Durban (direction alternates yearly) with 5 intermediate cutoffs and a 12-hour finish for the Vic Clapham medal. This calculator projects your arrival at every cutoff plus your medal-tier ETA.
What the GPX doesn't tell you.
The hills. Comrades is described as 90 km of rolling — but the named hills (Polly Shortts, Inchanga, Botha's, Cowies, Fields) come in clusters and break pacing.
Heat. Late June in KwaZulu-Natal can hit 30°C with high humidity. Heat acclimation matters more than fitness here.
Medal-tier pressure. Unlike most ultras where finishing is the goal, Comrades has 7 medal tiers — runners pace aggressively to hit a specific one and often miss the next-easier tier.
The 2025 edition introduced more generous intermediate cutoffs after years of runners being pulled at marginal margins. The Cato Ridge cutoff (km 30.5, 5:10) is the first checkpoint and most-missed: the early downhills tempt runners to start too fast, then they crash on the climbs from Camperdown.
Where the race is decided.
Drummond (km 45, halfway) to Pinetown (km 69) on a Down Run — the climbs from Drummond up to Inchanga, then over Botha's Hill, hit when fatigue is real but the finish still feels far. This section breaks Bronze-medal hopefuls.
Tactical advice for Comrades.
For a Bill Rowan medal (sub-9h), the practical test is reaching Drummond (halfway) in 4h15m. Up Run is harder — add 10 minutes.
For Bronze (sub-11h), Pinetown (km 69) by 8h30m gives you 2h30m for the final 21 km — feasible even with cooked legs.
For Vic Clapham (sub-12h), the 45th Cutting crest (km 81.5) by 11h is the make-or-break. The final 8.5 km is downhill into Durban.
More from RunPact.
- Ultra race time predictor — upload any GPX, get a course-aware finish time prediction.
- Custom cutoff calculator — for any race not in our featured list.
- Training plans — phase-based plans tailored to your race and current fitness.