The Comrades Marathon

On the 9th June I took part in the Comrades marathon in South Africa. Billed as the Ultimate Human Race this 55 mile ultra began in 1921, originally run by 34 people to commemorate their fallen comrades in the First World War. The route goes either up from Durban to Pietermaritzburg or in alternate years the other direction from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

There are a few unique things about Comrades:

There is a strict 12 hours cut off with a further 6 cut offs earlier along the route. At exactly 12 hours after the race started,  a gun is fired the finish line is closed, anyone after this time is prevented from finishing, even if they are on the finishing straight just one second away.

The Comrades route changes direction each year and is either an up or a down run, the up run having 6000 ft of elevation in 87 kilometres while the down run is a mere 4000 ft of climb but is longer at 90k.

The route is marked in kilometres but rather than the counting up as in a traditional race, the K makers count down, so the first to be seen on the up run is a mere 86k to go.

Five of the hills on the route are named hill due to their severity, Cowies, Fields, Bothas, Inchanga (literally meaning blade of a knife) and Polly Shorts, but they say it’s the unnamed hills that you need to watch out for.

A special back to back medal is awarded to those runners who complete a ‘back to back’ returning to run in the other direction the year after their first completion.

Normally up to half the field finish in the last hour, this year 65% of the finishers finished in 10-12 hours.

Race numbers are printed with the number of previous finishes a runner has achieved. The highest I saw on route was an incredible 47 finishes. Once a runner has completed 10 runs they are awarded with a Green number which is theirs for life, they can even be handed down in the family.

At the Expo I met several people who shared their tales of previous Comrades, including a Canadian who returned for a 3rd time after being cut off in his previous two attempts. I took in all the advice I could from those I spoke to who had run before, I also met the coach at the expo who’s plan I had been ‘following’ since Christmas.

On race day with a 5.30am start we had to be in the pens by about 5am. The pens are seeded A – H depending on your qualifying marathon time, I was in pen F so I knew it would take about 8 minutes to cross the start line. Soon it was time for the South Africa’s national anthem and then the traditional song Shosholoza which is translated ‘Go Forward’. With the sound of the cock crow and cannon fire the race started and we ran out of Durban into the darkness as it was another hour before the sun would start to rise.

All along the route their was tremendous support even with the early start the streets out of the city were lined with people and this continued throughout the route. Supporters were happy to hand you anything needed along the way, I can remember one lady offering me an ice lolly at one point which I gratefully accepted, another bravely took off my shoe and sock at the top of Polly Shortts when I had so much pain from a toenail that I thought it was completely detached.

Polly Shortts

I had my pace strategy planned before the race, start slowly, run/walking the largest hills and leaving enough time to walk the whole of Polly Shortts as I had been advised by Bruce Fordyce (9 times winner) a couple of days before. Pretty much everything went to plan, I didn’t manage to eat as much as planned and really got through the whole thing on less than half a banana alongside the gels I had with me. Although I had things left at tables around the route I only grabbed the Fruit Pastilles I had stashed and gave them to some children from the Ethembeni School for the disabled who lined the path outside the school. It was along day out and the hills didn’t disappoint, the pace buses did a tremendous job of pulling us along and getting me up those long inclines.

At Cowie's Hill

With every step being another nearer to the finish, I eventually saw the green grass of the finish at Scottsville Racecourse and could hear the crowd from about a kilometre away. I nearly stopped to take a photo of the final marker which said 1k to go but thought better of it in favour of keeping moving.

I finally crossed the line with a time of 11:36:33 and the noise from the spectators was truly unbelievable. I stayed around to hear the final countdown to the 12hour cut off, and the quiet that followed the final gun as those who hadn’t made it still worked their way into the racecourse.

The Finish!!

I later found out that my chip time was 11:27:20 so nearly 9 minutes lost by the seeding at the start, I am over the moon with my result as I had hoped to just finish and realise that there was no certainty in that. Well they say that you haven’t run Comrades until you have run it both directions, so will I go back for the back to back medal next year? Watch this space…

For the record the cut offs were:

Pinetown 18.5k, (cut off 2:40:00, my time 2:30:40)

Winston Park 29.5k (cut off 4:30:00, my time

Drummond (not quite half way) 43.05k (cut off 6:10:00, my time 5:39:13)

Cato Ridge 56.8k (cut off 8:10:00, my time 7:30:16)

Umlaas Road 67k (cut off 9:30:00, my time 8:58:21)

Polly Shortts 79.2k (cut off 11:10:00, my time 10:36:24)

Finish 86.83k (cut off 12 hours, my time 11:36:33)