Comrades 2019

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  • I do hope they are just postponing entry for a few days - that might mean I won’t be at the mercy of French hotel WiFi!

    Terry - that’s not great news, but there are options for aortic aneurysms that don’t involve open surgery. Sadly, I know quite a lot about this as my mum has just been through it. She did have to have the big op, but recovered remarkably well, and she’s a) much older than you b) has never taken a day’s exercise in her life and c) is a lifelong smoker. Good luck!

    Lowrez - how are your preparations going for C2C?
  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2018
    R Rodent, my cardiologist is the Papworth 'valve specialist'. She says that when the time comes (whenever that may be) to expect open surgery due to the aneurysm / valve combo. But, she also says I should get back to near normal in about 3 months, so that's not too bad. It will obviously take a bit longer to get back into reasonable running shape.  I'm glad your mum's doing well.

    I speculated that the Comrades delay relates to 1 September being a Saturday (no one in their office for IT issues?).  Enjoy France, wherever you may be!
  • Ah, clearly you’re well ahead of me there. But I’m sure Papworth is the very best place to be.

    I’m going to be in Chamonix, got a wee jog next  Thursday  :)
  • RR: wow! enjoy, and come back and tell us all about it!

  • Mac3Mac3 ✭✭✭
    Terry - good that you were able to see the cardiologist and you have the possibility to fix the issue, albeit via open heart surgery.  That seems to be fairly routine these days.  It's important that you can keep exercising, one for your sanity, but also if you come to have the surgery you will make a much faster recovery.  I'm sure it's massively frustrating for you but hang in there!  
  • Positive thoughts coming your way terry.

    I think whatever the delay in entry it will not affect those runners from overseas as they really want as many as possible overseas entries as we bring the money over to the race and the local area.

     I hope so as I have already booked and paid for my flights, car hire and accommodation for Durban  :)

  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    Hi RR - are you actually running on the Thursday - what race option?

    I'm ridiculously under trained, or I suppose you could call it well tapered? Got my head in the middle of kit packing at the moment so will duck out and carry on.

    All the best for next week!

    Seren - I love how organised you are - have you seen my running number belt - I last used it 2 years ago - why isn't it where I'm looking?

  • jkissanejkissane ✭✭✭
    Fingers crossed everything goes well for you Terry, imagine your level of fitness will help a lot.

    That's interesting new about the delay in the Comrades entries, suits me as means I can put off a decision 'til later in the year. If I read this forum too often it will convince me 100% that I have to do the up run next year!

    Been hibernating a bit since Comrades but got back to a bit of running in July & tried a local hilly marathon two weeks ago, wasn't as bad as I feared & got round in 3:48. Last Sunday I had a very nice run along an old railway line that's been turned into a cycling/walking track, think it came to ~47.5k in the end but it was very relaxed & even stopped for an ice-cream around the 35k mark :)
  • Mc HillyMc Hilly ✭✭✭
    Good luck to all those doing long runs this weekend, seems to be some awesome events! Puts me to shame, at the moment 15 miles is seeming a big effort for me, but whilst I haven’t been putting the running miles in I’ve been really enjoying doing long but leisurely cycling!
    Terry, with Papworth it sounds as if you’re in great hands, hope you don’t have to wait to long for the surgery and that recovery afterwards is speedy. It will be awesome to see you in Durban even if you aren’t running...... diving seems an attractive alternative!
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    C2C tracker links, I am runner No.19...
    They are running two servers for resilience, if one link stops working the other should be available...
    The current red line is just a rough reference - don't get worried if I tend to track off it - it will be a combination of my supirior route knowledge (ha ha) and a developing limpy stagger as the event progresses!
    The event runs from 7am Saturday to 9pm Sunday - if I haven't finished by then this service stops anyway, but it won't necessarily mean I have stopped if I haven't got there yet, the orgnisers will have closed up shop and gone home but depending how close I am to the end and my state of mind I could well be continuing to complete the task!
    Rarely post a charity site here, but this will be the biggest thing I have ever attempted so here it is, no pressure to give anything, just read the story so far if you like; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rogerc19

    Head is spinning - got to be ready for my lift up there at 10 - byeeee!
  • Lowrez - all the best for the weekend. We'll be following you. BTW it's a lot easier by car!!!

    Seren - that sounds seriously organised.

    jkissane - well done on the marathon. Did you intend to run more than a marathon last weekend or did you just go further than planned? Couldn't imagine running that far with no race to aim towards.

    McHilly - I don't think I've got past about 8 miles. I think I need to toughen up

    I'm having a wobble about whether I actually want to enter Comrades or not :/
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Thanks for the update Terry.  It's good that you can keep active even if Comrades qualification is off limits.

    McH - your bike rides have looked great on Strava.

    jk- nice running.

    Seren I like your style.  I've not got around to flights yet as I might have some work to fit in before the race.

    Some big races coming up.  Good luck lowrez, Debra and RR.

    Fairly low mileage for me too at the moment.  For a while I've had this weekend earmarked for running the Rutland Round footpath over a few days.  That's still the plan but it might be a truncated version with a few corners smoothed off. 
  • Thanks for the good wishes. First hurdle is going to be getting to the start: trains out of Euston cancelled so my husband will have to drive me 180 degrees round the M25 and up the A41. SO glad I've gone for the 12 noon start not the 10am - means we only have to get up normal time, not 5am.

    lowrez, best of luck - people at work think I'm nuts for setting out on to run 86 miles...
  • Debra - I've somehow missed you're doing a long run this weekend. What is it and where? Good luck anyway.

    I've just done my longest run since Comrades, 10 miles. Doesn't quite compare :) so all the very best to everyone doing amazing things this weekend.
  • Southern Snail: Ridgeway 86 challenge (86 miles) - a mere bagatelle compared to lowrez's 140-mile c2c ultra effort!
  • Mac3Mac3 ✭✭✭
    Good luck to you all ultra runners this weekend, Lowrez, Debra and RR in order of distance.  Although the 'wee jog' RR mentioned is 55km with 3,500m of ascent (assuming it's the OCC @ UTMB).  All equally impressive!
  • Mac3Mac3 ✭✭✭
    JK - good to hear you have your mojo back.  You've got to, haven't you?!

    SS - no wobbles please!

    Seren - top marks for leading the way :-)

  • jkissanejkissane ✭✭✭

    jkissane - well done on the marathon. Did you intend to run more than a marathon last weekend or did you just go further than planned? Couldn't imagine running that far with no race to aim towards.

    It's an end-to-end trail (Waterford Greenway) so I parked at the end closest to home & caught a bus to the far side meaning I was pretty  much committed to the whole thing. Took the pic below when there wasn't too much left, you can almost make out the beginning of the town where it finishes off in the distance around the bay.


  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    Wow, some big runs this weekend Lowrez, Debra, RR. Go well and enjoy!
  • jkissane - looks stunning and km markers too. Haven't thought about taking public transport somewhere and running back. Would give a few different routes.

    RR - good luck to you too
  • Southern Snail: My running club uses that frequently for long marathon training runs on a Sunday - starting with 10-mile runs in November and working up to about 20 miles by March. Great for people training for the spring marathons.
  • Evening..hope all the long distance stuff is going well this weekend...I struggled with my 15 miles on Thursday...running out of energy after Mike 12 so need to have a think about fuelling....but my parkrun times have been flying down the last few months...2 weeks ago got a course pb and fastest time in 3 years and today took another 20 secs off to go sub 24...only ever done that 3 times before and today was my highest age graded percentage...so feeling confident for next spring...
  • Mac3 - that’s the one! I’m not really a trail runner but I had the points, so I thought I’d give it a go. What could possibly go wrong (well, a thunderstorm, according to the weather forecast...)?

    Looks like Lowrez is steaming along at a steady 4mph :)
  • Seren - hey that all sounds very speedy. Well done 

    RR - how did it go? Apart from the thunderstorms?

    oh no - what happened to lowrez. Says he’s retired. Hope he’s ok as don’t think that was the plan ?
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    A rarity for me retiring from an event, but, I started to get what is becoming "the usual" mechanical problems with my left leg creeping in at around 30 miles, by 50 the writing was clearly on the wall, I can limp in on this to complete a Comrades but no way was I going to carry it for another 90 miles. This is in stark contrast to the bloke that hammered home a few years ago to slam his back to back - I need to go get that runner back.

    I had a smashing time the event organiser takes you over the most challenging route on this, the Old Coach Road is just an amazing climb up a ridiculously scree-like massive stoney trail, there are peeps going on this with trail motorbikes, 4WD vehicles, well over-pimped mountain bikes, and little old me slogging up the near vertical climb in places wheezing like an old dog... wonderful stuff.

    Terrible thing retiring just over 50 miles into a 140 mile event - I feel so embarrassed - I was consoled by the organiser with the info that I wasn't the first retiree and got invited back next year. Managed to find a hotel in Darlington last night and will visit the finish today - amazing to think that the runners who will complete this are still out there now having climbed the Pennines overnight - so wish I was one of them...

  • Lowrez - no shame in retiring after ‘only’ 50 miles of a very challenging course. Glad to hear you took the sensible decision to pull out rather than doing long-term damage - there will be many other races, but there’s only one Lowrez!

    SS - my race isn’t till Thursday. Ultra packing going on today - we have a compulsory kit list, an extra kit list for hot weather and one for cold. And they don’t decide which it will be till the day before the race, so you have to take everything.
  • Lowrez.. weather turned a bit nasty for that race... still got a good training weekend out of it

    Did a 10 mile run this morning mainly before the heavy rain came..surprisingly got a good pace and maintained it...just got to manage to keep going after 10 miles..My last week in work this week so everything will change after that

  • marty74marty74 ✭✭✭
    Unlucky Lowrez. Kept logging in every so often to check you were moving. Was hoping perhaps you were having a sleep when it was stationary today. However, huge kudos for getting so far into a very tough race. Sometimes the hardest part is knowing when to stop, a trait none of us runners are any good at. Feel proud in what you have achieved, get yourself back into one piece, refresh the mind and onto the next one.  :)
  • Ridgeway Challenge 86 completed in 21:32- less slow during the night section than I was during the Viking 100 but still too slow overnight. Finished second VW50, so I got an extra medal for that, as it was also the UK Train Running Championships. Thankfully only light rain in the last hour or so for me - later people got well soaked.

    Lowre, sympathies, but a sensible decision.

    RR: I think I've already said this, but good luck!
  • Bike ItBike It ✭✭✭
    People don't earn much in SA. Even the 400Rand or so for local entry is a lot for many runners. Given that the wages are already spent by the first of the month many runners can't actually afford to enter just like that, but need to save. A lot of feedback came last year relating to this so I guess the Comrades team are trying to think of a very inclusive system of entry.

    Good that you have a clear diagnosis Terry. Best wishes with your situation. 

    I ran 10km  last week over 3 runs. Not so bad with my hip. Nothing spectacular yet. 
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