94.7

94.7 Cycle Challenge

http://www.cyclechallenge.co.za/LatestNews/20151116congratulations-results-are-out

Having threatened to do this race since 1996 ( the first)   we eventually entered this year because a few friends had entered...
We did the training, 30ks then 55ks then 73ks and 2 weeks a really enjoyable 92ks...    So I thought we were ready...

This was a hard race,

Looking at the profile you think the first half is tough then the second half looks easier...Except for the wind , the wind was strong and more or less with us the first half.. that mean that it was against us the second half.. and boy was it..

Liz and I decided to cycle together, it was great to have her near me... I have managed to get her bike sorted, replaced a few worn out bearings etc, and boy does it go. That steep  hill at the peak is  going up the wilds into Hillbrow, she shot up there... With the heat the water stations were a disaster blocking the road and  forcing us to walk. saw a few cleated cyclists lying under their bikes. .. This frustrated  Liz at the wilds so she sped up the hill. We went past some interesting land marks. stopped on the Mandela bridge for a drink and snack, we decided before that we  would stop to drink as thats what we did in training..

Everyone says going down Jan Smuts is fast, we had to pedal on some down hills, on the downhill to  Sandton clinic I lost Liz she had been ahead of me but I could not see her so I stopped for a drink but then realised that if she did not have a bike problem  she must be ahead, I set off trying to catch her. Pasta another waterpoint... more congestion, started thinking how I would meet up with Liz at the end, when suddenly there she is.. She had stopped for water at the water point, but had seen me go past.

We struggled up Witkoppen hill into the wind, at least next week we go down this hill! I saw a lady doing hip flexor stretches on her bike down the next hill.. what balance! I wont be trying that. Liz kept pulling away from me. Cosmo city up to   the Lion Park was tough , the wind was really pumping , we had driven some of the route the day before which helped me a bit.. At 85ks there is a long up hill which we both went up quite comfortably, then I thought it was flattish to the finish. Oh no 3 of the 7 hardest kms were to come, I was drying up , my palate was bone dry  I drank going up the hill the 90th km was the first time I changed down from the big cog in the front, I needed some respite. Liz just powered up these hills, waiting for me at the last circle, and coastig next to me as I tried to pedal to keep up with her down the hill! She beat me by a whole second!!          


I was totally our of it when I finished. I could hardly walk..We wanted to go for a beer but I did not know if I would make it to the car afterwards.  I struggled back up the hill to the top and went left to orange car park. I tried to cycle downhill but my back started to spasm. My calves started cramping.. I was stuffed. Eventually got to the bakkie about a 2-3km distance. Liz had to help me load the bikes.. first time ever.. I downed half a 1L tonic water and some energade, Jane's pool was calling.  I cramped quite badly in the pool.  Quads calves sartorius all cramped, lower back was sore ... but after a Humdinger from Manchester and an Amber Ale from the Cape ,I felt much better. . I was dehydrated as well.

Worst I have ever felt after any race.. Liz however was fine. She waited for me quite a lot on the race.... I feel reasonable today muscles are sore but no damage neck a bit sore. My road race cycling days are probably over at 94.7 is.. Been there done that did not buy the t shirt,,,  I think I did not eat enough, but never felt hungry.. Blood sugar was low. Morale was low. 3 of the worst hills , most climbing were in the last 7 kms!  I managed to cycle the whole way, and realistically the way I felt a the end I would not have made it if i had pushed my bike!

Mont-Aux-Sources 2015

Just after Comrades we found out that MAS entries had opened up. So do we ; don't we, we did.

6 weeks after Comrades we did the Knysna Marathon, it's a toughie with lots of hills. So we saw that as a training session for 6 weeks later which was MAS.

I remember about 10 years ago we went to Sentinel Car Park , while staying at Clarens, and walked to the base of the chain ladder.. Neither of us could go up, maybe I psyched Liz out with my fear of heights/ exposure but who knows neither of us went up. We went around to the gully and went up over the top to see the chain ladder from above.... Part of MAS is going up the chain ladder-- my own fear factor.

Training for MAS went well, some good long walks to Randjiesfontein, including  new loop or three to make mine a 31km walk. We also did back to back 21s at Wierie and Breakthrus race. I managed 2:25s on both which was awesome especially carrying a 3kg pack on the tougher Breakthru race. I planned a cycle after a short walk the week before, but had chain issues (still to replace chains on both bikes as we prepare for 94.7) so abandoned that idea...

We watched the weather for 2 weeks before MAS, options changed from sun to rain to overcast to BRR cold.... We in jhb have had really warm pre spring weather so cold was hard to fathom,  then the day before we leave...BRRR its cold. So we read about the requirements, add  in extra thermals, a rain jacket gloves for the rope in the gully, whisky... etc.

On our way travelling down we get an SMS , very cold weather predicted..... a bit late now. We got some biltong for Liz in Harrismith, and arrived at Thendele around 2pm. We requested #17 as its the best view, we go it. We decided to braai early before going to register, eating early before Comrades worked, we hydrated with some stout and Red Wine.. This is what greeted us...

At registration someone had been given Liz's bag so she got a new number, not an issue till at presentation they said that the tag on the bag was important for the race start. They  introduced a slow runners batch where fortunately they allowed Liz and I to join. at presentation this was called  the slow batch  at 5:35. We went back and found Liz's correct bag and tag..We got tags saying B which was shown as at 5:45. A great presentation about the  bearded  Vulture which is pretty endangered and gets some support from the money raised. its not a cheap race to enter but a very worthy cause.

Andrew Booth gave us a good background to the route with a scary looking route profile.

We packed and repacked  our bags, less water more clothes, we were unsure how much we would sweat so took spare tops in case we need dry tops for coming down in the cold / wind / rain,  then off to bed. The usual tossing and turning was followed by a funny noise in the lounge, aah my alarm clock.. We got ready and set off to the start, nice being close to the start so you can get there a bit later. Watched the elites  go off past our car, and ambled across to the start, 2 minutes to the start of B batch we hear over the PA..., oh so the slow batch is B at 5:35, we rushed to the back of pen, gave my tag as the gun went, Liz gave in hers and off we went. Liz's head torch would not stay together so we packed it away and I tried to give her light from mine. It was not very dark and 3 ks in  all lights were off .  About 1km in to the race I looked back, these were the slow group, only 3 people  were behind me.... I knew that to make the 10 hr cut-off we needed to average 12 minutes per km so my goal was to keep below that.  I slowly managed to drop my pace over the 10.5km to Witsieshoek to around 10:28 even wth a gain of about 700m . There faster runners coming through on the single track meant we often needed to move off the path as a faster runners came past. Mostly my walking pace seemed to match runners as we gradually wound our way up. at around 8km we ascended into the clouds. We arrived at Witsieshoek at around 1:53 for an average of about pace of  about 10:30, had a quick potato and a cup of water. our first checkpoint of about 20 done.. I set off on the road to sentinel car park, this is a lot steeper than expected but over this 9 km we would gain another 600m. Liz was struggling to keep up with me walking so ran/walked, it was pretty cold in this section as we climbed through the cloud, which was moving over the little berg and had a strong wind keeping us cold. One lady at an aid station said if we wanted we could give her our gloves, but we knew we needed them on the Gully Rope.   As we passed one the aid stations Liz stopped to take a picture of the Sentinel, unsure of any later photo opportunities, 

I had gone round the corner before she took the next one.

Eventually after I had a biscuit and some powerade at the Car park I saw her arriving. I had averaged around  8:30/km and dropped my average pace to 9:52, now the tough climbing would start.   As we left the car park we heard the first runners had got down the gully. I was at 19km they were at 28km. It was cold as we had now reached the snow line which was around 2500m, we traversed around in the cloud then got an amazing view of the sentinel with snow on it. The Zigzag path up her was pretty hectic, I remembered it from our last visit, the leaders came screaming past us on the way down. It was quite interesting going up the slippery snowy path. I do struggle going up really steep sections in the berg so took it easy and just plodded along. 

As we came around a corner we saw a queue of what looked like about 15 people queuing for the chain ladder. there seemed to be  biggish gap to the next group of say 10 and then between them and us was another 10 or so. It looked good, about 300m later we passed the gully 21.8km on my watch. Liz was encouraging me to keep the pace up so we would not be overtaken..

We arrived at the chain ladder and my average had slowed to 10:39 wee were offered water, Jelly babies, or a harness, wow within a few minutes of stopping my harness was on Gavin was hooking me on the rope and off I went. I guess I set-off a bit quick, my Sartorius on my left leg started cramping.. easy does, then I start thinking "what if I freeze", forget that keep moving slowly. Maybe I should have told the guy behind me as I am almost bounced off the ladder. hang on tight keep moving, oops getting close to the girl in front of me..., ease off the first ladder walk across to the second ladder, on you get , keep going going , eish the Sartorius, keep moving , I'm up , I've done it, I've climbed the chain ladder, look up eish more climbing to do, I keep moving slowly to the top on a path, but pretty steep. 

At the top I took two Cramp ease and drank some Energade some biltong as well, Liz also had some, now I knew I could make it. Ave pace is now over 11 minutes per km feeling good. Its a long trudge in the snow to the halfway mark  at the top of the falls , well marked off by a few rolls of twine. Wow but this challenge is well organised. Its fun walking on the flat in the snow as your shoes crunch the snow , I feel  awesome. At the top I retied my shoelaces as probably with the cold my feet were not swelling as much as normal.

At half way we get some photos taken , watch as a few drink a Jaegermeister , its very festive up there but we are only at 2800 m , still need to ascend a bit before descending the gully.

My Sartirius did not enjoy going uphill but hey we have no choice.. Up we go once more into a higher cloud only to arrive at the gully.

 

A rope is in place, thanks to Mountain Club/ KZN rescue , we hang on for dear life as we slip, slide, jump, step our way down. A number of rocks tried to overtake us, being close together on the rope often either causes whiplash by moving to quickly or is  whip-lashed by others. Gradually we move down and exit the gully at a now average pace of 11:33 , going up to the gully the km was nearly 17 minutes, down the gully was about 27 minutes. I suddenly realised sub 10 was a real possibility and maybe even as sub 9hr.              

The way down was slightly different and as we joined the route 2 of us went right, I was trying to understand this ascent  when Liz shouted  out wrong way as we should have turned left . On her way up she had seen someone come down this way so made the association. We were moving along quite nicely now as we returned to the car park, I got the last chocolate chip cookie!! The top section of the road is paved which is nice for speed so I got into a good rhythm and did a few kms at around 7:15, on the way up I had done 10:09 for these top 3kms. so that was doing our average a  lot of good. Even on the down there is a wicked up hill where Liz got left behind. I had said that if need be on this section I was prepared to jog if need be to make the cutoff , wow was I pleased that this was not necessary.  I offered the lady my gloves now, but she no longer wanted them, said I needed them round the corner ....It was a long slog down the road to Witsieshoek. I now knew that we had a shot at a sub 9hr, as our average was pretty much 11  . In my mind I worked out that sub 9 hr needed to be sub 10:50 average so I set of trying to go as fast as comfortable. Our numbers were 132 and 133 , and we met up with 134 who maintained the mathematical progression to the end. I knew that we needed a few fastish kms but as long as we got our average below 10:50 we would be fine- provided the distance was exac, which from my memory /calculations both at the gully and Witsieshoek I estimated that my GPS would be pretty much spot on.

Liz was struggling to walk at my pace  so she walked ran with 134 to stay with me.  At one point with about 8kms to go I managed to kick a root or rock which made me stumble and almost fall, I stuck my hand out and caught the grass and noticed my had was a bit swollen. I realised that my watch was a bit tight on my wrist so I loosened it a bit. Every time Liz ran to catch up with me I moved off the path to let her go only to realise that she was not overtaking. Eventually we got to the finish line, only the second time Liz and I have crossed the line together in a race- although this was a challenge not a race. My watch said 49.98km...8 hrs 52 minutes... the rain started, although only as drizzle we had made it. Thanks to the slow runners B batch start we had a fantastic day... 

If you have never done this race, you must do it. If you have done it, do it again. This is the most awesome experience I have ever had in a race/challenge. Previously I thought the Knysna Marathon was the best organised race that I had ever done but this event exceeds that by some margin. There is so much that needs to be done , and really I cannot fault this event on anything.    The batch thing was our mistake. The route was really well marked, aid stations were perfect, all marshals, helpers, were awesome   the challenge was awesome.. I guess I have a new item on my bucket list- a permanent name at Mont-Aux-Sources - you now get that for 3 finishes!.

The next morning

After the race we had a beer , saw Jonathon from Bean There who come in the same time as us.. well done Jono and then went off to have a bath and warm up.  I got really cold and my hands were both a bit swollen I guess the descent and keeping my hands down for most of the day and not up as in my usual  race walking style. The bath helped  but so did the red wine...  Another Optimal challenge done and celebrated with L'omarans Optima,

I guess we are blessed to have done this amazing challenge in optimal conditions with a superb option for us slower competitors starting earlier and getting a big advantage from that, we never waited but neither did we hold anyone up. So if possible I would really appreciate starting in this batch next year. It will be a different event whether hotter or colder , wetter or dryer bu still I would appreciate it. The conditions for me this year were perfect. Next year who knows, but I will blog it..

  

To compare this some of our other other challenges,

Sani Stagger is harder although shorter, it is way faster and only up and down but on a road the whole way.( red below)

4 Peaks is a lot shorter but no real path so harder in it's own way.

Comrades is harder because its Comrades. (green below)

Keep walking

     

Comrades 2015

Ok so I forgot some things in my preparation..

1. On the 60k I got severe blisters on the lower part of both my heels wearing my Asics Kayano "Comrades shoes"
2. My subsequent races were all done using New Balance shoes as they seem to give me more space on that area and that seemed to help.
3. When I did a dog run 14 days before Comrades and checked my Kayanos I noticed the soles were cracked. 
4. I returned my shoes to Sweatshop and they were replaced free of charge.
5. I now had to wear in new shoes in, but in less than 2 weeks while on a taper with no long walks!
6. 12 days before Comrades I got a sore throat and a head cold. Strepsil, vitamin C , Zinc, Viral Guard, hot honey and lemon, ginger tea with lemon....It cleared.

As usual we collected our race packs in PMB and headed off to Nikki and Myles for Friday night. We had a good catch up with whisky, red wine and a delicious chicken dish with veggies, followed by some good coffee. Had a good nights sleep, I did remember last year where I agonised over Liz doing the race or not ; this year I had no doubts over Liz who was in great shape and I was very confident for her race.

After a leisurely breakfast, coffee and some sound advice on Liz's hopes for a job and encouragement from the Sinclairs we set off to drive the route. It is a hard route this.... why oh would someone enter a race like this. On our drive down we met Hazel Moller (www.ten10.co.za) who was running 10 comrades in 10 days, this is way beyond what my brain can comprehend. She did this to raise money for animals in distress, if you you can, please donate something to this worthy cause. She still managed to run a 9:39 as her 10th Comrades- wow... absolutely amazing.  There are some long hills both up and down, remembering that we were driving the wrong way. We had to get to the Team Vitality drop off to leave my Tonics and  Liz's Lime juice for the 40k and 76k mark.We just made it before 2pm and went to the hotel to checkin. The hotel is only about 1km from the start so an ideal location. Once again we were on the 19th floor so nice being high up with a view up to Umhlanga Rocks and back to the Bluff. We got our stuff ready and went for a very early dinner at around 4:30 , this was followed by a few stouts for me and Liz had some whisky. I watched the FA Cup final as Arsenal destroyed Aston Villa to win for a second year.. The Lions also won their Super Rugby gane so my teams were helping build confidence.

I had spent the week before thinking / hoping / dreaming what would be a realistic goal for Sunday.
I had an excel spreadsheet where I started with my last UpWalk. I then played around with various possibilities. Kypie thought 11hrs was possible, no matter how I stretched my projected times it did not seem possible to me. I ended up with a best possible time of 11:18 based on my last Upwalk with as much improvement over each section as I could realistically forsee. That excluded the extra 800 odd m due to the road works in Pinetown about 19ks into the race. Liz had set her heart on a 9:30 and my goal was sub 11:30.

Interesting observation!
With a route of 87.72 I needed to average 7:51 per km to finish in 11:30
My gps would end up showing much closer to 89km which  meant an average of 7:45
On my previous UpWalks I had never got my pace below 7:50, remembering  that every second average faster means 87.72 ( lets call it 90) seconds off the total time. Last time I ended at a pace of 8:04 I think. My goal was to get to 7:40 as early as possible then try and keep as close to that as I could for as long as possible. By starting my watch 90 seconds late I could get my average down quicker which I felt psychologically would be a benefit. It meant only 1 second at the end, the total discrepancy of 2kms added another 5 seconds. Just shows how tough it is to judge an accurate pace.

The one fear I had was of starting too fast- Don Oliver - Bruce Fordyce - Lindsay Parry all warn against this. Don Oliver at out Team Vitality/Rockies talk said start slow and get slower . Easy to say but I need to be as consistent in pace as possible. I did know that to achieve my goal I would need to go faster.


Getting up at 3:45 is never easy, getting everything laid out the night before helps the next day but there are still the unfortunate mistakes.. We were fortunate that Gerhard was doing the race his 11th and Carmenn was seconding him and we hijacked their back seat. Gerhard had not had the greatest training year as unlike me he does not have a dedicated training partner, he hoped for a sub 11 and I hoped I would not beat him, but if I caught up with I would have to overtake....

I toyed with the idea of using zinc oxide plasters around my heel to protect my tender heels. I had toyed with using Methylated Spirits to harden the skin but was scared that hard skin may cause more problems I did treat with some Camphor cream as usual .  I used plasters on Slow Mag to protect my blisters and they seemed to work, but that was a 21 so what will happen over 90ks????  With plasters I could not use vaseline on my heels .....I decided to risk the plasters.

We got to the start having wished each other all the best and off we went into our various pens.  We had brought cardboard to sit on which made the wait easier/warmer. I just sat there looking at people almost wanting to see someone I knew but also hoping not to see anyone as then they could become a distraction. As soon as the first pens were opened I got up moving as far forward as I could, as each pen opened I moved quickly forward, it was a big field and I did not want to fall too far behind. The start in PMB is more "vibey" but this was still quite emotional. The national anthem then Shosholoza followed by Chariots of Fire was punctuated by Max Trimborn's recording of the cock crowing and bang the race was on. Not that we noticed as it was nearly 2 minutes before we moved. I was not that worried as I was expecting that, one needs to ignore it and just keep focused.  Fortunately the road is quite wide except for some spectators encroaching and narrowing the road, once we were on the freeway we only had to worry about cats eyes. I seem to be able to walk what I refer to as comfortable pace, which is a pace which I feel that I can keep going at "forever"; this pace varies according to the distance I am doing so I guess its not "forever" but it feels comfortable for the distance. I hardly looked at my watch to check my pace I was essentially going as fast as I could based on the current section of the route, so even if I was a bit slow I could not have gone faster anyway.

I did keep a printout of my excel spreadsheet with me which I checked roughly every 5 kms  to see how far ahead of 2013 I was and each time the gap kept increasing which was really encouraging. I caught a few Midrand Striders and tried to encourage them still feel part of them in a way! As I passed more and more people I realised that my training had been good and all the hardwork was paying off. Doing the Midrand 60k at close to 7:30/km was hard but it really built confidence and strength especially the section from 44 to 54km which was mostly uphill. As the kms rolled by I felt better and better, it helped to have experience of the route and to sort of know what to expect along the way. The thought of meeting Carmenn to get restocked at 34km was an encouragement. I do not race against others as my race is totally against myself and my time, but it feels good when one catches up with runners one know's and expects to be ahead.

My pace above in the first 10ks was affected by congestion, after that I was pretty happy with my conssitency.
So getting to 34 kms and getting my tonic and dates from Carmenn I was ready for Bothas , I am not sure why Cowies at 18km is included as a HILL on Comrades, to me there are others which are much harder but un-named.. Bothas was my nemesis in 2011 and in 2013 I used dates  for energy for this in my mind second toughest climb of the race. I see at almost 5km to the peak at Rob Roy hotel, it is tough as it is the 5km up to around 40km which is often the tougher section in a marathon. This time I had no real issues other than realising when the top was actually achieved. It is a long climb. I passed Chris Piears who told me that Caroline Wostmann was leading the ladies race by 10 minutes - wow did that inspire me, we are both  ex Midrand Striders!!!.

Bothas is followed by a long descent into Drummond, which is halfway at 44km, where I managed to get some good pace going. I had secretly hoped to go through halfway in 5:35 but missed this by a few minutes going through in 5:43. I was feeling good so pushed  reasonably hard up the tough Inchanga, a really long climb getting one back up higher than we were at the top of Bothas.  The benefit of getting to the top here is that your longest climbs are done, Most runners take it easy up Inchanga but I did see one novice running up, overtaking on the dirt and obviously determined to make up time. I never saw her again. I was still feeling fine, making up time on 2013 and feeling good.

I had registered for SMS notifications ( these were for the splits as shown below ) for Liz and Gerhard which I managed to occasionally check. I was happy to see Liz's splits as she was almost on schedule for her 9:30 albeit a bit slow. I did however notice that Gerhard was not that far ahead of me On a hill at around 54km I saw Gerhard ahead , he started in E batch as all Green (Permanent) number  entrants are allowed to do. I nearly caught him going up the hill, but he ran away from me at the top. Just before the 57km mat I almost caught him again, but once more he ran away. Then he turned back to an aid station asking for a sandwich and I snuck past. I was less than a minute ahead crossing the mat. I expected to see Carmenn about 2kms later but Gerhard had phoned her and asked her to get him a beer from the car so when I went passed she was still on the way back from the car so I missed her. I must say I could not drink a beer on the route , but each to his own i guess!!

A few kms later I started getting a cramp/ twinge on the lower part of my legs near the ankles. I have never felt this before; it was down the inner and outer sides of the leg just above my ankle.It felt like the muscle twinges that I get after a race not on a race.. I slowed down a bit to ease the muscles and took some cramp ease tablets, the muscles eased and after about 5kms I gradually started to increase pace again, I am not sure about the accuracy of the mats as my pace was  more consistent than that shown below between 57.7 and 80.2. I guess the Lion Park mat was misplaced! Checking on some of the top runners seems to confirm my suspicion, as Caroline's times are also skewed.  

location	time	speed	o/a	sex	cat	split	speed	o/a	sex	cat	time of day
Cowies Hill 16,8 km	2:15:43	8:04 min/km	14346	11733	2054	2:15:43	8:04 min/km	14268	11677	2021	07:45:44
Drummond 43,7 km	5:43:34	7:52 min/km	12159	10083	1661	3:27:52	7:45 min/km	10904	9083	1434	11:13:35
Cato Ridge 57,7 km	7:32:52	7:51 min/km	11049	9155	1463	1:49:18	7:49 min/km	7885	6381	899	13:02:53
Lion Park 70,7 km	9:22:02	7:57 min/km	10050	8318	1268	1:49:11	8:24 min/km	6725	5439	712	14:52:03
Polly Shortts 80,2 km	10:30:30	7:52 min/km	9403	7806	1159	1:08:28	7:13 min/km	5351	4364	520	16:00:31
Pietermaritzburg 87,7 km	11:27:08	7:50 min/km	9025	7470	1093	56:39	7:34 min/km	7364	5843	823	16:57:09

 
The section from Lion Park to Polly Shortts involves going from more or less the highest point down along long section, then up Little Pollys then lose all that gain only to start up Polly Shortts.  The one benefit here is that you know only one more major hill to go, a number of speedbumps as well but hey its down to single figures now!  I really felt strong but believed the best I could do was around 11:35. I decided to push hard and see what I could achieve, not many runners passed me as I powered ahead. As much as it feels like you are going at record 10k pace, the body lies!! I managed to get close to 7 m/km, but could not breach it. I have sort of taught myself to walk at comfortable pace, so that watch viewing becomes less important as one knows that essentially any faster would be uncomfortable  so therefore to be avoided. I am toying with the idea of using 5km splits on Comrades next year as then there is less to calculate so less chance of an error, as maths seems to be less accurate when tired!.I guess ones mind is clouded by the past calculations and the overriding thought about the sought after pace.

Just after Pollys a lady passed me and commented about me walking all the way, the person she was running with was Shane Brown who I went to school with and last saw nearly 38 years ago.  We are friends on facebook so follow each other there but it was good to meet up. He stays in PE so not much chance of meeting up.. I then managed to overtake a good many runners as I felt strong. I really enjoyed that section from the top of Pollys even though every km seemed to be long. Coming in to the full stadium , with team tents all full and cheering was an amazing experience. As I neared the end I saw a clock and realised my sub 11:30 would be a reality, my emotion were pretty high as I finished in my now customary fastest pace for the day. The last 1km is normally the only time on the day  that I walk below 7min/km.

Job Done...
Out with my phone to check Liz's results and I was really chuffed to see she did 9:52 which was an up run pb for her..

So whats next..
Knysna Marathon  on 9 July http://knysnamarathonclub.com/forest-marathon/
Mont-aux-sources 50k on 5 Sept http://www.wildseries.co.za/events/mont-aux-sources-challenge/about/


See you on the road


         

Comrades 2015 Preparation

I really thought my training last year for Comrades 2014 was probably as good as it gets. only negative was the "limited" long walks, as we did 1 x 50 and 1 x 52k and NO marathons. I managed to get to 1408km before Comrades which was more than previous years. So this year we had a different keep the distance but up the longer walks. As Comrades decided not to accept last years time as qualifier for this year I also needed to qualify with a Sub 5 hour marathon. Having actually done 4 Ultras in a row we now needed to do some marathons...

Sasol is a nice quite marathon, it is a double lapper but not a bad race. I managed to qualify with a time of  4:55 a nice PB in early Feb so now we could do some fun races. We entered Fordyce 50 but it was cancelled so did Jackie Gibson .. we also did Kosmos 3 in 1, not sure whether to classify it a marathon or an Ultra!!

We also did our usual  100k over easter where for a change we did 42k on the Friday and ended the weekend with  a 21k race to take me to 105ks for the weekend, my best total for Easter my SIL from Oz actually did her first 10k race and enjoyed it, nice going Hel.

In my last 5 races I have broken PBs 4 times,  21 twice in 6 days and 32  and 25k. So I guess my training is working for me.

So now I sit here on 1380ks 1 week to go and having missed a few days with a head cold. I think I am coming right and will just overtake last years total. What is a realistic target to aim for.

In 2011 the fastest I got my accumulated pace was  7:53 which I kept at till 34ks but Bothas hill is tough and I had miscalculated the effect, by halfway it had increased to 7:56 with Inchanga to come. By 54ks and essentially the main long hill done I had slowed to 8:02 At the top of pollys this had increased to 8:06 but I got it down 8:04 at the finish.

In 2013 the fastest I got to was  7:50 at 20ks. At 32ks when I met Carmenn my actual time was 7 seconds different from the previous Up race- Carmenn gave me a Tonic Water and some dates which helped me focus in the tough hill before Bothas- it worked at 44ks I was still at 7:51 and at 54ks I was still at 7:56. and that's where the wind really started.The next 18s are pretty undulating and when I got to Liz who had baled at 72ks I was at 8:03. With the weather conditions, being so hot and dry and with Liz a baler I decided to slow a bit and ensure I finished as it was really hard out there. I guess by then I also knew that my sub 11:30 was a goner. I ended at a pace of 8:08.

On the down  last year I averaged 7:49  which would be 11:36. I need to get my average pace to below 7:45 to go sub 11:30 or sub 7:38 to get 11:20. essentially for every second per km faster of slower your finish time will change by 90 seconds.

Guess the speculation will continue till next Sunday at Sunset..

Kosmos 3 in1

This last year seems to revolve around doing the races I have previously always said no ways / never to. Who on earth would want to do 3 races in 1 day?!!!? I thought that back to backs over a weekend were hard in the past so I needed lots of brain power to work my mind around how to face this race.

We went through a whole herd of people who were going to join us on our venture. Most pulled out but Liz's new running partner Shane did not. Doing Tuks 2 weeks before Jane decided that following her first 32 a week before she would like to do a marathon , I suggested she do the 42 to Kosmos, it ended up that her running partner Shanee also decided to do the marathon. 

We put in some effort to get accommodation but did not find anything.So we decided to camp, I wanted to take my bakkie as then I could take a gazebo for protection from the sun. We ended up needing to take the Polo so needed to take seats out to get everything in, but we did.

The week before we did a tough 21 at Deloites which left me pretty sore for a few days and made me train carefully for the  week. I tried to train at my intended pace for the weekend which was between 7:30 and 7:20 per km.  I hoped to do my first ever negative split on a marathon as well followed by going faster on the 21 and then on the 10. This whole accelerating theme is at the crux of my training philosophy. It helps me to be positive on races and to stay strong even when I am going a bit slow.

We left on time to get to Secunda to setup camp before the sun faded for the day. We went to get our race packs but as they only opened at 5, abandoned the queue to rather pitch the camp first. We found a nice spot where we could actually see the finish , only about 200m away. I did not worry too much about tent pegs etc as the weather forecast was NO rain .. When I did get my pack wow the shirt was amazing, all I could think was this is one race I will have to finish. 

We enjoyed  a relaxed snacky meal, drowned by some Milk Stout. I was only intending to have a single glass of wine, but the rain came down.. and did it come down. Liz noticed Shanes tent was possibly leaking, my heart sank , thinking this was really going to affect my race and the ability to wear my shirt..... Liz asked for more wine, but somehow the bottle was finished.. sorry. Under our Gazebo was very wet, under our tents was wet. Not a great start to the event. Off to bed, camp mattresses are not the greatest so I was not expecting the most relaxed sleep. I did not get much sleep. The announcer for the race got the music going at 4;30.. we surfaced just after 5 and started getting ready. Jane arrived and we gave them their numbers. and off to the start. My initial goal was to do 5:09 then 2:31 and 1:10 which would give me my accelerating times and a sub 9 for the day. 

I started off well and was going along at around 7:25 per k when at the 4k mark Jane and Shanee caught up with me. They had intended to average 7;30, gradually my pace increased and we got to around 7:21. My mind kept on wanting to slow down, but we just kept going. The route was very interesting as we wound around the suburbs of Secunda. I really enjoyed the route most short up and downs but nothing really significant and looking back afterwards it must be the least hilly route I have ever done , but because of all the winding in and out we never saw more than a few hundred meters ahead, it really felt like a fun training walk. Jane ran basically half a step in front of me and to my left. It became very comfortable as I felt she was pulling me and she thought I was pushing her. Occasionally she or Shanee would need to stop, but they were able to catch me even if it took a few kms  and we resumed our group. We went through halfway averaging 7:21 and feeling strong. This race is absolutely amazing in that there are so many well stocked water tables that one never feels thirsty or hungry. Creme Soda and Coke at every table and Energade at about every third table. Chocolate, bananas,potatoes, sweets at each table and a great atmosphere throughout. 

At 32ks Jane and Shanee had run further than ever before, there previous 32 was done in 4:04 and now they had done a 3:52.  We ended up trading places with a group of ladies from Nelsrpuit for the next 3 km,having got annoyed with their constant shouting and screaming  and them telling us if we did not like their "noise"  we should go faster, well we did.  Shanee was having knee/itb issues so she slowed down a bit, but Jane and I kept at it. A really comfortable pace around 7:15 per km.

There is an amazing finish where one wuns along the edge of the lake for nearly a km as one approaches the finish.. Weaving along on a paved path hoping not to fall in as the water was pretty green. We finished in an impressive 5:03.      Nice to be treated differently doing the 3in1 we were given ice cold face cloths which were great to cool down with. Jane waited for Shanee and I went off to find Liz and Shane.

Here you can see the routes

Here is the gentle Profile, the 42 was the most elevated but essentially flat.

They were at the car recovering, we made some hot water, had Ginger tea and Coffee with loads of snacks.-- too many in fact. Amazing how quickly the time between races go, suddenly we need to change and head off to the start. Its nearly a km from our car so off we went.

I had eaten too much and could just not get moving where was Jane to pull me through?? After  about 10 ks I decided I just had to accelerate  as 7:40 was just way too slow. At about 11 kms the heavens opened and wow did it rain. I had a long sleeve shirt on to protect me from the hottest sun of the day... It soaked up all the rain, as did my cap and shorts, I felt like I was carrying and extra 10kgs.. As the rain came so did the thunder and  lightning, a woman form Durban was scared in the storm, I just wanted to get finished. The stormwater drainage was poor, sorry probably did not exist. I ended up just walking my lines 150mm water or 250mm water did not matter. Boy did I feel for the volunteers at the water tables, at least I was moving to keep warm. As the rain was Cold front rain it was pretty chilly, at about the the 18km mark the rain stopped, just as Liz would be finishing. I ended up doing 2:37 which was a lot slower than  I wanted but not bad under the circumstances. At the end we were offered a wet or dry facecloth-- nice touch.

I got back to the car and make Liz some more coffee she was really struggling with the cold. I started packing up camp, should have taken the tents down earlier as they were now wet-- mental note .. The time between races disappeared, Liz was not keen on doing the 10k but did not want me to gain mileage on her.. Off we trudged , a nice feeling knowing only one more race.... I started off and saw a guy walking, interesting as I had not seen him previously. He had a Comrades shirt on, I asked how many Comrades he had done, 8, but as a runner. He got injured a year ago and learnt race walking so decided to walk the 10k, he ran a 3:40 marathon earlier.. He wanted to do a 7:15 , well we pushed and pulled and came in at 7:11 which was a great time.
 
We packed up and headed home. As I pulled on to the freeway, the GPS said 134km , the fuel said 125km so we were fine. We passed  garage almost immediately but I never thought of stopping. Suddenly the fuel estimate started dropping, Shane said she needed a loo..... I searched for a garage and goto the nearest one. ...Going along on the freeway , turn left in 800m , no offramp, but no choice off we went. A bad dirt road, someone else turned behind us, its pretty dark but we have no choice as the fuel estimate and distance to destination merge... In the dark I turned too soon. As I stopped Shane took the opportunity to solve one problem. Back on the "road"/"path", seems like we are driving through a rubbish dump, I can see where we are headed, its a small mining town hope we make  it as the fuel estimate hits 000 . . crawling along, we get on a tar road...with no speed control my calves decide they do not like all this clutch accelerator brake business and cramp. I can't stretch my legs, my quad decides  let join in.. Liz tries to massage it but its way tooo sore.. We make the garage, shoo.... Liz gets us some drinks and they ask how we got there as they do not get many visitors, the way we came was not the "recommended" route, we went home a more conventional way...

A really well organised event, after each race each of us thought how on earth will  we do the next one.. Will I be back? on that day - I doubt it .. now Yes I will do it again.

All three medals

Bronze for 42

Silver for 21

Gold for 10