Bruce Fordyce is probably best known for having won South Africa’s Comrades Marathon 9 times. During that winning streak he set 5 new Comrades Marathon course records. He has run 30 Comrades marathons to date. In addition, Bruce has won numerous other marathons including the famous London to Brighton 3 times. In the 1983 London to Brighton he set a World 50 mile/80 kilometres record of 4 hours, 50 minutes and 21 seconds. That record stood for over 36 years. He won the World 100 kilometres challenge race in Stellenbosch in 1989 where he set a new World record of 6 hours and 25 minutes. In 1997 he was awarded a State President’s gold award for sport from Nelson Mandela. Bruce has written several books for runners and particularly for Comrades Marathon runners but “Winged Messenger’ is his first guide written specifically for Comrades novices. Bruce lives at home in Parktown Johannesburg at high altitude with his family. He still runs regularly though now with a dodgy knee. He estimates he has run well over 200000 kilometres. Most recently Bruce launched the parkrun concept in Southern Africa which has grown to nearly 200 Saturday morning 5km free timed runs and over 1 million registered members.
