Bruce Fordyce


Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive. He also won the London to Brighton Ultramarathon three years in a row. He is the former world record holder over 50 miles and the former world record holder over 100 km.

Early life and education

Born in Hong Kong to Evan Noel and Nancy Ann, Fordyce moved with his family to Johannesburg when he was 13 years old. He completed his school career at Woodmead High School and subsequently attended the University of the Witwatersrand, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1977 and his Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. During this time he was also a member of the university's anti-apartheid Student Representative Council as well as a committee member of the Wits Athletic Club. He married Gillian Leigh

Comrades Marathon

In 1977, when Fordyce first ran the Comrades Marathon, he placed 43rd out of 1,678 entries. He placed 14th in 1978, 3rd in 1979, 2nd in 1980, and was the winner for an unprecedented eight consecutive years from 1981 to 1988; he won it again in 1990. No other runner in the history of the Comrades has achieved this feat. Fordyce also held the record time for the "up" run and his record of 5:24:07 for the "down" run stood for 21 years from 1986 until it was broken in 2007 by Russia's Leonid Shvetsov.
YearPositionTimeDirectionMedal
19774306:45:00UpSilver
19781406:11:00DownSilver
1979305:51:15UpGold
1980205:40:31DownGold
1981105:37:28UpGold
1982105:34:22DownGold
1983105:30:12UpGold
1984105:27:18DownGold
1985105:37:01UpGold
1986105:24:07DownGold
1987105:37:01UpGold
1988105:27:42UpGold
1990105:40:25UpGold
199132806:57:02DownSilver
19941906:01:54UpSilver
1995223208:42:48DownBronze
199632906:59:30UpSilver
2000269108:41:11UpBill Rowan
2001279008:50:52DownBill Rowan
2002425209:48:46UpBronze
2003278408:53:12DownBill Rowan
2004308809:26:02UpBronze
2005231108:45:20DownBill Rowan
2006359609:41:11UpBronze
2007386109:48:18DownBronze
2008371010:07:33UpBronze
2009381809:48:21DownBronze
201096507:55:03DownBill Rowan
201148807:30:31UpBill Rowan
2012109908:06:10DownBill Rowan

He has thus completed 30 Comrades Marathons, including the remarkable result of posting identical times in 1985 and 1987.
In 2011 he aimed for a silver medal, but missed this by 31 seconds.

London to Brighton Ultramarathon

Fordyce won the London to Brighton ultramarathon 3 years running from 1981 to 1983.

World record holder

Fordyce was the world record holder over 50 miles from 1983, when he covered the distance in 4hr 50min 51sec during the 53m 1082yds London to Brighton ultramarathon until the record was broken by Jim Walmsley on 5 May 2019. Fordyce holds the 50-mile record for the United States All Comers Race and he is the former world record holder over 100 km.

Political activism

Fordyce was strongly anti-apartheid. On his first victory race in 1981 he wore a black armband to protest against the 20th anniversary celebrations of the apartheid republic attracting boos and even some rotten tomatoes thrown by a fellow runner. Fordyce has claimed this protest as "one of the proudest moments in my life".

Books, journalism and motivational speaker

In addition to having written two books about the Comrades Marathon, Fordyce was also a sports columnist for various newspapers and magazines, and a SABC television commentator for the 2014 event. He is also a motivational speaker and the chief executive officer of the South African Sports Trust.
Fordyce also introduced the parkrun running events to South Africa. This is a collection of free-entry weekly 5k run events. There are now 158 parkrun events in South Africa as of 1 September 2018.

Other honours

In 2004, he was voted 64th in the Top 100 Great South Africans.
In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand.