The RAC City Lodge Tough One enters its fifth decade today with entries opening for the 41st staging of this annual 32km road race which is the start of many runners’ Comrades Marathon training.

Sponsored by the City Lodge Hotel Group since 2007, the race started in 1975 with 280 finishers and last year saw 4,865 runners making it to the finish line, 1,291 of them in under three hours.

This year’s race takes place on Sunday, November 23, a week after the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Race. Last year saw no fewer than 414 competitors receiving a double medal for completing the cycle race and the running event on consecutive Sundays – are they very mad or just very fit, one may ask?

Online entries can be done from today, September 23 through www.ticketpro.co.za up until November 2 if you want the T-Shirt, but up until race day if you don’t want the T-Shirt. Hand delivery entries can also be processed at various running shops in Gauteng. Brochures explaining all the payment and entry details for the race are also available throughout Gauteng.

Here are some interesting facts and figures about the Tough One:      

• The men’s record is held by Mabuthuli Lebopo – 1.42.53 in 2004      
• The ladies’ record is held by Frith van der Merwe – 2.00.17 way back in 1988 (and no one has come close to breaking this record)      
• Olympic Marathon gold medallist Josia Thugwane won the race in 1992      
• Running legends Sonia Laxton, Gert Thys, Israel Morake, Juan van Deventer and Jan Tau have also won the race and Johnny Halberstadt has a fastest veteran’s win under his belt

According to Vreni Welch, who has been organising the race for the Rand Athletic Club since 1984, no winner of the race has ever entered prior to the final entry weekend – how amazing is that? City Lodge not only sponsors the race, but it also provides a couple of weekends as draw prizes at the finish which is at Old Parktonian Club in Bordeaux. Vreni takes out a R5 coin and gets the competitors to call heads or tails, whittling it down until the final competitor gets the call right.

There’s no doubt that the 2014 RAC City Lodge Tough One is going to be another great road race through the streets of northern Johannesburg.