Comrades 2019

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  • Good luck to Seren, Marty and Becca for this weekend

    Been on holiday and haven't run for nearly 3 weeks since my half. Marathon in 4 weeks :/ Not sure how that will go. The half was the longest since Comrades!

    Some exciting marathons in that list
  • Hm, I have nothing on for Sunday 14th March at the moment - could come up to your neck of the woods and run Boston (Lincs) again, Terry?
  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    Debra, As much as I'd love to run Boston, Lincs again, I'm not very confident I'll be able to!  Only doing about 15-20km/week at present.  I'll see how my MRI this Saturday turns out (results and cardio's report probably only a few weeks later!). Maybe I'll come along and just be prepared to jog/walk most of it.

    Any others interested in that Boston - very flat and fast for moving your pens up a notch?
  • Great to see the lists going up and some awesome events, and some already qualified. Hope everyone has good runs this weekend and Good luck with your Chinese adventure Lowrez, I did the Beijing half marathon once, it was a buzzare experience! It was combined with the main Beijing marathon, women were expected to start at the back! At the half way point in the marathon there was a sign at the side of the road for half marathon runners and a marshal to point you there... you went down a slip road, there was a line across the road and a clock, and that was it! No one to record your time, no goody bag (you got that at the registration), no water, just a policeman asking you to move on and not hang around in the area! Felt as if I’d dropped out of a marathon half way, rather than successfully completed the event I’d entered! Xiamen sounds like a more organised/ international event!
    im “running” Chicago on Sunday, the longest runs I’ve done since Comrades are a couple of 15 milers back in August, so the least prepared I’ve ever been for a marathon! Be great if I get around in 5 hours but main objective is to enjoy the day. Providing I don’t make my Achilles much worse will also do Snowdon at end of month (but definitely won’t qualify there) then going to have 2 months off to try and get my ankle fully recovered before next year!


  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Thanks all for the good wishes.  

    Enjoy Chicago, McH, it's a nice fast course and I think my 3rd fastest marathon was there.  I'm in a similar position to you with regard to post-Comrades long runs.
  • Good luck at the weekend Becca. Not sure where Abbey Park is, but I'll wear my Comrades cap so give me a shout as I lumber past! Cheers for the Garden Route tips Mac, I'm hoping as they've reduced the qualifying time by 5 mins for Boston it will even out (I think the cut-off for acceptance was about 3 mins quicker than qualifying- 3:40 for 2019, so 3:37 would have got in this year), maybe 3:32/33 to be safe.
  • marty74marty74 ✭✭✭
    Have a good run becca, i'm sure it will go well...

    I had a great time running chicago, certainly a more fun race if you don't care about your time, enjoy the experience in a great city.

    Looking forward to Chester this weekend. Looking to tag onto the sub 3.30 pacer and let them tow me round. Anything under 3.40 is what i am looking for. And hopefully see you on the course lowrez. Will be wearing comrades peak and club colours, predominately red, black and white, although do have a few comrades badges sown on as well!!! There's a good few going from my club so we should have a good atmosphere. Have a good run yourself Seren.

    And blimey Debra, that's a schedule and a half. I'm currently planning on being around 89 maras by the end of the year and then taking all of next year to get to 100 with probably beachy head being the one to celebrate at!!!! Enjoy, and will probably see you at some of travis' later this year, am doing a few..
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Max, Abbey Park is in the last few miles, around 23.5, after you leave the canal. If you've run it before, it's park where you turn left to go over a stone bridge and then right and left past a model railway.
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Good luck Marty.

    I think Beachy was my 97th marathon.
  • Chicago too this weekend - I was going to not use my place until I found a cheap Lowrez-esque  return ticket this week. I fly out of Dublin on the way out, flying back direct to Heathrow and then flying to Dublin! I’m not allowed to simply get off at Heathrow! But even with the return tickets to Dublin it was half the price of flying London-Chicago. A whilstle-stop visit - arrive Sat afternoon (hopefully!), run Sunday, fly back Monday... still not booked a hotel yet but playing chicken with them to see if the prices come down... (hopefully not up...)

    Just looking for a finish as my last 3 races were all DNFs missing cut-offs...

    McH - will look out for you.
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Good luck to you as well SD.  Hopefully Chicago is rather easier than some of the races you've done recently.
  • Good luck to everyone running in Chicago or Chester!

    Terry, hope you'll be able to jog round Boston - and if not then at least to come say hello to me.

    Marty, I'm on 56 so I need to get a lot of events in! The 10-in-10 will help, but I'm aware I'll have more 'down' time next year tapering for and particularly resting after the 100s (and Ridgeway 86, and to a lesser extent NDW50 and Lakeland 50), so I'm trying to get as many as possible done this year - aiming to get to at least 75 by the end of the year, all being well, which would leave 20 to do in addition to my 'A' races next year - should be possible! I'll look out for you at the SVN events - which ones are you doing? And Beachy Head is a fun one - see you there this year?
  • marty74marty74 ✭✭✭
    Thanks all.

    And Debra, yes Beachy this year as well and then will be at the 10/11 November weekend and the 1/2 December weekend.

    SD - good luck with "lowrez" travel. Hope it works and enjoy!!!
  • Good luck to everyone racing this weekend - and good luck with that journey SD - that is truly bizarre!

    Not much running from me recently, except for a fun 15km race along the roman walls at Ston in Croatia. There’s a full marathon too - I’d recommend it, small scale and very friendly (and you get a bag of salt in the goody bag from the local salt pans which have been in use since prehistoric times). 

    Currently recovering from a cold - planning to do some strength and conditioning stuff in preparation to getting the mileage back up.
  • Mac3Mac3 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Great to see all the events signed up for and taking place.  Lowrez travel might just catch on.....in/out/hand baggage only/shuttle bus to start line/just enough time for the race/no hotel required!  It's the strange situation of being qualified for something that you can't enter for....dressed for a party but nowhere to go, yet!  Strange business with the way that's been handled, as they are usually sticklers for tradition.

    Debra - I think Boston Lincs is 15 April not March.  Just to make sure you don't double book!

    I'll likely do Utrecht again (my local race) in March which happens to fall on St. Patrick's Day in 2019.  Which gives me the excuse to wear green tights (as it's usually so damned cold) and perhaps be the leprechaun I always wanted to be!  I know whom to ask for costume advice :-)
  • Mac3: thanks - I did mean April, but wrote March...

    Marty, look out for a red Comrades hat at Beachy. I will be missing the 10/11 November as I'll be in B'ham for a conference, but 1-2 December are the last 2 of the 10-in-10 so I sincerely hope I will be running them!

    RR, sympathies for the cold and good luck for speedy recovery.
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Comrades 2019 Qualification
    27Aug Qualification Starts
    16Sep
    Goodwood (M) justanothrrnr-Q3:54-PenD
    16Sep
    Berlin (M) Running Rodent-Q4:44-PenH
    24Sep
    Emilia-Romagna, Italy (IM) Peter R-Q3:48-PenB-Going-for-Green
    07Oct
    Chester (M) seren nos, marty74
    07Oct
    Bremen (M) Becca7
    07Oct
    Chicago (M) McHilly, Slow Duck-Going-for-Double-Yellow
    14Oct
    Leicester (M) Max2
    21Oct
    Amsterdam (M) Mac3
    20Oct
    Langdale (M) Peter R
    03Nov
    Thames Meander (M) Southern Snail
    23Dec
    Portsmouth Coastal Waterside (M) justanothrrnr
    06Jan
    Xiamen (M) 1owrez
    17Feb
    Seville (M) Mac3
    03Mar
    Tokyo (M) Becca7
    17Mar
    Utrecht (M) Mac3
    14Apr
    Boston UK (M) Terry48, Debra Bourne, 1owrez
    15Apr
    Boston USA (M)
    28Apr
    London (M) Becca7, 1owrez
    02May Qualification and
    Race4Charity (PenCC) Closes
    09Jun
    Comrades
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    McH is your profile picture from that Chinese half? That is a very strange end to a race, surreal! Here is a woman who still hasn't finished her last marathon

    Boston UK sounds good, although you were all still quoting wrong dates above, refer to latest list for the correct data!

    Love all the 1owrez style activity going on :) Good luck everyone this weekend! I was looking to be at (or above on the road after) Farndon bridge Marty and Seren, but, I have discovered friends are also running the metric marathon which runs the opposite way down the course, but not as far as the bridge! How can I see all of you? Think I might have to go further down the course to somewhere less picturesque... I will resolve the conundrum and cheer if/when I see you.

    Bless you RR.

  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Comrades 2019 Qualification
    27Aug Qualification Starts
    16Sep
    Goodwood (M) justanothrrnr-Q3:54-PenD
    16Sep
    Berlin (M) Running Rodent-Q4:44-PenH
    24Sep
    Emilia-Romagna, Italy (IM) Peter R-Q3:48-PenB-Going-for-Green
    07Oct
    Chester (M) seren nos, marty74
    07Oct
    Bremen (M) Becca7
    07Oct
    Chicago (M) McHilly, Slow Duck-Going-for-Double-Yellow
    14Oct
    Leicester (M) Max2
    21Oct
    Amsterdam (M) Mac3
    20Oct
    Langdale (M) Peter R
    27Oct
    Beachy Head (M) Debra Bourne, Marty74
    03Nov
    Thames Meander (M) Southern Snail
    23Dec
    Portsmouth Coastal Waterside (M) justanothrrnr
    06Jan
    Xiamen (M) 1owrez
    17Feb
    Seville (M) Mac3
    03Mar
    Tokyo (M) Becca7
    17Mar
    Utrecht (M) Mac3
    14Apr
    Boston UK (M) Terry48, Debra Bourne, 1owrez
    15Apr
    Boston USA (M)
    28Apr
    London (M) Becca7, 1owrez
    02May Qualification and
    Race4Charity (PenCC) Closes
    09Jun
    Comrades
  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    Debra, I see some optimist has added me to the Boston Lincs Marathon in April. :) .  I think I might just about be good for walk/jogging the half marathon!  That way I might manage to finish ahead of you or others doing the full marathon.

    What a big weekend coming up.  Have great runs all, in places near and far.
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Terry48 said:
    Any others interested in that Boston - very flat and fast for moving your pens up a notch?

    Its probably the only Boston I will be able to enter without forking out major sums of money, only £28, but a race limit of 1,000 - so don't leave it too late if you fancy it folks!

    I plan to be around the day before if anyone fancied some pasta/cake/beer? Its a 3 and a half hour drive for me and a 9am start; even by 1owrez standards I'm not up for getting out of bed that early. Don't plan to go for any records if I am already qualified, just a nice LSR, London is a fortnight later.

  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    Hmm not sure - I like that it says azijiki on the sleeve, but I don't like the biggest word on the front being "FINISHER" seems to detract heaps from the Comrades identity - why doesn't it say something like "CONQUEROR" or simply "COMRADES"



  • Lowrez, my profile pic is from a run in China, but just a local run in a park.  
    Slow duck - your travel sounds like a Lowrez style plan! Shame you arrive to late to join me for Heritage Harbor parkrun in the morn! Hopefully will get to meet up - I’ve messaged you
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Hope the weather is better than the forecast for Chicago McH - when I ran it a few years ago it hit 29C, one degree off cancellation. BBC tells you to expect a high of 25C with a good chance of thundery showers!
  • marty74marty74 ✭✭✭
    Will try and remember to take a look around that area for you. I think that will maybe be around 14-15 miles (ish). Will you be in costume or normal attire :):)
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Wasn't planning to dress up Marty - I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the strange reactions I can get once off-course from an event - it can be quite scary and unnerving though without a barrier between one's self and the real world. I will stick to shouting... ooh and maybe banner carrying... to make myself conspicuous... now where did I put that poster paint and cardboard...
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    Look what some, erm, local kids, made for me, I was going to get them to do a skull and cross bones on the other side for seren but I fear they completely lack the skill to achieve that so we'll go for some similar words...


  • marty74marty74 ✭✭✭
    lowrez you are amazing. Thanks for your support today and to see that sign was such a lift. And then to see you again as i came back into Chester was most unexpected. Definitely need to hook up with you and buy you a beer or three in Durbs!!!

    Had great run, nice and controlled and finished feeling strong as i had planned. So qualification sorted :) Chip time was 3.25 something.

    Hope everyone else racing today was amazing and had fun and enjoyable runs.
  • Marty - Well done. Sounds like the day went exactly as planned. Always great when it works out that way.

  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    First time I've been to a race with the objective of seeing some specific runners and it worked beautifully. Hardly had a second to spare as I sped around to get to the access points I needed. Had a great day out, saw all 4 of "my runners" and got a couple of shouts from other Comrades runners too :) Chester also runs a metric marathon, 26k kicking off at 10:15 (full marathon kicks off at 9:00), they run 13k down the route from the finish towards the full marathon runners then turn and merge with them running 13k back to the finish. It was only last night that I figured I could see everyone at least once if I went to that second spot.

    Great high fiving you over the bridge back into England bang on schedule Marty; and the traffic was good to me allowing me to see you at that second spot again, then my metric runners swooped through followed by seren (who gave me a superb hug - ha ha!). In between all that I cheered and fed everyone else with a Halloween tub of assorted sweets supplemented with a big bag of marshmallows - well the runners ate most of them - surprising how peckish supporting makes you >:) I'm more exhausted now than if I had run it! Again! Again!

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