Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce (born 3 December 1955 in Hong Kong) is a South African

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...

and

ultramarathon An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of . The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running. Various distances, surfaces, and formats are raced competitively, from the ...

athlete who was also active in opposing

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

. He is best known for having won the South African

Comrades Marathon The Comrades Marathon is an ultramarathon of approximately which is run annually in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg. It is the world's largest and oldest ultramarathon race. The dire ...

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 Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

to Evan Noel and Nancy Ann (Née Stevenson), Fordyce moved with his family to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

when he was 13 years old. He completed his school career at Woodmead High School and subsequently attended the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

, where he obtained his

Bachelor of Arts degree A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A 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 (Née Bruce)

Comrades Marathon

In 1977, when Fordyce first ran the

, 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 (

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

) and his record of 5:24:07 for the "down" run (Pietermaritzburg to Durban) stood for 21 years from 1986 until it was broken in 2007 by Russia's Leonid Shvetsov. 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 32 seconds (finishing time of 7 hours 30 minutes 31 seconds).

London to Brighton Ultramarathon

Fordyce won the London to

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

ultramarathon 3 years running from 1981 to 1983.

World record holder

Fordyce was the world record holder over 50 miles, when he covered the distance in 4hr 50min 21sec at the 1984 AMJA 50 Mile Ultramarathon in Chicago, IL, 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.

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 Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

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 The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations (Amplitude modulation, AM/Frequency modulation, FM) as well as 6 television broadcasts and 3 OTT Services to the general ...

television commentator for the 2014 event. He is also a motivational speaker and the chief executive officer of the South African Sports Trust.

Parkrun

Fordyce also introduced the

parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of 5K run, events for runners, walkers and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across five continents. Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinto ...

running events to South Africa in November 2011. This is a collection of free-entry weekly

5k run The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 me ...

events. There are now 210 parkrun events in South Africa as of 16 October 2023. Fordyce ran his 500th parkrun at Delta Park, Johannesburg, the first South African parkrun venue, on 14 October 2023.

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

References

External links

South African Who's Who
– Bruce Fordyce {{DEFAULTSORT:Fordyce, Bruce 1955 births Living people South African male marathon runners South African ultramarathon runners University of the Witwatersrand alumni Male ultramarathon runners 20th-century South African sportsmen Athletes from Johannesburg