First person to run the Comrades Ultra Marathon backwards

The first person to run the Comrades Ultra Marathon backwards is Elias Farai Chinomwe (Zimbabwe), at the 2015 Comrades in Durban, South Africa, on 31 May 2015.

Farai moved to South Africa as a young adult and joined a band playing traditional Zimbabwean music. One day, while rehearsing with the band, he discovered his drum had been occupied by bees. Not wanting to kill them through fear it "might foretell something bad", he began researching how to safely transport and relocate bees. This soon developed into a fascination and he continued studying bees' role in pollination, and honey production.

Before long he had founded his own beekeeping company, 'Blessed Bee Africa'.

One day while returning from a bee removal job, his car broke down with a crate full of bees inside. Knowing time was of the essence he began pushing his car with minimal success, before switching his body position and pushing backwards. He found this position easier to push with, and as a regular long-distance runner, decided to incorporate backwards running into his training to build strength.

After arriving to the Om Die Dam ultra marathon late in 2015, he decided there was no point running normally so decided to trial running backwards, and was able to complete the race doing so. Later that year he did the same at the Comrades - the largest and oldest ultramarathon - and has repeated this a number of times since, all to help raise awareness of bee protection.

Now based on Johannesburg, South Africa, Farai is reportedly known as ‘Rasta Bee’ among locals.