Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Comrades 2019

This has been a weird year for training and for all the extraneous events that have had an impact. We've had work pressures, family issues , injuries, flu, lack of motivation .. its been tough.
I have tried to downplay expectations even knowing that this was probably my best hope of a sub 11 but at the same time realising that it may be a bridge or two too far.

We stayed with our friend Nikki in Hilton and decided to catch the bus from PMB to Durban , leaving our car at the finish gave us the most flexibility on the day. As usual we went to  the finish and explored the area,  found the tog bags , and the Team Vitality tent, wow it was different when there were 10-20000 people filling in all the gaps....

Although Kypie and I had planned to do the race together we had not really made a proper meeting up plan.. The trip down in the bus was reasonably uneventful until the driver stopped to let some people relieve their bladders. We were a bit concerned the bus may have broken down but no we soon  set off on the wet road to Durban.. The rain had stopped and form my app it showed no more rain, other apps seemed to predict rain at 7am, with the start being in the dark at 5:30. To ensure we had warm clothes at the finish we left a bag with Biddulphs in PMB and took one to Durban. With our bags handed over we entered C pen( By raising R6000 we get into the Charity batch- we took 50 seconds to cross the start , the last runners crossed about 12 minutes ) at 4:40 where we hoped to meet up with Kypie. We never thought we would get there before him and besides we could see everyone walking past us to get in the batch so thought we would see him if he was late. We got quite far forward in the batch just by following others forward as they moved to meet up with friends. Next time we will plan this better!!

The usual quiet Durban build up with National anthem then Shosholozawas followed by the cock crow and the Cannon which wakes up all the poor pigeons in Durban....   I seriously believed that Kypie was ahead and hoped he would not start out too fast... Our goal was to get to 7:20 / km and stay as close to that as we could knowing the hills would impact us and move that to 7:30.. That was plan A.    If you watch the video here at just on 50 minutes race time you can see the Orange cap on the other side of the road, that's me Comrades 2019 video  Not sure if we feature again I have not watched the whole recording yet

At about 12km I looked at my watch and average was 7:20/km a few seconds later I heard " I am so thankful to have caught you" we were re-united.. In 4 Comrades now we have only been apart for 17 in the first one and 12 now. It was great to be reunited but round about here I started feeling  my left hip flexor /piriformis complaining. Not much I could do so I just ignored it, my stride must have changed / compensated for it as later I felt my right hamstring tightening. Both of these were worse on uphills and camber.. So as we started Cowies hill it was there. It did not slow me down but was an irritation.
Met up with Nigel Asprey at 32km and got  a Tonic water which is a really great change of flavour. I was a bit disappointed as this year they only had naartjie energade and my favourite is the blueberry, but hey beggars can't be choosers..My goal had been to get top the mat at Drummond in 2:22  and we managed a 2:25 which meant sub 11 was very tight as the mat is not quite halfway.

Going up Nchanga my hips were mildly sore, and my calves also were complaining a bit but that's life.. Looking at the splits afterwards we were faster on all the big hills than 2 years expect for Pollys... It was not a bad climb just goes on and on and on. and this starts at the conclusion of the hardest road marathon in South Africa
 
           
I truly believe in even effort so whether going up down or flat you should expend the same energy which means that you never push to hard. As your energy levels and enthusiasm wane so your speed will drop. And yes it drops, suddenly at the top of Nchanga you are into a breeze and it slows you and saps your energy . Up Nchanga and pretty much all the way down again.

By this stage  one is going through the motions, keeping going forward trying to stay positive.This is a heavily undulating section with no major hills but you look across to about 6km ahead and realise you need to go down quite a but before ascending to the same height.  Just after the highest point I looked across and who would not recognise those legs... Liz was on the side of the road puking... We thought biltong had solved the problem but not yet.  I tried to encourage her to stay with us and jog ahead on the downs which she did till we started little Pollys but she was pretty tired. With a heavy heart we went on but we did slow a bit as by now I was leaning quite badly to the left, I think when I finished in 2015 I also had a slight lean but that was only at the end . I was trying to pull my back straight but with the camber on the road it was not easy.   There was an Ex SA cricketer Mornantau Hayward struggling up Pollys and Kypie took great delight in chatting to him  as they inched up the hill.. It goes much quicker if you take your mind off the task at hand..   
 
We just kept moving on not quite knowing how Liz was doing but knowing that if I stopped I probably would not get going again.   To turn around and look backwards while walking forwards is a no no 80m into a race, eventually a friend Brian May acme past and said he had helped Liz coming up Polly Shortts. That was a relief. It was great to finish my 9th Comrades with an awesome walking buddy. at last we got the exact same finish time..

After finishing I went to get my  togbag ( we both had stuff in each tog bag just in case) so Liz would have warm stuff  to put on as PMB cools off quickly and sunsets at about 5:10pm Once I had my bag I went back to the finish, it felt like there were a million people there. Fortunately met up with Adri who confirmed Liz had finished. So do I go left where there are millions of people or right to medical to see if Liz is there. She was not at Medical so I fought my way through the hordes to our club tent, and eventually found Liz who had puked again, there was another team member Bruce who had also puked and said the berry smoothie helped him so Liz had one and felt a bit better, by which time the medic arrived but Liz said she was ok. Her skin showed she was not dehydrated so we decided to avoid the biggest non military temporary medical facility in the world.  By this stage  Bruces wife arrived having spent 2 hours at some other tent waiting for him..
     
We then set of to find our car and get Liz into a bath at Nikkis place.  I had a meager meal as not really hungry, Liz just had another smoothie.  We drove back home on Monday and why did I only stop once when I got home my legs and back had seized up pretty much. I initially slept well last night then tossed and turned and tossed and turned.. This morning I am still very tight but it has been gradually easing. I really prefer not to take any pain killers or NSAIDs so as to allow the body to heal naturally. If you tell the body there is no pain it will not heal itself. I should be fine in
a day or two..
Dave

Liz you can see below how Liz slowed after Camperdown but she ended faster. A few more kms and we would have ended together..

 Kypie
Looking below you can see that Kypie was 1 minute behind across the start line..


I used race predictor on my Garmon 920xt it was awesome you put in the total distance and when you get to a km marker you can press the lap button and it will correct the pace and ETA..   In ths case I put in  87km as I did not want it to go a km short. It worked really well  just when Kypie met up with me we were on a 10:42 pace but as the hills kick in this drops but it was awesome near the end as predicted ETA went just over 11:30 and we by then knew we were safe.      

Monday, April 22, 2019

Easter 100

Ok so this years Easter training was very different !!! over the years we thought we had built up a loyal following who helped make our training fun. Then some decided to move to the Cape, others decided to do Two Oceans which left Liz and I.

Not really wanting to 42- 46 km on our own we decided to revert to our 2010 attempt at the Randburg Harriers 48km  on Friday... Then Liz gets sick and as per 2010 we realise that getting cold and wet would negate any real benefits we gained by going a bit further..  so at 4am on Friday we went back to sleep and  only set off when it was  a bit warmer at about 7am.

We both felt good with Liz going really slowly and increasing her expected 16km to a reasonable 33km . I did my fastest ever Good Friday also doing 33km but had to go the other way round the block  to add on 3km to get there.. It was really a nice route and so my weekend goal of sub 7:20 became achievable, thats with carrying a small backpack .  If I am ever to do a sub 11 at Comrades it will be this year.. I pref
er the up, it's a bit shorter and therefore sub 11 a bit more achievable ..
Friday night Liz's throat gets worse.. so now what ? I had in the past had this idea of walking to woodlands Park run doing the park run and walking back, but we don't often do 30 plus km. So I negotiated with Gerhard and Carmenn to change their parkrun and at least I had somewhere to leave my backpack.  It was a bit shorted walking there only 13.2km than Waze calculated which was 14.7km. At the start I decided to rather  run a the parkrun as its very congested not really a walkers route, I did run it a  few years ago. I managed a 29:19 and Gerhard hung in for a 30:51 both about 20 secs off  PB and Carmenn managed a PB. As soon as Carmenn came in I set off on the return journey..    Its a lot of climbing going back .. I averaged 7:16 going there and 7:24 coming back which made me really happy with those hills

On the way back Liz confirmed her doctors appointment  which made my timing really tight,I took a short cut which did not work but screamed in just as she was about to leave.
So with Antibiotics on script we set off to convert Liz to Brooks shoes, Ghost 11 are now to be her Comrades shoe..

Sunday morning is Dogrun, so having convinced Liz to give it a skip I took all three dogs.. Besides the start where Kenzo got the leads wrapped around all four legs with Amber inside one loop, the only real issue was with Amber running being the two boys  when Kenzo stopped  to smell or pee Amber carried on so once again we got leads entangled. Still managed our fastest dog run of the year, 3 dog power makes a difference.

Liz and then set off to do about 20, Liz seemed fine as she slowly accumulated kms...  She took it really easy and ended just shy of two oceans for her 2 runs..  I was on 88km in 10:30 now that looked promising for Comrades..  I had hoped to gain a bit more towards  my 100 with rain expected on Monday .. but really it is what it is.

Monday was cool  and overcast but no rain so off I went and got my total to 103km..
Overall a very successful weekend for me , now to get Liz right for next weeks Midrand  60km...



I know of a few people who draw pictures or write words. Maybe I should try 

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Comrades 2019 and its pitfalls

When CMSA first said sub 4:50 to qualify I basically said that's Comrades  done for me.. I entered Kypie as he asked me to .. Liz said she would only do it if I did.. 4 days after entries opened I relented.  Yes we could get substitutions but how would that really help - rather come up with a plan to qualify..
Over the years my cramping has prevented  me from running but the more I thought about it the more I realised it was the uphill that was causing it. If I just run the downs what will happen, have the dog runs helped..
Liz injured herself at Eersterus 21 on the 12 Jan.. a calf strain / soleus issue, the day before we left  on holiday I did a all fall down front brake stop on my bike  - golf was out so why do we go to 2 golf resorts???  Cycling was not great as my thumb had been hurt when going over the handle bars...   So on the 20th we went to the Fairways in the berg. I had hoped to do some  good strength / hill work, which turned in to cycling as Liz could cycle so Liz cycled while I walked.. As we got closer to my planned attempt at Qualifying I realised some fast (for me) running was needed and we found a nice 5km route in Cathkin Park where we had moved to for our second mid week break. I enjoyed these sessions .

Liz and Kypie had agreed to support me at Sasolburg 42.. I dreamed of the route- this is after all the  marathon route I have done the  most often! I knew the hills, I knew the times I had to achieve. I normally go through halfway at about 2:27 but knew that to satisfy Rowan James I would need to go through halfway in 2:15 or less, essentially making up the 10 minutes in the first half  the race. Which sort of meant I needed to run about 10km   so I needed to run at the start as there are not 10 down hill kms on the route.. I said I would run the first 2km  but felt good so went to 3km as there was a slight decline from 2km onwards which I wanted to utilise. My pacers were not too happy.... Liz fell back but she was nursing her calf.. Kypie hung and encouraged me..  2:15 was achieved now to finish the second lap in 2:32... After running my walking does get slower but I persevered.. Tobie came past and said I looked comfortable and should make it..  Kypie fell back, I was still ahead of Buks and his bus so that was good. At 34 km we get the worst hill on the race.. and I was contemplating trying for a sub 4:40 but  then remembered 2018 when I cramped near the end as there is a good bit of uphill to end with. I knew I was pretty safe so decided to just keep moving when suddenly Kypie reappeared and we finished together in 4:47:08, as we turned around wondering where Liz was .. low and behold she finished 30 seconds behind us.. She had not seen us. Buks finished about 30 ms ahead of Kypie and I having caught me with about 300 m to go..

Qualification done , now I could do a race I always wanted to do..  Delloites 42 ... My first walking road race was Delloittes 10km in I think 2007..  Liz was keen so wen entered.. I was scared of it, knowing its tough is one thing, experiencing it was another. I was hoping for about a 5:08 and wanted a 2:30 ish first half which worked out. going up klapperkop the second time was quite daunting as can be seen below.

 I mostly do not worry about drinking and eating on races as I mostly find there is enough available. I try also not to drink too much so as not to need to pee as that is a waste of time... at about 28km I thought would rather drink at the next  water table...except no water there or the next. I thought Pretoria High School will have... no so going up the road I wet my cap on a sprinkler just too cool down a bit.. at 39km we were told 1 water sachet and as much coke/ creme soda  as you want.   I really wish water tables would do this when they are running short of something. The rule is a max of 2 but I regularly see people taking 4 or more.. We are a selfish bunch. I finished in 5:13 which I was very happy with.

Next up was my favourite event.. Kosmos 3 in 1 This is serious mind therapy and besides it was to be my 5th and as hard  as this event is it is great. I may even continue doing it after my Comrades days are past.. 
So far I have 3 permanent numbers 
AC18 for African Centurion
2497 for Tough One
and now
981 for Kosmos 3in1 


How awesome it was to cross line of the 10km wit Liz and Kypie..

Jackie Gibson 42 is coming next weekend 

Orange below is the gentle Kosmos  elevation gain is 178m
Red is Sasolburg elevation gain is 177m
Green is Deloittes elevation gain is 587m 
Blue is Jackie Gibson.. elevation gain is 676m...