I must be getting to my limits. I’m not sleeping right. I go to sleep early to get a proper sleep and wake, after 4 hours feeling awful but unable to sleep again Nor am I eating right. I pick at food, eat junk and less healthy food because its easier and...
What stories do the log-book numbers tell? Distance 77 km in the Two Oceans week, 33 easy the next, then 56 and 65 km building to 80+ km longest week. It’s not a lot by the hero runner standards by it is more than the minimum and just a tiny bit less than what I...
Notes from the 1967 Comrades: Another record of 600 entrants; threats from traffic authorities to stop the race because of congestion. The winner, Manie Kuhn crosses the line 12 inches (maybe 30 cm) in front of Tommy Malone collapsing and lunging; there was no finish...
Don’t know if I like rest days. Part of me says “Run … just a bit”. Most of me restlessly rests. I get up at the same time as running days anyway. Sleep just isn’t a comfort thing. Or more accurately, my comforts don’t need to sleep...
Surviving Comrades training, getting to the start line uninjured, fresh, without others’ ‘flus and colds is a challenge. Surviving the road on the day and getting a medal is another. Yet Comrades always asks more. It pokes your ribs saying, “So you can...
Good miles or junk miles? Sure there was a time when I wouldn’t run less than 12 km at a time. That’s a memory I can’t do now. The thing is, these 5 mile runs in the morning are working for me. They are short enough to recover from before the next...
If I thought about it, getting ready to run this morning would have been a grind. But as I stepped out the door, something strong surged in me. On the ups on the way home it surged again and again. I got home to the news of the Boston marathon blast. The fun went out...
As I go out now to get more miles in my legs, my mind turns to the Big Day. The good thing is that the agony comes later in the run. I’ll start happy. Let the hanging-in creep up, take over the closer to the end the better. After Polly Shorrts is okay....
“As one would expect in an atmosphere charge with common suffering and endeavour, there is a lot of spontaneous, unconscious humour of the type that the written record cannot adequately capture. One pictures the exhausted 1935 athlete lying on the roadside on...
If it wasn’t for the Comrades urge, I would have stayed in bed. Wind chilled the dark cold. Bed felt good. The roads loudly called me out to accumulate more miles. Before even 1 km it was all okay. I could have gone on but I ran till I was pumped, flirted with...
