Comrades 2025

Background

To qualify for Comrades this year we "only" had to do a sub 5 marathon, which I had really hoped would allow me to walk my qualifier.. Circumstances did not work that way and we ended up doing NMC the fast one in Nelspruit again, same as 2023 except it was our first marathon of the year. I really enjoy this race far more than Kaapse Hoop, it is really festive and good fun and we stay a Hippo waterfront which is such a good place the locals go there for a weekend. 

The race was good I was doing quite well and  on track for about a 4:40 when I felt my right hand Psoas tighten a bit , probably from overstretching while running downhill. I reigned in the pace and settled on a sub 4:50, which ended up as a 4:51 but still a fairly safe qualifier. Did not really feel my Psoas again after that.

Once again circumstances made us change our routine and we did the Tshwane North 50k on Easter Saturday  believing Akasia was pretty flat, which it largely was. At 30km I paced Mr 995 Julian Karp and he told me the next 8km were tough, ha ha Tough is what makes it great I thought and kept going feeling really strong. This route is along Berg road which keeps you as close to the Magaliesberg as it can. But you can see 2 severe dips in pace, that was where we were taken up to almost vertical peaks. Supporters we jogging down and running up with you to try and help you get up. This was neither good for my Psoas or my Hamstrings, but being a little stubborn I tried my best to keep going at a reasonable pace...  

  
Near the end after my watch being quite close to the km markers even km 49 was close but 50 came up and I saw nearly a km to go... I was pretty tired after this. That evening we still did a dogwalk as they would miss out the next few days..

My legs  were a bit sore but nothing serious. We carried on training as usual with a 25km cycle mixed in- as we have committed to doing Amashova the cycle race in July. Legs were fine.

I truly believe that the best training one can do for Comrades is the Midrand Striders 60km , the profile is pretty  close to first 60km of Comrades  with some nice long steep climbs. My goal here is always to get as close to 7:30/km as possible as that is my target pace for an exceptional Comrades. I started off well but my legs just did not feel like walking.  Two years ago I cut it short because of bloody toes after doing a 10km  racewalk the day before with long toenails. This year I had no excuse, still cut it short  and form about 41km onwards just got slower and slower. I did think that at least if I go slower I will have more time on the legs. I just felt  like my Calves, Hamstrings and Glutes were all about to cramp and really did not enjoy it..

A week later I did Cradle 32 and although a little slow it is a tough route and I felt fine. I was a bit worried so decided to go see Kendrah the Chiro , first time in 5 years  I think. She sorted out the Psoas and Hamstrings with some needles. We then went to Ngwenya where I at last got Liz to understand  accelerating training  during the week, essentially it is just every day is faster than the previous day, doing just 10km then we did a slower 22km and back to 10kms I felt fine , although I was taking lost of Electrolytes and Mag... Unfortunately on the last day Liz tweaked her knee which brought some concerns.. Back in joburg we took it easy with just Dogwalks and a 10km. On the Monday I went back to Kendrah as my calves were now tight so we needled Glutes Hamstrings and Soleus.

Off to Hilton to stay with Nicki, where we lazed around as we surveyed the route in the distance. I did my usual walk along Walters rd but Liz and Nicki went into the forest and Nicki managed to fall and hurt her hand and shoulder, that was my reasoning for staying on the road.Had to go into PMB to fix a puncture and go to registration. Also met with Nigel to give him some 0% beers and energy bars..

Liz got some amazing goodies from the Honorary Rangers who were her charity. Charity batch was with Green numbers this year in Group 2 so it was not benefit to do charity batch but next year I will go with Honorary rangers for sure..

On Saturday we set off to drive the route and stopped in Hillcrest to buy  our snacks for supper. We seriously believe that just eating  a snacky meal of Croissants, cheese , coleslaw.  chicken strips etc works best.  After checking in we walked to the finish as we always do to get a better feel for whats what and where to meet after the race etc. I truly believe everyone should be familiar with the finish before the race.   We each had a tot of Ardbeg An Oa which calmed the nerves a bit 

Race Day

It is really weird waking up at 1:30 AM but thats what we do.. I got dressed and popped down to collect whatever breakfast I could from the pick and go . Back up lift and we were ready to go. Busses were from 1 am to 3 am so we decided on 2:15. We walked   out of the Maharani and as we went passed the Elangeni, the staff said to go straight through the hotel which we did, it brought us to the front of the queue, and almost straight into a bus. You realise how long this race is when it takes 90 minutes to get to PMB....The bus driver stopped in PMB as he did not know where to go. Someone wnet forward and Zuckerberg to the rescue he took us to the drop off.

Into our pens which were much smaller this year batches were reduced to about 1500 from closer to 5000 in the past, which made it much more controllable..   We had our blanket which we sat on and chatted to various people. Met a group from the UK , one lady hoping for her back to back having done an 11:53 on 2500km of training in 2024 - sadly she did 12:16, I overtook her at about Umlaas rd. It was awesome to have Louis Massyns small batch just in front of us. The vibe was great as usual as we all enjoyed the singing. The first start went and we slowly moved forward to the real start line which was quite a unique experience. Eventually when the gun went having been in PMB  for 2 hrs we felt liberated.. My first km was pretty close to the fastest km ever on Comrades at 6:51, I was not concerned as it is a good downhill. As per usual I use Norries guidance and try to just use  even effort , meaning we go slower on  the flats and even slower on the ups.  I seriously felt that everyone seemed to be going faster than previous years..  I feel like I was going well at the top of Pollys and made sure I kept to the Left hand lane to ensure I was out of  any rutting. As I started  up little Pollys I saw a lady from Bothaville who was doing her 30th in 2023 and we did much of the race together, she was alone but I remembered a partner. I asked her where her hubby was, she said he passed away the day after getting home from last years Comrades. She had a picture and some ashes which she was going to scatter.. sadly her 32nd would be the first time she baled... eina. I felt the backs of my legs tighten a bit, but by the time I got to chicken farm I was wondering if I should just stop when I got to Nigel in Camperdown. It is really great having Race Screen on my Garmin as my expected time went out to about 11:40 and then gradually coming down. By the time I got my beer and bar at Nigel there were no thoughts of stopping. I sort of decided if my pace went post 12:00 then I could reevaluate. It was round about here that the 11:30 bus caught me with the words , "we are exactly on time but plan to finish at 11:28 to ensure all in the bus finish"... so why do they then carry on going till  I am 4 rows deep in the bus then take a walk break.  To be honest I HATE busses!! They always do this to me... I extricated myself from the traffic and informed the bus driver that their rules are to take 1 lane and no interfere  with other runners. about 1km later they did  the same thing, a few choice words were uttered and I stormed off... The next time they caught me there were many warnings about respecting other runners, may have even mentioned walkers! I think it was around Cato ridge that they went ahead and I never saw them again.

By now I had got my Predicted time to around 11:20 ( with the 11:30 bus ahead of me) and was feelling quite good. My biggest fears were Drummond to Bothas and the onramp before Tollgate.. I had forgotten to give my shirt to Nigel so decided t drop it off at Enthembeni school, which was successfully done - my daveawalker shirt has been donated... On my way up Nhcanga, Kypie's absolute favourite hill, I passed  Juilan on his attempt at 1000 marathon's and Ultras, not quite knowing what to say I asked if he  thought he would finish , and he complained about his back. Eish I guess I realised then it would be tough for him to finish.. I enjoyed the down into Drummond eating some nuts and ginger, I was welcomed by the announcing saying he loved my hair - sorry Liz. I saw a number of familiar supporter faces in Drummond then set off to greet Arthur and find Bothas. This is a tough grind and most runners aim to do it in an hour, I made it in 62 minutes and managed to see Trevor and Lorraine (My brothers friends)  at their usual spot on Alverstone. When you get to  Kearsney college you know that horrible hill is done. I mostly drank the isofit and sometime water, either in sachet  or bottle (which was called Spring water).

By now I was feeling pretty good and saw Ben Burger taking photos, and eventually got to Nigel at Hillcrest where I collected a beer and bar again, less comments about he's drinking a beer this year but it was a 500ml can not a 340ml bottle this time. We crossed the freeway and now the down would start.. 32gi were handing out anti cramp, which I guess most people did not know how to open so they just tossed them, what a waste. You just snap them and the chilli dip comes out, yes they believe capsicum prevent cramp- I like them so tucked in. By now my predicted time was about 11:35, which was perfect, down and down we went , then we crossed the freeway and on the flat I felt my right hamstring and calf tighten - never to reappear fortunately.

I probably went down Fields Hill faster than ever but just kept a consistent easy pace around 7:30, many people struggled down, one guy was lying down shoes off taking a nap.. others also stopped, which is not a good idea, you must keep moving forward 1 foot in front of the other and repeat till you see Moses...  I walked in the right hand yellow lane as it has less camber, this seemed to work for me. Often in the passed I have tried to walk the shortest route but the overall camber changes so much which is hard as a walker. I do not enjoy Pinetown that much but getting through there means we are getting closer.. Going up Cowies is not bad, plenty of banter around, then only 18km to go and suddenly Sam calls out , he is Shane's brother from Carlton who was  on the road supporting his club. He took a few photos, which were great

By now I was just ticking over rolling in the kms and feeling great , legs were fine no cramping. The one mistake I made was in correcting the distance on race screen. It should never stray more than I guess 400m , as it corrects to the nearest full km. I decided to leave it as is an just add 16 minutes to the total , so I pretty much kept my predicted finish at 11:30ish .    The 11:45 bus came past on the freeway using all 4 lanes, and requesting I move to the side to all the bus to go past unhindered. Fortunately they went passed quite quickly and I did not see them again. They did have a remnant led by a conductor who was behind them, As they passed me they stopped, I diverted left to avoid taking out legs , as I got in front  she said they would run for 3 light poles and promptly stopped after 1, fortunately before I caught them she started running again so I just hung back and let them go, never to be seen again. Up to Sherwood and the cutoff, down to the on ramp, which I took very easy as I have seen many legs cramp going up there and people topple..

Under Tollgate bridge and I was happy to just plod along at 8:00/km knowing I was pretty safe. I do not really like the freeway finish ,I much preferred going through the town. but as we were about to turn towards Moses, I saw Louis and realised he should be safe with about 2.5km to go. His 2 loyal lieutenants were with , I wished him well and strode on. That flat section from Kingsmead is from the pits , it just goes on and on.. As I came in I was confused by the announcer who I gathered was welcoming Julian in but it was the oldest finisher and then he said Julian was still coming but sound was bad,   and Louis was mentioned as well. 

Overall very happy with an 11:47:46, 12 of these now done, I guess  next year I will do a few more marathons all walking...    Running is a pain in the butt.

These were my segment PBS for the day, so I guess I did pretty well

Mcmillan Rd ClimbPR6:27

Bothas Hill downPR16:02

Cowies Hill from waterpoint to WoodsidePR7:20

Harrison Flats - Comrades Down RunPR22:52

York to MoyeniPR6:48

Comrades Down - InchangaPR1:22:19

Comrades down run - 35-40kmPR38:10

Comrades down run - 30-35kmPR37:02

Comrades Down - Winston ParkPR45:58

Post Race

When we got back to joburg Liz ended up on antibiotics for flu and I have been pretty much man down.. Have not felt like this since I had covid...This is Saturday and we managed a dog walk this morning but Pashas was pulling way tooo hard and now I feel my hamstring again..

Roll on Amashova, who is gonna join us?

Anecdote

Body Battery

Not sure how many people monitor their Garmin Body battery  but I keep it on the back burner.. Here is my body battery for the day of Comrades. To have been at 5 ( which is the lowest it goes) form 4 hrs into the race, makes my performance even more impressive. Even my Midrand 60 where I felt terrible I ended at nearly 20..

Start

Yes a single start may have  better vibe but overall I was very happy with the 2 group start.

Finish

I like the idea of the  street finish but this worked up to the finish line after that it was cr8p. Too many spectators blocking the athletes getting out. Once the athletes got out they were exhausted so just sat down. It was SOOO congested  I forgot to go the green number  club, although I doubt I could  have got there. We were worse than sardines even after they decided to open up group1 for group 2 medals- they still took 5 minutes to do that. Soup impossible to get there.. drinks same thing.. By the way what happened to Castle Lite??

Digimag

This was a real stuff up. I could not view it on my phone, normally I analyse start and finish to get it in my head, no chance of that, Why send the link on the Saturday before the race by email??????   Surely final race info could have included start and finish images. I agree in saving costs but that should have been emailed 2 weeks before the race. 

Team Vitality

I met up with Liz at Team Vitality had a chicken burger and spoke to a couple where the wife had finished here first and we were convincing him to join us next year.. He took some pictures of us, just to prove we were there. I must say the people at TV really look after us well.

Thats all.. for now 

Comrades 2023

 

Preparation for this has been different, initially I expected to qualify at my first marathon, Johnson Crane but that was not to be. I can only really run Downhill and even though I had done a number of 20km training runs, they were probably a bit slow.  32 to 40 was  a lot of uphill and I realised qualification was not happening.. I ended on pretty much 5 hrs.. Next up was Edenvale marathon which we did  last and my brain remembered it being pretty much down hill from 14 to 21 and therefore 33 to 40. Not sure but I then did worse.

So off to NMC fast one where it was a lot of down hill some uphill and a wicked last 2km. Both Liz and I decided there would be no Comrades if we did not qualify here, we both had reasonable races and I plan to go back and try to walk a PB there next year.

Our normal 1XXkm over Easter was changed as we did the Runzone 48 which was good to do a longer walking race at pretty much 7:30 per km Both felt good and  we recovered well.. This was followed by the Midrand 60km ( which profile pretty much matches the first 60km of Comrades)  meaning we had done a 42 or long every month.. Something I learned   on C22 was that Long runs are import ( even if I walk them) 

So we arrived at Nikki in Hilton the Thursday evening before Comrades in a positive frame, positive is good complacent is not ..We slept earlyish and did not set alarms. When we woke we did the same 7km  we did last year. I sort of wanted to do a faster walk than last year but thought I was close to 7/km last only to discover when I got back that I had in fact done 7:30/km last year , so my 7:10/km was way faster not bad on that route with about 200m elevation gain! My last km in 6:14 including some uphill. Yes I felt ready..

Later we went to register, first time as a green number, felt pretty good , walked round the museum also for the first time -not really a museum person . Afterwards we did some calorie buying and got some blankets.. Back to Nikki for another great meal and socialising, but early night and no alarm. Two nights of 9 plus hours sleep were pretty much essential..Liz and Niki are friends from varsity and  needed a long catch up but we did  need to make room for  another couple who were staying over as we set off for Durbs..  We learned a few years ago that if you are a couple who both race without support you need to stay the night before and after in the same place. You can use a bus for transport and I really do not fancy catching a bus after the race, so we always stay near the end. This time was Garden Court South Beach- thanks  to Discovery Miles. We are not fans of restaurant food, remembering our seconds  food poisoning from a few years ago makes me nervous as well, so we stopped at Hillcrest Woolies and bought an assortment of snacks., Broccoli and Humus, spicy chicken, chesses etc.  We still went to the end as one needs to do, so much better to have a real idea of everything than to believe a drawing...  

Arriving at the hotel at about 5pm was ideal as there was less idle time and we could have our miniature whisky and dinner , sort out our clothes  .. great having a spare bed. One cannot really sleep the night before as setting the alarm at 00:45 means not much sleep. Previously with Kypie we caught the bus and it was due for a full overhaul so needed first gear on all hills plus they got lost in Durban with road closures so we had to run a bout 2km to the start as the bus got stuck in traffic.. Last year  we joined the anti clockwise queue at ICC from the wrong direction... This year we were prepared.  

 

It was an early start , we wanted to leave the room before 1:30 and we did. Popped in at breakfast  and got a muffin and couple of Croissants and set off for the ICC. We probably should  have gone along the  beach front to Marine Parade but we instead did the night club route, got a few comments and  were asked for one of our blankets.. We out ran him and caught up with some other runners, which deterred him.. walked to the front of the queue and on the bus.. Was a slowish bus but we were at the start by 3:30. We stayed out of the wind just outside of business class( E batch - @THERUNNINGMANN) and waited till it started filling up then went in waited with our blankets as the numbers  went up. E batch is full of legends, well slower ones anyway the fasters ones would get better seedings. My whole reason for 1 more Comrades was to start in E batch , with people sporting 47 , 48, 42 , 34 , 32,24 etc wow this was awesome. Spoke to Mr 100 miler - Tobie Reyneke, we were  joined by a group from Midrand striders.   The one real downer, less singing at the start, the sound system was supplied by Eskom so we missed large chunks but the feeling at the start of Comrades is not reproducible. It makes the 1530km of training worthwhile. One really needs to experience   the camaraderie, the emotions, the fear , the expectation.. 

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The image below tells us an enormous amount about Comrades. At about 20km you get the highest point (817m) of the race, whereas at 58km you get back down to the 650m elevation you started at. The bottom  of Polly's and Little Polly's is about 15m below the start. Drummond is just above the start.  

The start is quite fast till the climb up to Polly's be it on the old route or the new one it is not that bad. Then climbing up to the highest point is just frustrating as one encounters peaks and then sees a higher peak, not even sure where the point is as Road works have removed the sign..

 

I really felt way better at the start than I thing I have ever felt.. I had a number of plans as per my usual prepration.

Plan A - Get a medal

Plan B - Get a Down Race PB my old PB was 11:40:09

          Plan C - Get a Sub 11:30

Plan D - Get a Comrades Race PB ie beat 11:27:35

          Plan E - Get a Sub 11 hour

I was pretty confident of a Plan B and about 3km in chatting to Belinda Skinner I said hoping for Sub 11 but need a perfect race, she said if you don't believe then you have no chance!... That early in the race one needs to be conservative and so I was. I walked  good pace using Norrie's even effort as a guide and just kept one foot in front of the other.

I noticed the camber ( truck rutting as well) going down Polly Shortts more than ever before, but felt pretty good. I really felt that the km boards came quicker than any year previously. I felt in a zone, the roadworks did not affect me at all. I now feel that the route is what it is , my not enjoying a hill or circumstance  or detour does not affect the fact that it must be done so just do it.

Round about 30km I noticed my knee was getting sore, this is the reason I wear knee straps, the strap tends to massage the insertion point  of the Sartorius as it joins on to the Tibia.  I have a belief that it is my tired pronation that causes this pain, this being the reason I use Stability shoes n longer distances. I have used Ascis Kayano and Brooks Adrenaline in the past and with these shoes and a precautionary strap or two I have been fine.  

       

This year I tried Saucony Guides, and having done a 48km and a 60km in them I felt confident in the shoe, so I can only believe that the road camber must have also had an effect this year. It is a difficult pain to describe , it is not really a sharp intense pain but you know its there.. I had various theories about uphill and the downhill causing but it pretty much never went away. It must be the slowest I have ever walked down Inchanga, thinking at least when I go up it should be easier but it was not.. 

I thought of stopping (maybe for a few seconds) but I had Nigel Asprey to give me a cold Heineken 0  in Hillcrest , having already had one at Cato Ridge. The hardest section on the down  is from Drummond to Kearsney College, I normally aim for 1 hr and was exactly on schedule. The climb from Assegaai rd to the highpoint in Hillcrest is a bit of a wakeup call, and by the time I got to Nigel I guess my knees felt ok. He told me Liz tried to buy a plot but the tar won so I was a bit worried about he bleeding as she is on warfarin.. I love the "He's drinking a beer remark". as I walked  down the route,probably the same people as last year!.

Just before Winston park I met Eric my cousin who also told me about Liz, it seemed like she would be ok. From Drummond to Winston Park was my slowest section of the race. Even though the descent from here is big , as a walker the momentum gained from downhill is minimal as ones foot tends to extend out then drop backwards as the ground leg stays behind. Runners get the benefit of being airborne.. This section was a long grind but it was getting closer to Durban. 

Something I missed this year was Bavaria Brau 0 IPA and Beer , the Apple this year was more like an apple juice and was way too sweet.  I liked the IP a sit was different flavour and a pallet cleanser. I did take some Manhattan Sour drops as they are also a different flavour. Along the way I ate some Cashew nuts, BlackCat Peanut butter bar, droe wors , along with some USN Salt tablets. I never really felt like cramping was going to be an issue.

Faisel a friend was meant to be at the top of Fields Hill, he appeared way to early in my reckoning but I guess just before the top  is quote vague. He was very eager to please and the benefit of seeing a friendly face is most welcome!. At the top of Fields I overtook an 11:30 bus, met up with Julian Karp and we chatted down the hill, then I overtook another 11:30 bus and just at the bottom I overtook a third one. I knew they would over take me again, but I need to do my own race. Going through Pinetown and up Cowies was really enjoyable, albeit with a bit of knee pain, but it was not debilitating. The section  of the high way to Sherwood is not my favorite but you can almost smell the sea. As the busses retook their place in front of me I just kept going and really enjoyed the finish back at Kingsmead. 

Something I cannot get my head around is how Comrades can actually measure the route and and say 87.701 km half of which is 43.8505 km. Drummond is measured as  44.37 officially. Therefore halfway is 519.5 before   Drummond but CMSA put it about 100m past Drummond. The controversy of the Sherwood  cutoff where it changed from 50 min to 60 mins but the distance changed from about 9km to about 6km.. Sorry CMSA someone must be help accountable for this, to be cutoff at 11:02 and have the Comrades App predict a 11:58 finish.

On crossing the finish line it was so congested, I got to the Green Number Tent , all food was done but I collected my corrected Green Card ( sorry Green Number card). I set off to find Team Vitality but after going round and round I eventually found my way through the masses.. Took a look around, bit could not see  Liz so headed to the tog bags and or Medical, poor TV lady said I must get food.. When I got back to  medical from the tog bags Liz appeared. I was so grateful that she was ok. We went back to TV, watched some TV of the finish and decided to go back to the hotel.

Amazing how we felt, both chuffed with our results, and easily able to get back to the hotel and start our recovery. We finished off our snacks  and started the marathon of updating friends and family on social media.. The camaraderie  around this race is super special.

Liz had her obligatory dip and we met up with a fellow midrand runner who runs on our route every morning.. We walked along the beach to Ushaka, shared a hake and chips at John Dory's , bought some Spices and then set off to Eric and Ingrid for a catchup. Had an awesome evening catching up.

Today I still "needed" 300 points for my Vitality exercise goal, and did a good 10km, I can still feel my Sartorious, on both legs so it's not an injury just overuse, probably the result of my running too much earlier in the year just to qualify  so that Rowyn James could call me a jogger, and imply that runners in the last hour are no longer relevant.. Eish I really feel its time for big changes on the organising committee of Comrades... To have your 2 safety officers  resign just before the event says it all. Follow the TheRunnigMann    on Facebook for more on this  Comrades Cut off

                                    Keep going one foot in front of the other 

 

  

   

 

 

 

    

Stiff muscles

After my recent not so great marathon at Johnson crane  I knew I needed to back track a bit..

 I have always had tight muscles, suffered from cramping during basics in the army, medics jsut gave me Besserol. But it did not really help running made me cramp, along with excess exercise- like a 2.5 hr gym session thanks to idiotic PT instructors.

I have back issues and often needed realignment, and my Osteopath did blood tests and discovered my Potassium levels were low. He advised that Potassium Chloride ( SlowK) would probably not be absorbed by my body and that I needed to find  alternative sources. 

A year or so ago I found some Chela Potassium and it seemed to help but as usual we use it till its done and forget about it....  Well I bought some more last Friday and voila below are my last 5 x 10km walks on the same route. 

I have struggled for a long time to get my stride over a meter. Yes my cadence is down a bit but  overall my pace is better  and my stride is longer. Yesterday I was working harder on cadence hence the slightly shorter stride near the end.. 

 Below are all my February walks. The 1-2km are just dog walks but I do try and  concentrate on flicking my feet to improve technique.

Hopefully I can maintain this momentum

  

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 Well that was fun....

We normally spend a night or two with Nikki before Comrades and we saw no reason  to change a winning formula. We also know that one must stay at the same place the night before and the night after especially if you have no seconds staying with you..

The drive down was reasonably uneventful , had our coffee milkshake a the Coffee Patch while topping up with biltong and dry wors at the Outspan. The road past Little Switzerland is struggling a bit with subsidence, so we took it easy.   In to registration and great to be the first the queue.. Everything very efficient, although the bus tickets system was left open to abuse as no controls were in place for pre-paid tickets. Collected our wildlands goodie bag and off to drink wine with Nikki. Great meal and catchup was followed the next day by an out and back contour around Hilton which felt a bit like Inchanga. 

    

Nikki then offered to take us on the midlands meander, where we discovered this, which got me thinking a bit

followed by a visit to Swissland cheese where Fran gave us a sumptuous tasting which we wolfed down with a bit of wine. Lying casually on the grass watching the goats go by. I can recommend a chill here.  Then back to Hilton for more energy loading..

It was great to sleep both nights without alarms and just to relax.. But now we needed to get into gear and do the route. I have pretty much always driven the route the day before,  It really helps me focus, Liz also appreciated it this time.. We liased with Nigel who provided Heineken 0 at Cato Ridge and Hillcrest, so that all of us  were in tune, we also popped in for a coffee milkshake at the Brown Cat Cafe. 

Then completed our   route check at Moses Mobida where we  sorted out meeting points and logistics for the next day. We had planned to eat early but neither felt hungary and we also were going to buy broccoli and humus for  later but some how we did not. We ended up checked in and ready to roll, from the 24th floor..

We walked along the promenade from the Marine Parade to the Casino to get a feel for our post race walk, and ended up snacking on nuts biltong and halva, while preparing our race clothes. Having seen others posting photos of copious quantities of gels etc I posted this, yes i did drink the Devils peak Hero.       

We had a whisky to calm the palate, and kept up with social media as the vibe started building. One negative of staying at the finish is getting to the start , for which we have used the pre race bus service for the last few years. With the PMB road works the busses started at 2:30 am..Eish we had a 10 minute walk to the bus pickup.. or so we thought.  No real takeaway breakfast , just a grab and go so we did and then left the spoils in the bakkie.

There were a number of us walking to the bus, and as usual a bit of banter was forthcoming. We were not totally sure where the buses left from and suddenly we saw them, Lots of people embarking , spotted a few friends but were told to go to the back of the queue.. As we went around the corner we realised we had come up the wrong road and the queue went way back... Liz managed to get us in and we chatted with a few novices. One youngsters first marathon was 3:33, he had no idea how he would do over 90km...Into the bus and as Liz said boy but this takes forever to get to PMB..

At least this time we dropped off just behind H batch so we could go up one of the cordoned off side roads, and get up to the tog bags at C batch. We did the charity batch thing again as it benefits wildlands allows us to feel more part of the start. We took blankets with this time so rolled one up to sit on the pavement put the other over our shoulders. As usual it was very festive with most amazing vibe, until the cock crowed. 

I had my plan to get going as close to 7:30 as I could and to just keep going, knowing that sub 7:59 would give me my green number,   

It was good to start with a bit more light as there was really only 1 dark area just before Comrades house I think. As usual I had many greeting me  along the way,  Tony Green who walked my fist ever 42 with me but he now runs , Adrienette said Hi, John Thole   ( from Edunova/ Skyrun) jogged with me for a bit... Bill Slater (Oz) who I have never met introduced himself by saying " I used to climb with Liz", we are still unsure how he recognised me!! Gradually I settled into my rhythm and tried to focus on even effort , I checked my  HR and it kpet pretty consistently at 144 which confirmed my even effort was working.

Amazing the down run goes wickedly down Polly Shortts then you climb Little Pollys and seem to keep on climbing till the highest point at about 20km.  I sort of split the distance up in my mind, my thinking was to complete 15km within every 2 hours. if I could do 1:50 for every 15km then I knew that was 11 Hrs. I never expected to achieve this but 1:50 was my goal to get some time in the bag.  I know all serious coaches talk about negative splits and  yes for top athletes that may work but for us back of the packers I think it is a no no.  If i can get 30 mins ahead of 2 hrs by halfway that leaves me 6 hrs to complete the race..  Coming in to Camperdown an 11 hour bus caught me and as is their norm they wait until they have completely surrounded ne before stopping for a walk break. I extricated  myself and made sure that I sped away from them, the next time they caught me they stopped as they got to me , which I appreciated., I got quite a few positive  comments from most of the bus drivers , official and social.    

Going along the route I saw the cellphone tower at Cato Ridge (30km) and knew that I would get a Heineken 0 there, plus feedback on Liz, with the roadworks this was really the first place we got a lot of spectators. I had a slightly irritating sock which I also fixed while Nigel took the cap off. It was really interesting  walking along drinking a beer.. At about 31km was the first cut off and I was almost 40 minutes to the good which was my plan. At 47km a lady passed me and said only 53km to your green number, that is the distance I did when I cut short the Midrand 60 because  of my sore toes.. I made sure to forget that as quickly as I could.

I really missed having Kypie next to me as he was for the last 4 Comrades, just to have someone to bounce ideas and thoughts off, but I guess it just made me focus more on my race  From early on my left upper ITB had felt tight/ tender, it never really changed throughout the day , it was just there as a niggle. From 30 to 44 is almost numbing as there are long uphills plus the up and down of Inchanga before getting to Drummond - the mythical halfway, where I saw Caitlin but not Ronel who were seconding David van Dyk.. But as numbing as this section is the next section all the way up to the top of Botha's hill is insane torture. It is almost 8km of climbing, I know its tough so I just dropped my arms , knowing that I am undertrained on long long days out, and tried to relax. Trying to keep my even effort without over doing it. I saw Trevor and Lorraine half way up and it si absolutely amazing the boost it gives when familiar people encourage you. It is great having strangers shouting your name but friends area bigger boost. |I always miss the final little hill at the top where some lady was telling us to pump our arms and  race to the top, I muttered something.....

From the top of Botha's one feels it is down hill but there are still uphills, and a Heineken0 to look forward to. Bavaria were the Comrades beer sponsors and  provided us with Beer and IPA  in 150ml cans, the first time I saw a can was on the top of Botha's but I was on the other side of the road and I do not go backwards on Comrades... Suddenly all water tables had cans and I started tucking in, swopping between water energade and beer. I heard someone say something to me but could not quite catch it and this Hillcrest Villagers runner told me "They said you are frigging awesome!" That got me pumped as I strolled along.

Nigel was at his spot at Hillcrest, got my beer and the update that I was more consistent than Liz, who was slowing a bit. Walking along I had many comments about me drinking beer. I found it very encouraging especially as now we were into a heavy spectator area. Then I saw Tienie on the side of the road, we are great friends and it was great to walk down to the RWFL  gazebo where Petro was waiting. 

       .     

 Then the boring highway section before going through Gillits where it was great to see Cousin Eric and Ingrid lounging on the side of the road... Now that was a booster as Eric asked if I was walking the whole way....  . Next was the FNB mile where the stand up comedian said "Here us the first of our walkers...  they have to walk at 12min/km!!", guess he needs an education. for me to walk and complete an event I need to walk at the same speed as someone who is running.. Runners often ask me how fast I am walking and realistically the answer is "the same as you are running....," 

I took it really easy down Fields Hill  where for the first time ever I had stomach issues, maybe  the combination of dates, dried ginger , energy bars and dry wors was not perfect. I guess nothing is but I decided not to stop and gradually the cramps subsided. I found that if I pushed  too hard on the ups thst my calves tightened so I walked just below a compromising speed.  Through Pinetown and its cut off , still 40 mins ahead which was my goal, slowly up  Cowies hill, at the top was a medical emergency which did not look good but medics were there..

Say Jacques who said Tobie had not come past which was a worry... or was he taking it easy.. Antionette had stormed past me, boy is she fit!! Passing Bennie Roux at 18km to go I realised that I was getting close now... just get down the freeway to teh last cutoff at Sherwood, I passed Brad Brown along the way , as I was frequently grabbing IPA's wherever I could. Up past the last cutoff , my customary greeting with Stephen Conway, and up the murderous off ramp for the final  freeway section with the first 12 hour bus breathing down my neck.

That last section is soul destroying, with memories of 2018 when Kypie & I had Anzel in tow.. Past Kingsmead to Moses Mobida. I had tears in my eyes entering the stadium, then crossing the line and funneling through to the Green Number room where.. 

 

this appeared .. I had my photo taken with Blanche Moila. I quickly checked  Liz was not there, grabbed a sandwich and a drink and headed off top Team Vitality. I got a massive hug form Antionette who said Tobie had just come in so that was a massive relief.  I could not find Liz at TV and so set off to the tog bag area, where she arrived with a media round her neck and looking great.    We went back to TV for a meal , leaving there at  18:30 to walk back to our hotel, I saw Stephen climbing over the bridge having completed his 21st... still too scared to walk it. 

I managed to add a bit of distance to our journey but we got back to the hotel.. 

Job done.

We have both need a bit sore, Liz has  bit of a cold./flu  but by today Saturday the 3 Sept we are pretty much recovered..

Thanks for coming along on the journey ..

Keep walking Johnny

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 Eish this is the last week to conceptualise my 10th.

Some thoughts.

I honestly believe that the only reason we train for an event is to enable us to get to the start line positive about the outcome. If we are supremely confident in our own ability, like Tobie Reyneke,  then we don't need to train, we go out and do 100 milers for fun. Even injured he was able to arrive at the start line of Washie this year and run his fastest  100 miler for a longtime. I am not suggesting we run or walk injured but this realisation of arriving a the start with a positive attitude rather than expecting to fail works for me. At the start of a race hearing people expecting failure  just drives me insane. Why bother starting?? 

So for me to follow a rigid coach supplied training plan will never work. If I do not feel good today and coach says speed work, the only beneficiary will be the Physio... I train by how I feel, knowing that I need to be  confident in my ability I do take heed to LSD speedwork etc but not necessarily  on a rigid basis. With this whole change of Comrades dates it has been really hard to plan, (plus our holidays and trips and .... ) no Easter 100+  fewer marathons, no ultras, damn toe nails. All these curve balls could have affected my preparations but then I am only looking for excuses .. I have trained the best I could have and that has resulted in my being ready , one can NEVER make up for a missed training session/event/etc. It is what is and I am ready.

These are my 5km splits for some of my downs

My plan for this year is pretty simple. As can be seen above pace is pretty consistent through the day , unlike an athlete aiming for 9 or 10 hrs who has hours in the bag, every comrades I have done has been between 11:27 and 11:55. I pretty much need to make sure that every 5km in the first half is done in sub 38 mins or 7:25/km  . I know then first hour after Drummond will hard all the way to the top of Bothas, but after that as long as I have time in the bank I can take the hills easy. I know how hard it is to take off a second on ave pace in the second half , but how easily a 9:00/km hill adds on a second.

I like this idea of looking at groups of 5km as it will make decision making easier, I need to keep an eye on average pace as I would really like to finish in 11:3X as my fastest down was 11:40:06, but anything better than 11:59  will be accepted with gratitude.

I t looks like the weather could be interesting, temps have gone from 34 deg down to 20 deg I guess somewhere  in between is probable, but nothing I can do about the weather so don't worry about what we cannot change, let me rather focus on being positive and have the privilege to wear this shirt with pride.

     

  

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 So here goes with my Comrades 2022 preparation update...

I always do the Midrand Striders 60km which is normally  6 weeks before Comrades..

As I also racewalk and invariably AGN decide to have a Grand Prix the day before the 60km, I have no idea why or who is trying to block me.....  This year with a new CGA Racewalking commission   so they decided to make the AGN event a qualifier for the CGA team for Provincials.. No ways I can miss a qualifier so I entered..

I use Maxed shoes for 10km RW and they are really a size short.. hence only using them for 10km.. I normally am quite good at cutting my toe nails... but I forgot about the smaller shoes.  I wanted to do a sub 67mnin 10km and kept very consistent and finished in 66:25 so was very happy, finished first in Age group so overall very happy. Chatted a bit with friends then started walking to the car..   I could not believe how sore my toes felt.. Got back to the car and the smallest 3 toes on each foot were quite bloody.. sorry no pics.

I did trim my nails when I got home!!!  But wearing my Brooks Adrenaline ( Comrades shoes) meant I had more space for my toes. Overall this was not great preparation for the 60km, which started at 6 am , in the dark. My goal was to get as close to 7:30/km and try as much as I could  to keep it there, after about 12 km I was pretty much on target but that's about when my feet started complaining. I felt like I had stones in shoes, under the soles, normally I  sort of kick the ground and move the stones to the front  of the shoes. This did not work as my toes were so sore and then every time I went uphill the stones used gravity  to irritate me once more.. The 60km is an out and back so I tried to take my mind off my feet by trying to guess when I would see who coming back. I normally carry minimum Norflex so that I do not take unless I really need to. I had decided I would take my lone Norflex at Halfway..  Seeing Liz at about 28km , when she asked if I had Norflex  I knew I would not be getting one, she looked finished  so I gave her mine..( I was worried about her, she to was worried as she told me later I was limping a bit.. probably from the toes)  Turning at 30km with the new route I had in my mind thought we would not be going down the sand road towards Diepsloot..I was wrong we went pretty much as far down as the sand did. Had a snack and back up... eish..I felt finished, ,pace had dropped to 7:45/km and interestingly my Average HR which was pretty much 138 most of the first half had dropped to about 128  when I checked it at about 33km. I normally only look  at HR after the event.. 

I decided to just see if I could finish but the suggested cut off is 8:00/km and as i got above that and my HR got below 118 I realised I was not going to do the full 60 and decided to take a short cut which would take about 7km off the route. I was really struggling along at over 11:00 /km at times but mostly managed to stay with those who were essentially about an hour ahead of me. Looking at the profile below its easy to see  why the pace was so slow near the end. The hills are monstrous..

When I go to the end I was expecting Liz to be there but no.. so I went to the car and low and behold my Cellphone which I left on Airplane mode was flat. So I decided to go look for Liz, A quick stop for diesel while keeping an eye on the road and I found her literally 300m down the road. I then went and got some Alcohol free beers - not a pretty sight walking to the bottle store and joined up with Liz...

Caught up with some ex club mates at Midrand striders. Boy were my feet sore.

No walking till Thursday and feet at fine.. 

Currently my goal for 5 weeks time is 7:41 /km which will give me a Down walk PB... 11:40:10 is my current pb... Interestingly by making the distance distance 91 not 90 drop the required pace by 5 secs /km. Distance is 90.8km this year

 

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Pacing

Running Mann

Pacing is key to success in a race

I have been trying to work out a simple explanation of my personal pacing philosophy (3p) and on a walk the other day it all came together ...
  

Key

Lap           1km

Pace         Pace  for that  km

GAP          Strava evaluates pace based on elevation gain and loss and gives an approximation of effort  

Elev           Elevation gain/loss of the km  

HR             Heart rate

7:20           Planned pace - this is a comfortable training pace for me 

Elapsed     Total walk time

Goal           Goal time at 7:20

Gain Total  Ahead or behind Goal in total

Gain km     Ahead  or behind for current km

Ave Pace   Am I on schedule

So to do a sub 11 on the Up Comrades one needs to finish at just below 7:35 pace. A simple 41 s /km slower will be a sub 12.. Ah the simple basis of pacing. I do round these off a bit, but it is your average pace that is critical. Garmin has a Race Screen if you have ConnectIQ, this will allow you to correct the distance when doing an accurate race eg Cape Town Marathon where I corrected my watch distance about 4 times, actually seeing how the 1m is added in for every km as per measuring guidelines- this prevents a race being short  (page 15...    MeasurementOfRoadRaceCourses.pdf ) plus the extra few m for not taking the shortest line. This race screen kept me on target for a 4:34:30 finish time for a G seeding , some running was involved and mat to mat.  I used the Race Screen on Comrades and I believe it helped me as by changing that data screen I could see exact finish time at that ave pace.. No fade is built in but that is easy to workout. I tend to round off my race distance to allow a bit of fade even in the final stretch. 

Looking at my above walk, the first km was 27 too slow, no really an issue (yet) then I lost another 35 secs but this is my hardest hill on my route.. now I am 62 seconds behind target, with 13km to go I need to now average 7:15 ie 13 x 5 secs is 65 seconds to get below my 7:20, where a runner has the advantage is in being able to run downhills below 6min/km and gain that 62sec plus in 1km . I need to chip away at the deficit slowly. Remember every km I do faster than 7:20/km will eat into  the 62sec  and every km slower will add to it .   3km add another 13 secs, but then i gradually wore away at the deficit till in the 10km I erased it. I then managed to build up a cushion and get ahead of the clock.

I hope this is not too confusing, if it is send your queries...