Klerksdorp Record, Klerksdorp - Klerksdorp teacher Ingrid Murray completed her 20th Comrades Marathon over the weekend and she is feeling like a million bucks.
Her number is 7 493 and she has now claimed her double green number. It is Comrades lingo meaning that she will always keep that number.
Klerksdorp Record talked to this bundle of energy on Wednesday June 11, and she said this year’s race was just great as all her preparation was worthwhile and her strength traning was all worth it.
“My legs are not sore, my knees are fine, I have no blisters and no chafing. I didn’t feel tired once during the race,” the 60-year-old teacher said. She is a teacher at Curro Klerksdorp.
Ingrid ran the race with Louis Massyn who made headlines for finishing his 50th race. She finished in a time of 11 hours and 46 minutes. She ran her first race when she was only 28 years old and her 20th at age 60. She finished every time and has 20 medals to show for it. “It took me many years as I had children and family tragedies which kept me away. Some women have their kids and ran immediately. No, that’s not me.”
Her family was down in KZN to support her and she said her husband tried once to also run the Comrades, but he didn’t train enough and couldn’t finish. She ran for CHOC (The Childhood Foundation of SA) and said it was wonderful as spectators were cheering her on. She raised over R11 000 this year.
She returned home to a hero’s welcome at Curro. The Klerksdorp marathon club is also very proud of her achievement.
According to her, this was her last Comrades as she has achieved all she wanted to. She will still jog as a hobby because it is part of her lifestyle. Her, family, of course, disagrees and predicts she will compete again in the Comrades.
She wasn’t happy at the finish this year where it was different than previous years. “It was dark and chaos at the finish of the race. I think it will be so much worse in 2027 when they want to have almost 10 000 more runners in the race. I don’t think I want to be there for that.”
The marathon club’s “Aches and pains” event takes place this Friday for all Comrades participants.
She will attend, but this year without any aches and pains.
