Conquering my Comrades hell
Our photographer Thulani Mbele chronicles his struggles as he took on the Comrades Marathon for the second year – the punishing up run
When Bong’musa Mthembu crossed the Comrades Marathon finish line on Sunday, I was at the halfway mark, not even close to the punishing Inchanga, one of the toughest hills of the ultra race.
I went back for my second Comrades and to get that much talked about back-to-back medal, a special medal for novice runners who complete the down and up run consecutively.
I trained hard for the up run, from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, anticipating a gruelling challenge ahead of me. At every training run, every marathon, all I could hear was “start slow, preserve energy”.
The first half of the race is the hardest 42km race stretch in the country – 2km into the race you start climbing on to the N3 freeway.
I preserved energy, as per counsel, and went up the first of five major hills, Cowies Hill. I felt good as I waved at every shout of my name or that of my running club, Fat Cats, from the thousands of people who lined the streets to cheer the runners on.
I walked much of Fields Hill, which is at the 21km mark, in what again was an effort to preserve energy, but that hill was so steep, it drained my energy – even walking it.
From 30km to 50km was the most challenging. I was struggling physically and mentally and I hobbled through Botha’s Hill, a winding 3.5km stretch and was delighted to see my Fat Cats teammates who were not running on the day, at the 42km mark. They gave me words of encouragement and a much-needed massage.
My friend Siphiwe Magubane had warned me not to look up when going up Inchanga.
“Keep your head down, man. If you look up, to your left you will see a stairway to heaven and you will not want to go meet God yet,” he had advised.
I wished he had advised me not to look right, instead. What I saw brought me to an abrupt halt and a cramp to my neck from laughter. This one runner was so tired that he took out his false teeth, put both hands on his waist, took a deep breath and off he went again.
Just after 50km, running mates Tshepo Makwela and Siyasanga Bata found me struggling at Harrison Flats. We carried each other through the next 12km.
I had recovered and felt strong enough to push and withstand the pain, but not my mates. But I stuck with them.
Somehow we zombied through the finish line in 11hours:25minutes, some time after Mthembu (5:35:34) had conquered the field.