Comrades 2020

Debra Bourne

baldstan: thanks. Not a lot of cake left as I took it to my running club's Christmas party on Saturday night.

Good running by millsy!

Running Rodent

Congratulations Debra - although I fear for your wardrobe doors with that massive medal!

Debra Bourne

RR: thanks! It's not any single medal my husband is worried about regarding the wardrobe doors, it's the accumulated mass!

Dubairunner

Congrats Debra!!

Dubairunner

I fly to Nepal tonight for the Kathmandu marathon, had too many visitors recently and not enough running. Will be taking it easy anyway as I'll have a buff over my mouth due to the fumes and pollution. 

Debra Bourne

lowrez: quickest to first 100 marathons: female 554 days, male 710 days (I suspect that second one is out of date). I have just sent a query to see if I'm most miles in the first 100 (female) - James Elson is most miles with 3,916, but Traviss thinks my 3,600 (3,599 if you take my 10th road marathon as #100, or 3,604 if you count my actuall 100th, which was trail a few days before) might be highest female - they don't have one listed at the moment.

Dubairunner: thanks. Enjoy Kathmandu marathon!

Becca7

Impressive stats Debra.  I think the trend of late has to be to do the 100 quickly but there aren't many who include 100 milers in that.  I did quite a few ultras in my 100 but still fall just short of 3000.

Dubairunner - good luck in Kathmandhu, I hope it will be a great experience.

Snail - great that you have the qualifier sorted out.

Great running by Millsy.

Good luck with the farm BikeIt and I hope that ankle is healing well and your Comrades entry will be processed soon.

Good call to give Valencia a miss Getafix, although that's never an easy decision.  Seville is a great marathon.

Great that things are on the move lowrez.

Peter R

Debra: Congrats on the 100 … its going to take me a lot longer as I am on 59 and started a long time ago (first marathon was the Great Wall of China in 2010 I think).

Lowrez: Keep doing those exercises, I see some progress on Strava and good to see some injuries healing and sorry to hear about others.  Pretty normal for this Forum at this time of year.

Just back from 10 days in South Africa with my son, and haven't booked my flights yet either (or a hotel yet).  Cant move from the fact that the half ironman is the weekend before so toying with doing that, going on safari and then coming back to Durban on the Thursday for Comrades prep.

Portsmouth marathon for me this weekend.

baldstan

Peter R, I see the British Airways sale has just started today if you haven't booked flights yet. Though it sounds like you've got lots of possibilities on the go so it may be too soon to book anything.

Southern Snail

Lowrez - well done on the London marathon place. It will be emotional for sure.

Dubairunner - have a good one in Kathmandu this weekend

Peter R - Good luck in Portsmouth. Hope you don't get washed away. Looks like you're going to have a busy but very exciting time in South Africa next year.

I wish it would stop raining

Slow Duck

baldstan - thanks for the heads-up. BA flights bought. The usual arrive Durban Thursday pm Leave Tuesday pm. Just need to get on with the training...

Southern Snail

SD - have you done the new direct flights?

Slow Duck

SS - no. There are no direct flights going out on Wednesday and the one back on Tuesday is at 7:30 am! I decided that a good night’s sleep was more important

baldstan

Hope you had a good run in Portsmouth Peter R.

I'm off for a few days for Christmas so hope everyone has a good holiday and Santa brings you the presents you want.

Millsy

Congrats on the marathon total Debra. It`s something I`d like to work towards in a few years time. I think i`m on 40 something currently but am struggling with the quantity vs quality of races so will stick to quality for a while. My experience of trying to do both ended in 3 months out with injury last year.
I`m just ticking over now for a a few weeks. I hit my 2500 miles goal and combined with a load of PB`s I feel in a great position to start the official Comrades plan on 3rd Feb.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Debra Bourne

Hi Millsy, thanks. I hadn't planned to work towards the 100 until I fell in with the SVN crowd! Now I've got the endurance and recovery I'm aiming to work on the speed during the next year. Not going to reach 2500 this year - maybe not even 2200 - but then I did have three months of much-reduced running with my cough and strained chest muscles early in the year.

Considering going for those BA flights - I love the cameraderie on the Durban to Dubai flight, and Gatwick is a lot more convenient than Heathrow for me, but I have relatives coming over from the US arriving on the Thursday before Comrades. If I can see them for a few hours before coming over it would be nice - which would mean flying on the Thursday evening instead of Wednesday. Depends when on Thursday they would be arriving.

Peter R

Thanks SS and Baldstan, had a great day out and ran my best marathon in some time (3.46), and felt strong at the end. I was happy with that. 

So flights booked (went for the BA direct option), hotel booked (ONOMO) and entered the half Ironman. 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and all injuries are healing etc. 

Southern Snail

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. A relatively quiet one for me after last year but lovely nevertheless. Saw lots of runners out in the morning (not me though!)

Peter - well done on the marathon time. Sounds like you're going to have a great trip to SA

Must book my own flights before the sale finishes. Think we've decided just to do Thursday till Tuesday.

Debra Bourne

Well done Peter!

Are you taking the Thursday flight, arriving Friday morning?

Snail, do you know when the sale finishes? I really need to book soon and my cousin hasn't got back to me!

I have to decide between Emirates (leave Wednesday evening, arrive Thursday afternoon; leave Monday afternoon, arrive Tuesday lunchtime) and the BA direct (leave Thursday late afternoon, arrive Friday morning; leave Tuesday morning). Emirates means Gatwick (much easier) and I know there will be lots of other Comrades runenrs on the Dubai-Durban flight, but there's the wait in Dubai. BA Direct means schleping across London to Heathrow, and arriving Friday morning rather than Thursday evening, and I don't know if I'll bump into other Comrades runners in the same way.

Peter R

Debra, yes that the flight I am on but a week earlier because of the Ironman. I have done that flight twice recently and prefer it as it avoids the hassle of connections etc. 

Sale ends 30 Jan, according to email I got from BA. 

Debra Bourne

Peter, thanks for that info. I still have to decide if the hassel of getting to Heathrow outweighs the hassel of waiting around in Dubai...

Mc Hilly

Well done to all on recent achievements eg Debra on the 100, and Peter on a good qualifier (I’m sure there are lots of others too) and hope those with injuries continue to recover. 

I’ve now got flights booked, will spend about 10days in Uk, and take the direct flight to Durban on the Thur night, fly back to the uk (with change in J’burg) on Monday pm, arrive uk tue am and hang around LHR for few hours before returning to Shanghai
Im considering entering Pyongyang Marathon mid April, as it should give me a chance to improve on the time I get in Tokyo (I’m about to start an 8 week training plan for Tokyo, should be enough to qualify but won’t be quick!), but I think I’ll probably be sensible :-( and only do the half marathon option, as marathon has a really tight cut off time, in most places I’d be happy to be at the back on my own, but maybe not there!

Dubairunner

Congrats on the qualifier Peter.

I ran in Kathmandu last Saturday but only the half, have had a few issues, calves and tightness around my knees. Still struggling to find a replacement for my Saucony Kinvara which are no longer available in the Middle East. Ran Kathmandu in Adidas Ultraboost, l like them but not for longer distances. Now trying Nike Pegasus.

Anyway I knew the route pretty well for Kathmandu marathon but they decided to add the road east of the airport which carry all the lorries, buses etc onto the full to make up the distance, bit like  running on shoulder of the A1 with diesel fumes pumping out. Race was meant to start at 0530, then 0600, we eventually started at 0722, hanging around the track in 6 degrees not ideal. Kathmandu is a crazy place, love it and hate it at the same time, not as nice as the rest of Nepal but where everyone ends up, poverty very evident but you do feel safe. A lot of police enroute but probably more to stop any demonstrations, there have been a lot recently against the King and the way he threw out parliament a few years ago, corruption everywhere but lovely people struggling through life. Not my first time here and I will be back.

Hope everyone had a restful Christmas, I managed to get off - was meant to be working. We had a pleasant day in and out of the pool and a bit too much champagne and mince pies!!

1owrez

Dubai, it is said of the Saucony Kinvara 10 that the cushioning falls on the spectrum between the soft Brooks Ghost 11 and the slightly stiffer Nike Zoom Pegasus 35... so I hope the Pegasus does the trick!

Brilliant result Peter!

Hope the training goes well McHilly and Millsy.

I'm getting an extra expert on 10th Jan as Phys seems stumped at my remaining gripes, in the meantime my latest attempt at doing some mileage is hanging in there.

Dubairunner

Thanks lowerz, I’m in the Pegasus 36, first thoughts are positive, I’m waiting for the Brooks store to open here, signage has been up for a while but my wife who frequents the mall much more than me says it’s not open yet.

Will you still be running in Dubai in February?

1owrez

Yep, definitely continuing with 777, think it's my glutes along the top ridge of the pelvis that are the final thing in the pot, although of course you can convince yourself of anything within 5 minutes of being on Google.

jobee

Hello there glad to have found this thread as I have a place in comrades 2020- although that is as far as I have got with planning or thinking about it. .It will be my first . I was just wondering whether to try and get a coach for this or just follow the training plans on the website what do people recommend?

1owrez

Hi jobee, I've never used a coach, but I've only ever aimed at finishing, people on this thread are very helpful with that. Some of us have used one, and are being coached... What are you hoping to achieve? Once again this year I will simply be trying to beat 12hrs... If I can get that sub 4:50 qualifier

Debra Bourne

Hi jobee, welcome!  As lowrez says, it all depends what you're trying to achieve and where you are at the moment. You say it's your fist Comrades, but what's your background? I ran my first two using the training plans as a guide. I'm presently having coaching to try to improve my speed at Comrades and other events. If I'd only been going for an improved Comrades I might have simply followed the online training plan quite strictly but with other key events to train for at the same time it's more complex. Note that it's also time to get your hotel and flights booked.

jobee

Thanks Lowrez and Debra for your replies.
Ive been running for past 25 years but had some rather interrupted training over this time. Ran quite fast in my 20s injured in 30s and have done two marathons Berlin in 2017 and London and 2019 . I do have a tendency to get injured. So I want to be able to compete comrades comfortably and not get injured. I need to do London again to qualify but this should be ok I did 3:21 in 2019. My plan was to do London and then have a few weeks rest and then build up again. For comrades..whatever that would entail. Whether this means following the plan or making up my own . <div>Point taken though about booking flights ! There will be no backing out then ! </div>