Comrades 2019

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Comments

  • Bike ItBike It ✭✭✭
    Leave something in the tank for the second half might be a sensible strategy for my qualifier
  • Southern SnailSouthern Snail ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    Mmmm good luck with that Bike It. How are the various injuries? Hopefully your wife has been cracking the whip and making you do your exercises at home.

    Lowrez - I am definitely a 4:50 finisher but maybe not now. I will give it a good go though. Would like to attempt a faster, better trained marathon so Manchester a maybe.
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    I wouldn't be able to make the mark now either SS, must put some running shoes on :)

    Bike It, that looks like you run the marathon from right to left on the silhouetted picture starting on the rims of the cooling towers and going into free-fall onto the conveyors, up the belts and off the edge on to the top of the slag heaps and down the far side running back up into town and the pub at the finish.

  • Bike ItBike It ✭✭✭
    The injuries are a bit better thanks Snail - lets say managable. I do find that running helps though as things seem to settle down.

    The finish of Soweto marathon is in the 2010 world cup final stadium - it is amazing as the sound echoes around (if there are still people there when I finish).  It really is a different world to a European marathon as I will run in a completely different environment, culture, and level of personal wealth. It has been a bucket list marathon for a while and hopefully I can complete it
  • Becca7 said:
    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.
    Hopefully see you tomorrow Becca, I'm number 3635 wearing my Comrades cap and green vest with 2 yellow hoops. I must have been 'in the zone' last year as I don't remember a stone bridge or a model railway!  :)
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Good luck Max I suggest one of these
    Becca7 said:
    Good luck for Leicester, Max.  I'm sure you will be fine.  I'm marshalling that one this year and will be somewhere in Abbey Park.

    Hope you have your wellies Becca!

  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    Ah Max, your 3635 number is almost my Comrades Green 3695!  Wouldn't that have been a big coincidence?

    Have a good one tomorrow all.
  • Thanks for the good wishes chaps. Great to see you Becca towards the end today, needed your words of encouragement as I was flagging badly at that point as I could hardly run for the last 5 miles with really bad cramp. Ended up with a 3:35+ and a Pen C place so happy enough with that. Missed the Boston qualifier time, but plenty of time to give that another crack. Just didn't put the miles in over the last 3 months to take on a marathon at a fast pace and the legs couldn't get me all the way. I'm actually a bit surprised I held 7:50 pace for 21 miles. Onwards and Upwards! 😀
  • Max, well done on that qualifier!

    I ran a bit over 36 miles in Ashdown Forest today (Owl Amble with SVN). Lovely views before the drizzle came in. Ran the whole way on my Vibram Five Fingers (trail).

  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    That’s a great time in the circumstances Max. I saw a few Comrades caps today, in addition to the one on my head. 

    Lowrez - I don’t have wellies but waterproof socks helped. My feet only started to get cold after about 5 hours. 

    Well done on another ultra Debra. They seem to form a high proportion of your marathons. 
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭

    Shows you're in very good shape Max, great result despite the conditions and the cramp, clear pointer you can Boston qualify. Another Comrade aces qualification first try!

    I need to try some waterproof socks Becca, which ones have you got? Have you actually run in them?

    Nice ultra Debra!

  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Sealskins lowrez. I made the mistake of getting ankle socks though. The water got in through the top of them once and the rest of the run was rather squelchy. 
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Those were the ones I was looking at, but a bit longer; it is a conundrum , as, like you say, once breached the water ain't getting out. I do want them as an option though, one of several for 100 mile plus outings. Not in a hurry at the mo though.
  • Well done Debra! Becca, I was chatting to one of our Comrades comrades at the start line. He got his back to back medal this year, but as a 9:40 man he says he will now go back to try for the new sub-10 medal. Well done on standing out in the rain for 5+ hours, the marshals were great yesterday as they were last year.
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    Max, I think that was my friend Steve - I ran about 50 miles of Comrades with him two years ago.  The Comrades world is a small one.
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    At Xiamen they have corrals and have just told me I'll be starting from the back unless I provide an AIMS cert detailing my best time since beginning of 2016. I am rubbish at record keeping, so have bunged them a pdf print of my 4:37 result from Manchester. That's not an AIMS cert though. What do I have to present to the 100 marathon club as acceptable evidence of a marathon completion? I suppose I should actually count up where I am. A swift trawl of the AIMS list illustrates that Milton Keynes is certified so I will have a 5h+ time I could submit from there. I don't know the corral breaks for Xiamen, that MK time might not move me down the grid. I suppose it doesn't really matter for an "athlete" (snigger) like me.
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    For the 100 Marathon Club, you list your results in a spreadsheet with a URL of the results and a nice man checks the results.  You can include a certificate if you want, to, to make his life easier.
  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    That does sound like a nice man, I better fire up Excel! Do they have a red option though? I'm not an Evertonian.
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    There's a spreadsheet on their website that you can download.  
  • Bike ItBike It ✭✭✭
    I ran for 2:20 on the treadmill last night which was shorter than I had wanted, but as much as I could do.  I normally do my long run on Sunday morning, but heavy rain and lightening meant I turned back after a few minutes on the road.  I watched the 'Heros of the Telemark' on the treadmill which was so engaging I caught myself from falling off the back multiple times. I am sore this morning as my treadmill running style is a bit different to my road style.  I have night race this week to see how 'fast' I am and then I'll try to make a 30km run next weekend as my last long run prior to Soweto marathon.

    I did catch myself looking at the 100 marathon club record.  I probably have around 20 to date and I am unlikely to get to triple figure

    Happy running all
  • Bike It said:
    I ran for 2:20 on the treadmill last night 
    Kudos BI - I would find that impossible!


  • Bike it, well done on keeping going for that long on the treadmill.

    I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my marathons and ultras for a little while now. Planning on reaching the 100 Marathon Club before the end of next year, if I don't have to have any more prolonged periods off. Aiming to reach 75 or 76 by the end of this year, as next year I will (a) have to factor in some proper rest and recovery time after my long/hilly "A" races; (b) won't be running a 10-in-10. I'm presently on 21 marathons (11 road and 10 trail/mixed) and 37 ultras (3 road, rest trail/mixed). And (c) I want to hit the 100 parkruns club and 100 marathons club either the same weekend or subsequent weekends, and I'm on 86 at the moment, running about one a month.
  • All this paperwork sounds like a nightmare lowrez! Rather you than me, but it will be worth it once you are on the start line  :). Well done on watching a film while running on the treadmill BikeIt, my history isn't so good, once when I was a gym member I was watching a football match on the overhead TV which was fine until my team scored and I got so excited I forgot I was on a treadmill and stopped running - went shooting off the back! Good luck in Soweto. Becca it was indeed Steve (he commented on my Strava today) he won his age category and very nearly caught me too before the end  :). I have 4 marathons and Comrades so it might be a while before I need to start thinking about the 100 club :'(  
  • Bike ItBike It ✭✭✭
    65km on the treadmill by Alberto Salazar probably was less than 4 hours.

    I live in a very flat place and I have used the treadmill for hill running.  I've gone as far as simulating various section of the route, e.g. Inchanga to Bothas Hill Village on the Down run is a favourite.  My treadmill has motors for the elevation angle 0-15 degrees of ascent, which is fine for uphill.   For the downhill I have an African solution and used bricks under the back of the treadmill of simulate the downhills.
  • Terry48Terry48 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2018
    That is really dedicated treadmill work to even simulate the downhills.  The bricks might also help you to stay clear of the tokoloshe?  :) 
  • looks like there will be two downhills in  a row.. 2020 and 2021... will that stop new people in 2020 going for the double  or is there a special medal

  • 1owrez1owrez ✭✭✭
    Has a tokoloshe got into seren's account? Where did you hear that seren? What's the story?
  • Becca7Becca7 ✭✭✭
    I heard that as well.  I think a Green Number posted it on Facebook and I don't think it came from a tokoloshe.
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