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The Comrades Marathon – More than just a road race

June 18, 2013 by Leave a Comment

If Comrades was just another long road race,  an “up”, a “down”, and a silver medal would be enough for an ordinary runner like me.

But Comrades is much more. Partly because of what I do with it, sure. You seem I’m a magician. I make it big, rich, fulfilling, especially if I can finish in time. But I couldn’t do that without what Comrades is. So I go back. If I skip a couple because I want to do something else or can’t that year,  it’s ok.

A part of me is always a Comrade. Until I can’t I’ll go back again.

 

Filed Under: 1. The Gem in the Conception, The Story of us
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So why run the Comrades Marathon

June 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I know now why I wanted to run this not-too-but-long enough ultra- marathon.

I know to exactly why.

Running helps me get the most out of life. The Comrades Marathon, all that it is, gets me the most out of running.

Simple. Marvellous

 

 

 

Filed Under: Articles
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Comrades 2013 – Physical overview

June 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Cap and Shoes

Long enough ago …

I ran 11 Comrades, one after the other, got sick, got better and a medal a couple years later then stopped for too many years.

So this is a kind of second time around and definitely starting over. My record for Comrades Two – two Vic Clapham medals, one DNS and one failure in which I got to about 84 km before the 12 hours ran out. Right, running 84 km in 12 hours is a failure.

To put my Comrades Two into perspective, 20 years ago I ran I silver, now I charge the last 500 m to get in before the final 12-hour cut-off.  My average for Comrades One was under 9 hours with two just under 10 hours, one 10+ hour run and two under 8 hours.

But hey, if getting a Vic Clapham medal (11 to 12 hours) is the way to honour our Vic, I’d happily run that long every year I can get to the startline of his masterpiece at least okay enough to run with not too many holes in me.

Training right

This year I was strong to ultra-run. Something I haven’t really been for maybe 13 years. The strong of running regularly over many months, gradually increasing mileage and having an easy week now an again and, not getting sick or injured during that time.

I think its right to say that if you manage yourself right through all the training, you can manage yourself through the day of the run.

Running enough adapts all the running systems  and gets them working together – legs strong, cooling system efficient, digestion-absorption supporting running, motivation making sure that I know a sleep after finishing is better than a sleep that stops me finishing in time – (my kind of running humour in case you’re wondering why I brought sleep into the equation); in short all of what it takes to run.

In practice it means having fun on 4-hour runs, get back and still have energy for the kids and to mow the lawn. And to look forward to lots more run-in sunrises.

Running on the day

In running-on-the-day terms my training meant I got to the start line maybe 12 kg lighter than when I last ran Comrades two years ago, and with more then the minimum miles in my legs; enough I would have guessed for an 11-hour Comrades.

Not that I was there for a race against the clock and course and conditions.  I was going to share the run with friends Hans Koeleman and Simone Guikema from Amsterdam, Holland. I was confident that I had enough to finish no matter what and sure enough that’s what happened

More than that I knew that I knew enough about what and when to eat and drink along the way. I do. I know how to use my fat supplies for energy (enough I’m sure to get around the world a couple of times), how to keep up my blood sugar up and how many and what electrolytes to take when. I kinda know it all and know it right, do it all and do it right. Except for one thing.

So I had enough when I hit the heavy heat and wind on Harrison flats to get to the end in a slower time. My legs never got sore during or after the event because I walked lots on the ups.

The only problem

The one thing I can’t do is get the past the point where I just can’t drink anymore. Slurp-fatigue.Swallow-overload. I tear open the water sachet or Energade bag, or swallow at the Pepsi cup and my throat opens to let in a little and then … that’s it. Gag. No more for a good km or two.

Under the 2012 conditions, going at that slower pace which increased the time-gaps between the water tabled, I dehydrated. Not enough to blow the run, but enough to make walking the ups even slower.  I cheated a bit on the downs and let gravity drag me into running quite merrily (more humour – it’s what really gets me through, with my shoes and cap). Thank goodness the last 18 km has lots of downs.

When I’m dehydrated my mind keeps working at whether I will make it with what I have left. I like that. When it is sure my old body had enough it wanted to drink even less. By then it was getting dark and cooler anyway. Sure enough, I crossed the line with a big grin. Ultra-success. Comrades success. But well depleted. 3 l of drip depleted.

I’ve been more or as dehydrated at the end of a run, even at this year’s Two Oceans 56km run. Usually I stagger away, think about and sometimes start drinking a beer and gradually replenish. But this time I though it best to get a drip which ended up as three and get a bigger part of the Comades family experience – those great doctors and carers in the medical tent. They restored just about all the vitality I need to smile and doze on the way back to Durban.

Other than that I got off lightly. I’ll lose a toenail on my right big toe. But it will grow again and maybe look better than the old one.  And a got more light from the Comrades glow, so that I’ll be back next year if all goes well.

The learnings

The learnings reinforce the essential basics:

Do the right training right. Know how how to eat and drink on the run. Know how to cope with conditions on the day, even if it means toughing it out.

 

Filed Under: Articles, Comrades 2013, Training the Body Tagged With: , , ,
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After the 2013 run

June 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I’m still full of Comrades.

I got my medal, a couple of pints of drip afterwards and all the goodness that Comrades gives.

Plus I had the week after the run in the Durban area winter sun, with my supportive family. Their time after my time.

The best thing was that I could walk freely even the day after the run, unlike its been sometimes. That allow me to get the most of playing with the, time with friends and family, soak up the mild sun and the Comrades afterglow, get sand in my toes.

The next challenge is to ease back into everyday life, keeping the Comrades glow. I know how to do that. Its not hard. I’ve practiced that too. So I don’t let Comrades go. This recovery, that after party, learning from this years run, glancing at next year’s run all help to make it one.

Then too there’s lot to think about remember, capture, explore from the 2012 Comrades experience.

More on that to come.

Filed Under: Comrades 2013, The Story of us
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Pilgrimage

May 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The journey to the start

The journey to the start of Comrades is part of  its richness. A pilgrimage, a journey to a place where something special happens so that we too get some of what makes it special.

Mine starts tomorrow early, the long drive by car from Cape Town to Durban. There is a practical reason for it, but the journey to the start is part of my Comrades glow.

So is Van Morrison swirling through clear, chilled-cold Karoo starlight,  as I stop to stretch, shiver and marvel, family asleep in the car.

The slowness and effort of the journey allows my mind, me, to deepen its engagement with what’s to come; to take the focus that has driven my training ever closer to the place where its goal will be realised. Different to flying there, so quickly disjointed from home

Behind us will stretch the sparkling connection to home.

And I see the glitter-trails left by other runners making the same journey.

Some of us will meet at a petrol station along the way, creak out the driving seat in tracksuit bottoms, connect, nod, know.

 

Filed Under: Comrades 2013, The Story of us
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Rugby and running

May 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

One of the by-products of rugby is the recovery massage practice.

The players get battered and bruised in  game,  get fixed up so that they can get battered again the next weekend.  They sit in an ice bath. Specialists dig deep into their bruises.

Getting fixed is almost as tough as the playing. I got a taste of that yesterday. I should do it more through the training weeks.  But I like, before Comrades to get my legs flushed and the trigger points released, in there where muscles have jammed in their fascia sheaths. It hurts. But not too bad.

Afterwards my legs have happy bounce. I feel even more ready to run.

And Jody, the expert says my legs are not in bad shape.

It’s gotta be good.

 

Filed Under: Comrades 2013, Training the Body Tagged With: , ,
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2013 – a last 10km

May 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

1-DSCN0971

A last 10 km run 8 days before the run, on the Table Mountain road above the city centre.
A good easy send off with a deeply etched memory. Except that I probably spent as much time taking pics, bathing in the marvel and sharing it with mountain bikes who were equally enthralled.

 

So now I can turn my mind to packing for the trip.

Step by step I’m getting into the run and it all helps me get my mind ready for the big day.

Filed Under: Comrades 2013, Training the Mind
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2013 Taper day 18

May 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Un-timed 5km time-trial after a 2 km warm-up. The point being to stay up against the effort (effort = 2 steps per breath) of a run from which I can  quickly recover . In the old days I would have run 10 km but these younger days, well, I’m older.

As maybe it should have, everything in me surged and throbbed. The ups were powered, the downs laughed, the flats glided. Nearly like an athlete.

My running tanks are full. Legs working just fine. Great.

The tanks are not enough big enough to keep my ~ 6.10 min/km current long run cruising pace all the way. I know that. And no matter how I manage myself, by Camperdown I’m going to have to dig deep. It’s how I am this year.

Otherwise everything is working fine – head, body, legs, inspiration.

Now to get to the start line un-sick, with not too many cuts, tears or strains, with my champion-timing-chip.

 

Filed Under: Articles
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2013 taper day?

May 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

A personal note

My taper is turning out to be, well, unstructured.

I want to run more. I don’t want to run too much. I skip runs if there is just I hint that I don’t want to do it.  I set out for 18 km then settle for 12. This morning rain tapped on my window while I was getting ready to go out so I had a cup of coffee.

But I don’t mind.

If I feel anywhere along the Comrades way as I felt this morning when sudden urge made me sprint and laugh in my jeans and sandals through a parking lot while doing chores, it going to be okay. Maybe better.

And I want to see how fast I can run my 5.22 km around my neighbourhood time-trial route, maybe tomorrow, even if its raining.

Filed Under: Articles
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Engaging your mind 3: Toughness

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

An exercise to get your mind right for the Comrades Marathon

Mind lock small

Accept that its going to get tough out there.

It is going to get tough. Accept that. Facing up to and going through the effort is what ultra-running and Comrades is about.

Unless you run way behind what you could be doing, it’s unlikely to be a dance out there. And even then 87 or 90 km is a long way to dance

It’s okay.  It’s meant to get hard, uncomfortable. It can even  get sore and awful. But equally is not so tough that it can’t be done. Comrades is meant to take some of your grit and determination.

So know too, that Comrades can and has been done by thousands of ordinary people, who, like me are not unique, exceptional world-record running ultra athletes. 

Also I am not one who glories in tough. I don’t want to over-eulogise tough. If you want tough then there are longer, harder runs, even a couple of impossible runs to do.

But still Comrades will make me dig deep. And I know that bit of effort, grit and a good few months of putting miles into legs, its quite possible to get through the inescapable toughness of Comrades.

Comrades Marathon: always hard but doable, with a bit of effort and grit. In doing and sharing the hard is a marvel.

Know too that you won’t crumble at the first sign of discomfort or at the 20th. Your resilience rises to meet the run.

I also always take comfort that its not the first bit that hard its only the last bits, so there is plenty of time to enjoy the run too. Except for one year when it was hard from even before the start. I think I know what caused that so it shouldn’t happen again. The way I feel now it definitely won’t happen again. And anyway, I got the medal so I know I can cope with even that.

Dealing with the discomfort or pain

The right thing to do when feeling uncomfortable or in pain is to go into it. Work out where and what it is, how bad it is and what you can do about it. While you are moving forward.

Bring the issues to light, to your mind and they already lessen.

Once you have the measured that it is not life-, limb- or organ-threatening, the pain doesn’t have to hold you back As Ann Trason, supreme ultra-athlete who did so well at the Western States 100 miler, once said, “There is a time that the pain doesn’t get any worse.” And that’s true. Unless something is seriously broken.

If there is a real problem deal with it. You can put plasters on blisters; a lube on chafes. Water into dehydration, food into energy, foot after foot on the road. You can go slower if you are starting to cramp to let your muscles recover a little.

Mind unlock small

Going slower and eating/drinking is often good. Less stress and your body can work better – digest, feed, cleanse.

It maybe as simple as getting in more sugar-carbohydrate-gels. It’s also often that you need more, so electrolytes always help, so do the oranges, bananas and potatoes you find at the aid stations. Solid food -something salty with protein, is always good – peanuts and raisins, a whole-food energy bars.

It may be that you even have to consider bailing, quitting before the end, if what troubles you is bad enough

Comrades is doable

Always Comrades is doable.

If you run to your training, eat and drink right early and often in little bits,  deal with problems you encounter,  keep your sense of humour and keep going forward nothing will stop you getting there. Just dodge the cat’s eyes the reflectors built into the road to help misted drivers and trip runners.

And if its really hard, take the Comrades heart from the runners around you, from the spectators along the road, from your family, friends and colleagues. They all want you to keep going. They want you to succeed. So do you. So, keep going.  Your rivals may not want you to but here’s a good opportunity to put one over them.

At the end, medal around the neck

And afterwards the pain is not so bad. That earned medal glows nicely, polished by the discomfort and effort.

I am one of the ordinary and know that the Comrades has made me ultra-ordinary, in that nice Comrades phrase, even extra-ordinary at times. And that gives me the strength to cope with the inevitable discomfort.

Read here for an exercise in mental training to make visualisations concrete.

Read here for an exercise in dealing with the Comrades pre-run Fears

Filed Under: 5.Training, Training the Mind Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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