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Oh I don't recommend handbags. It just seemed to be one of the "going rates".
My long-suffering other half gets nothing but the joy of looking after the dogs on his own (involving a 90 min round trip at lunchtime) for a week.
One day he will cash all his brownie points in and then god help me.
LowRez I got a 3.37 at Chester last year for a C and was Overtaken by all and sundry after about a mile so not to fussed about qualifier. Fantastic your collecting for charity at Chester I hope you do well it's so well supported you should. Running langdale at the weekend will be walking the mini inchanger at mile 1
my OH is getting a trip to Antartica
To be fair, we have both picked something that we have always wanted to do for our 40ths. Comrades is mine and Antartica is his. I think my trip will be cheap as chips compared to his, but that means that i will have some ammunition when it comes to time for training. We have 2 small kids so I need something left to bargain with. When I say something left, i mean lots left!
Flight sorted, Emirates out of Manchester via Dubai, seemed a lot less options than last year, and I paid more than I expected, but managed to squeeze it down a bit using a cash back promotion, main problem was all the bargain outgoing legs had been sold, should've been quicker off the mark. Can relax now everything is sorted ahhh.
DWood - Super priced flight, are you flying out of London? I seem to attract a £200 premium for the Manchester effect. Hope the forgiveness is forthcoming!
PG3 - Antarctic Ice Marathon or "just" Antarctica? Either way you are right, lots more to come for you!
Ringo - Brilliant pb; I am not on form hoping to crack the 4h mark, my pb is 3:42, training not going well though, I don't deserve sub 4. Langdale will be tough, one lap or two? I have done the Keswick to Barrow a few times, its good to run home!
F2D - Aha, I "reinterpreted" your original thoughts. Must admit if my OH went majestically sweeping across the plains in foreign climes I'd be after synthesizers and recording equipment with volume controls that went up to 11.
Dubai runner - Here I come!
Dwood, how did you get that flight price? I had a look on AirFrances website and it was £650. Looking at going out on the Tues or wed before and returning Mon or Tues after the race.
Oh and Antartica is just a trip, not the marathon. I think the time taken for training can be a trade off against the price of his trip.
Liked this clip from Comrades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLtHSbeoMoc
Anyone else planning on doing Two Oceans as well next year?
Yes, me. 2016 was supposed to be the year that I ran Two Oceans and not Comrades but that has obviously changed and I'm planning to do both. Got my flights booked for Two Oceans but obviously need to remember to enter the race and book a hotel.
Me too - nothing booked yet. Might just stay with my brother.
PG3 skyscanner and kayak are your friends. Can also be cheaper to book local flights (mango &/or kuhluhla (sp?)) JNB-DUR.
Entered! I'll book flights at the death in April/May - doesn't seem much more expensive than normal. I try to book my return flight a day or so after the schools go back from half-term when the price drops.
I've enjoyed a few weeks in rural France (Perigord) making the most of running up and down hills in the sunshine and general laziness otherwise. Always good to come back on here and find loads of messages to read.
Sadly I have Abingdon looming and with only a 12miler banked as a long run its not going to be very PB friendly to me after all.
Well hopefully I won't see you for very long at Abo justanothrrnr as I am doing something in the tail cyclist line there.
Without sounding rude F2D, I hope I don't see you at all in the race!
PG3 - Love the video, memories came streaming back, no, those aren't tears, I just chopped some onions. There is a shot of Shayla (what an amazing story) with her 2014 Cape Town medal; I ran that marathon too, and yet I'm sat here thinking "that's not the right medal, come to think of it, where is my medal?". Trots off to route through some more man cave carrier bags!
Solved it; she'd run Two Oceans - what a great medal! Found my CT one, its a bit of a non-descript roundel hence my lack of memory of it...bit similar to the ones handed out at a lovely ultra I know.
Darn it! What do they say; "Don't do anything different in the approach to an event"... I don't think I have a very good overall fitness level. Not vey flexible, bit overweight, tired of hamstrings and glutes being sore post long runs. So I look up some exercises to help address that: http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/beating-injury/8-exercises-to-help-prevent-injury/13393.html. About 27 Drive Throughs in (having nearly fallen over every other one because I can hardly balance on one leg and remain standing anyway - that's how weak my core is), something in my right lower back goes "nope". Here I sit with mildly annoying pain on that side, but if I stretch it just right it makes me yelp like a Xoloitzcuintle and I've lined up that half marathon double this coming weekend...arrgh! It doesn't feel too major though; the enforced rest will probably do me good! What am I like? Chuckling at the title of that set of exercises still..."8 exercises to help prevent injury"...
I'm in. Now a South African resident I could enter for R380 and very happily I am listed as running for RSA. Since I came to SA I encountered much resistance to foreign credentials - from the government bodies, employers, banks, etc. For the first time in SA I am now officially recognised for what I am. Thank you to the CMA once again.
Is anyone else training for a sub-9? I ran a PB in the 10k two weeks ago at 42:35 and I am now running through a 12 week P&D plan for a marathon (Bloemfontein) in mid November. If the build up is reasonable and the weather kind on the day I'm targetting around 3:20. If I could run sub 3:25 then the indications would be that I could run sub-9 so I would train appropriately from there.
I'm in, for number 8! Did the Langdale Marathon in the Lake district on Saturday and it hurt ... so lots of training for me.
Bike it, I always go for sub 9 but only made it once. That was off the back of a 3.23 marathon in Portsmouth in December.
Lowrez - have a look at this. Its a free 30 'challenge' to help runners. I did it before but copped out at about day 5 (!) but its lots of stretches and balance exercises specific to runners. I am also not very flexible and carrying more timber than is good for me.
Am pondering the Portsmouth marathon at the end of Dec as i have now pulled out of Abingdon.
http://www.kinetic-revolution.com/30daychallenge/day-1/
Thanks for your reply Peter - I've experienced similar outcomes and have run one sub-9 when my 3 marathons in the year before were 3:21, 3:28, 3:20. That was a Down year, which I find easier/faster than the Up. So next year being the Down run I see my opportunity.
Thanks PG3 - I love that our crippled conversation is interspersed with sub9ers - such diversity! I had dreams of attempting a 1:45 in Scotland when I entered, better ease back to 2:30ish I think, especially with the same distance the following day. Those Kineticists talk a good talk don't they? I have even passed on the runner's knee link to a friend. Will attempt it next week sometime, seems a little more practical in approach; how ever did I think that 30 reps of anything, from a zero base, was a sensible thing to attempt?
Lowrez my aim is 'just' to finish
That would be a lifetime ambition completed.
PG3 - I accidentally uncovered a useful tactic last year. By collecting for charity, the resultant penCC start puts you ahead of the 12 hour bus drivers (probably most of the bus drivers actually). So you then have this kind of "cushion". I knew the bus was going to catch me at some point, and then I was going to run with it. Sure enough around two thirds in it caught me and I never let it go. I would never have run the last third the way the driver covered the ground; at one point we put in a 17 minute mile! But he knew absolutely what he was doing, brought us home at 11:52. What I didn't know is there were several 12 hour buses; I caught the first one; the last one failed to finish with 12 hours! So the people that had latched onto that last bus from the back of the field were doomed from the start! I think a bus failing to meet its mark is a rarity, and I'm making the assumption that the first bus would never fail. So if you have a bad day at Portsmouth and end up with a back of the grid pen then a charity pitch would be a way to give yourself a small insurance policy. I have a feeling I am going to need the same again this year.
So what date is your big four-o? Tell me its May 29th!
Lowrez - i am so doing that charity route (after your recommendation). I dont see how i can bang out a sub 4 marathon before Comrades so the charity pen gets me a lot closer to the start. The bus info is good as well, i can see that being a good policy and it also seems like a good gamble that the first 12 hour bus will get in you on time. I cant imagine how gutted you would be if your bus driver let you down though. They are only human I guess.
Big 4-0 is May 13th
lowrez im going back, booked into the Hilton again mate, just looking at qualifiers and training runs, I swore to never do it again, but have the same wired unexplainable sense that I need to do the down run, I was a novice last year too. meeting david - hideo , peter eves and the other runners like yourself and the other 50 or so peops whose faces I know and names I forget was amazing.
Superb Phil! I wonder if the unexplainable attraction will continue in 2017? I had a look at an ultra calendar the other day and spotted a Birmingham to London epic that seemed quite enticing...but what will Comrades do to me next year?
How long are you around for after the event? None of us sophomores have gone through the Durban apres run have we? It'll only be 5:30 pm at the latest won't it? Quick dash back to the hotel to spruce up and we could be hitting the town by 6pm? My timings are a bit tongue in cheek but I bet we'll have time to meet up and share stories? I fly out late afternoon Monday.
PG3 - That's perfect timing; you'll be tapering so can afford to celebrate properly and still recover for the next big day on 29th!
My qualifier last year was 4:59 , there isn't a massive time advantage in going for penCC, but the bus aspect is definitely an advantage. The only thing you have to make sure of is you pay attention! Can't believe how much my mind wandered over the 12 hours, although a bus arriving is a bit of a wake-up, you become engulfed by this faster moving wave, and the driver with the flag is a big clue too; if my web skills have worked properly here is my bus driver, 15664 Shakir Dudhia on video (let the ad run first then the Comrades footage should kick in after a short delay): http://www.energade.co.za/website/mysports.html?r=15664&e=CO15M&n=Shakir+Dudhia&ct_s1=05:37:56&k=finish&l=EN
Looking at flights, i just found a London HR to Durban with Emirates out on tues or wed and back Mon night for £600. I know its not the cheapest but its only 1 stop, about 17 hours overall which seems pretty good and if i cancel (hope I dont have to) i would get a refund minus £200. I would imagine most flights are non refundable.
Emirates are a great airline too.
My damn knee is nagging at me though which makes me concerned. GP tomorrow for physio referral.
I'm doing same PG3 but out of Manchester, cost me £700 as the bargain basement outward leg was sold out. I think it was Mr. K that said Comraders were being given the spare business class seats on the homeward leg last year. I was flying Virgin/BA last year and the London-Manchester shuttle got cancelled due to high winds So I thought a more direct route would help me get home as planned this time.
justanothrrnr is playing it cool and buying his flight in the sales next year. I wimped out though when I saw the Emirates availability evaporating.
Hope your knee comes around...my back has settled down