Covering a distance of approximately 55.9 miles, 90 km, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, the Comrades marathon is the worlds largest ultra-marathon. South African runners usually dominate the "down" marathon but in 2007 Russian marathon runner Leonid Shvetsov took first place shattering the 21 year old record by over three minutes. Standing at six feet four and weighing 158 pounds, Shvetsov was an unlikely candidate to win the race. After all during the 2008 olympic marathon Shvetsov finished in 14th place. Once he took the lead with more than 33km left to run he proved spectators wrong. Shvetsov not only shattered the record in 2007 but also took first place once again in 2008.
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