Its the end of August and the next few weeks are important. In a very real way ones best Comrades Marathon time is determined by the end of October. After that its one training is about getting strong enough while remaining fresh enough to achieve the best time. More...
The 16 year-old in me wants to run Comrades again. The 40 year-old know-it-all-with-a-silver medal starts, “Well if you want to do …” The ageless me, the one I want to know better, hugs them both. “Go to your memories”, he gently steers...
The spirit that makes Comrades unique started early. Arthur Newton When Arthur Newton won his second race, the third running of the event in 1923, he refused the first prize. The Comrades spirit expressed itself there, in its earliest years. His generous view was that...
The 10 year-old in me enjoys my running antics. His cheers are loud. He finds my name in the results; not worrying I don’t make the headlines. He loves the peeling naartjie smell, how his mouth sucks at its taste-burst after a run. The taste is as fresh as that of the...
On the past weekend’s little trail runs I remembered (a long ago running partner) Rick Shaeffer’s comment: When I was little. my mom shouted “Come out of the rain, stop jumping in puddles, you’ll get wet and dirty.” Now I run in the rain, jump in the puddles and take...
Back in the city-grime on its hard roads. Long weekend treat in a nature reserve: what of those riverside trails in the earliest light, mist on the water; hands-in-sleeves cold, grass wet, leaves drip, grin stretched up to the snow-topped mountains? Well they’re...
Friday cold wind howling, rest day Saturday, just feel tired, cold wind howling, wimp the run Sunday, still tired, cold wind howling, not normally a running day Monday, I understand that my recovery from Comrades is not yet complete, though my legs are getting perky....
The only problem about recovering from Comrades; from a big near 12-hour challenge, also from monnths of training almost as hard as I can. I can’t run. Otherwise its great. Lazy easy runs, time to enjoy them. Feeling strength return. Run-health fizzing through...
Hunted a pic this morning. A near-full moon hung perfectly, low in the Nek between Table Mountain and Lion’s Head, where first I ran the mystic. No good shot from my streetlight lit street. I’ll make do a picture-perfect running memory instead....
As always my thesis: behind the numbers and the facts is the rich stories of the Comrades. Facts sourced from Morris Alexander’s The Comrades Story Father and Son What was the dinner-table discussion that led to the Templeton father and son running the 2nd...
