Comrades 2014

Anyone thinking about 2014 yet?

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  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Maybe image

    But it might wear off when common sense comes back online...

  • I have unfinished business after the second half collapse. I did say I wanted Silver as plan A with plan B being any medal and am happy with the bronze but can do so much better on a cooler day.

    We'll see! The down is a whole different challenge

     

     

     

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Budgeting wise, is TO roughly the same as Comrades?

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Andy, providing you're not in the "I hate downhills, me" subset of folk, the Down is easier. 

  • I want to do this next year: I have a GFA place for VLM (was supposed to be this year, but plans changed), so I'm thinking about that and Comrades before returning to trail!

    Will definitely be looking here for advice on travel, accommodation, budget etc. etc.

  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭

    I'm planning to run next year as well. image

  • I will definitely be thereimageimage!!

  • I have a score to settle with this race too. Sub 7 next year for sure. I'm blaming those horrendous conditions on Sunday for missing out by 10 mins 40 seconds this time around image

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Well Douglas, I did think, "On the upside, perhaps I should go back in 2014 because I'll be able to see D MacT & Colin G get their Green Numbers" ! No, I did, really.

    Debra - I reckon something like
    flights etc- 750
    accom    -  200
    entry      - 120
    plus say 50 for sundry odds and bobs. Call it £1200. Give or take a couple of 100 depending on how good you are at tight budgeting e.g. hostel dorm + buses + EgyptAir will be less, Hilton/Virgin, more.

    There is a shuttle bus to / from DUR airport which is about 12 quid if I recall correctly, stops at all the hotels / hostels. Where you are staying or visiting ... or indeed the doorman at the Hilton ... will call you a reputable taxi ... from my hostel to the beach was about a fiver. In daylight you could walk it . Indeed Ode walked it at night after Comrades but he is quite tall and fast and used to staying out of trouble I suspect! 

    With an unlocked phone you can buy a local SIM. 

    I stayed in a hostel and mostly cooked my own grub from the SPAR over the road.

    Food in general is a scratch cheaper than the UK.

    That doesn't count the cost of any "training" marathons you might do, or extra massage / physio.

    Have I forgotten anything...

  • I fancy it but I reckon a thread is needed for newcomers as it's a bit of a task to get the organisation moving, does anyone provide an info service in the UK

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Well technically there is a Comrades Ambassador for the UK but TBH you're best off just asking here. It's really not too hard. You just need to use a credit card and the interwebs.

    1. Sign up online in September. You will want to buy a ChampionChip.
    2. Book flights to Durban
    3. Book accommodation in Durban
    4. Do training
    5. Do qualifying marathon
    6. Mail Mbali with your time
    7. Mail Mbali with other details: what course tour you want to go on (Fri or Sat?), what size tshirt you take, your qualifying time (you might have to do this twice if the system doesn't pick up your seeding after a couple of weeks image ), if you want extra tickets for the course tour (can't remember if this is free, not a lot if not) or for the International area at the finish (tenner apiece includes food & drink)
    8. May: pack old clothes to wear at the start then discard. Other packing - you probably won't want more than 5 energy gels. 
    9. Fly to Durban
    10. Take shuttle bus to your hotel or hostel
    11. Thurs eve: go to Hilton (taxi or walk) for International runners drinkies
    12. Fri or Sat: go to Expo (next to Hilton!). Go straight to International Runners Registration (no queue) and get your number, your international area wristband(s) for the finish, your course tour wristbands, 
      and
      buy bus tickets for DUR-PMB from Maharaja (stand at expo).
      Sit around near International Runners area enjoying free drinks, biscuits, shooting breeze with your pals. Venture out to expo food court for grub. You can drop your bag at the Expo if you want.
    13. Fri 8am or Sat 8am - take course tour bus from front of Hilton. This takes you up to PMB where you go round Comrades House (note there is another merchandise shop here, where I found socks which they had sold out of at the Expo). Course tour includes sandwiches & banana. Go back to your bus and the tour of the course proper commences.
    14. There will be stops at the Wall of Honour and the Ethembeni School and it ends at the stadium in Durban. Make your own way whereever from there.
    15. Sat eve - if you are not walking distance from the seafront (buses go from behind Holiday Inn iirc) then book a taxi.
    16. Sat night - you won't sleep - don't worry
    17. Grab a cardboard box to sit on later
    18. Sun morning - walk or taxi down to where the buses go from - you won't be the only runner where you're staying so just follow the ones who've done it before. Remember bus wristband!
    19. Someone remind me, is bag drop here?
    20. Get on bus
    21. Some unholy hour Sun morning - arrive PMB - follow SD if you can as he knows a quiet spot near some loos. Sit on your cardboard.
    22. Move into your pen in good time & sit on the cardboard.
    23. Don't sit sipping a drink for hours: the portaloos are OUTSIDE the pens...
    24. When gun goes, follow everyone else. 
    25. Don't trip over the enormous catseyes or discarded runner-cosies
    26. Portaloos : beware liquid poo on the seat in the dark (consider bushes instead!)
    27. Don't drink the water in the troughs
    28. Don't take NSAIDs
    29. Don't use earphones
    30. Don't worry
    31. Don't stop
    32. At finish make your way to International Runners Area (they showed you where this is on the course tour) (and get your bag if you dropped a bag)
    33. Watch final gun
    34. Make your way back to your bed
    35. Mon: remember to book shuttle bus pickup for whenever you're flying back (I managed it ON MY OWN so it is not that hard)
    36. breakfast/lunch/dinner at beach cafe with RWUK crowd
    37. Fly back
    38. Er that's it... ish
  • I could be in for this or more than likely 2015.  If going to experience it would like to do it properly and not budget too little.

  • Hello everyone. What a brutal day! Just want to thank every for their contributions, their advice and for sharing their experiences - on here and here (where I still am - Tekweni ain't no Hilton!) Special thanks' will be liberally distributed once I have caught up on the last few pages. 

    Ill be back if it is down. I never want to experience that in totality again. In tim noakes, via marathontalk, parlance; I fear that my central governor will readjust and not stand for those miserable 34k again...

  • Slow DuckSlow Duck ✭✭✭

    Fido - that is awesome. How to do Comrades in 37 easy steps! Only new thing since your last trip is that you can drop off your tog bags on Saturday afternoon. Also get an international tog bag label as you can then collect them in the international area rather than the other side of the stadium.

  • Peter RPeter R ✭✭✭

    I am in .... every year I have unfinished business with this race and 2014 will be my 6th.  Although on Harrison Flats I was seriously asking myself why .....

    The legs are still sore, but where else in the world can you run a race like this and get the support that we do as international runners.  Wearing the UK vests made such an impact as well .. will be up for another in 2014 (Fido you might need to add that to your list/budget).  I look forward to seeing you there next year too!

  • I've been lurking a bit on this year's thread and now unlurking - definitely going to have a crack at this next year. Maybe I should print off the 38 point list and stick it to the fridge door? I like lists.

  • Hi RR, be nice to see you there.

    Can anyone give me an idea of how tough this is in comparison with, say, NDW50 or SDW 50?

  • The toughest part has to be all hard road surfaces really, or so I'd imagine

  • 50% in....figure will rise as I get more mobile after this years run image

  • DannirrDannirr ✭✭✭

    I'm up for 2014.  Must be mad to try this for the first time at age 53 by then, but if not now, when?

    Love the list.

  • I'll be 55 by then, no problem

  • SD great to meet you and the UK team in and around the Hilton and Joes beach bar

    The UK running vests stood out along the route, along with our Dubai tops, every other spectator shouting Dubai, very well recived. brutal day but all ok now

  • Jeez, you lot are keen....

    On budgets, you could keep it cheaper than that if needed. I got good flights on SAA for £620 this year, and as I was only there two nights a stay at a decent beachfront hotel was £150. Food is cheap, so I reckon I did the whole thing for less than £1,000.

    But I'm still not going back until I can go sub-9. And it will still be a down year.

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    I agree re budgets Kevin. The keen and thrifty could stay in dorm beds in a hostel for 2 nights for thirty quid all in. That was a good price for the flight, did it include the connection to DUR?

  • Fido - yes, thru Joburg both ways and I think that price was fairly easily available. I booked, I think, about Feb (??) but I think it was still available in April.

  • It was nice meeting many of you last Sunday during the run, before and after. I'm definitely in for next year as like reading many posts, I feel like I have some unfinished business to sort out.

    I started suffering badly with leg cramps just after halfway and decided to aim on finishing for a bronze rather than pushing for a time. I must have drank too much during the race as well, because as soon as I finished I couldn't stop vomitting and it wasn't until the next day when I could keep anything down.

    Add in the cramps and the cold I'd caught the day before the race and it meant two days lying in bed and not properly celebrating finishing the race!

    I managed to get flights to Jo'Burg for £450 with Lufthansa (through Frankfurt) then £100 for a return flight from Jo'Burg to Durban with British Airways (I'm sure it would have been even cheaper if booking with Mango or the other budget airlines). I also got a room at Bel Aire Suites (where the Russian twins and the rest of the Mr. Price team were staying) for £40 a night through Bookings.com, so I think it can be done on a tight budget.

    Bring on Comrades 2014!

  • Are we really having this conversation?  It's not even been a week.  The toenails are still hanging offimage

     

     

  • Fido2DogsFido2Dogs ✭✭✭

    Hey, some of us sat on the sofa streaming the race over the Internet to the UK and stuffing our faces getting ever fatter. Excellent prep for next year.

    Shady Ady, I puked after both my Comrades (and indeed during the first ) but sounds like you are the puking king and the Emperor of getting ill late enough to get through the race! 

    BTW good news SD about the bag collection being in the International area now. It was only down to Ode taking pity on me that I got my bag back last year. 

    Ady, 2 changes not too bad then?

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