Vary your training to mirror Surfers Challenge course conditions

The Discovery Surfers Challenge is a perfect vehicle to enhance running or walking technique, not all in one day but in the build up to the race and indeed in the aftermath of it.

Take time out to watch a race, any race, be it 5km or a half marathon and beyond.

There will be runners who look as though they are poetry in motion, dancing, often singing like the Kenyans on their group training runs, and there are others who you will hear labouring loudly down the roads and fields of the city in varying numbers.

Walking or running lightly is something that can be learnt but requires training on different surfaces and not simply tar roads. That is where the Surfers Challenge comes in, as the most successful athletes in the race will have trained on the varied surfaces to be encountered over the 17.5km of the event and even for the two shorter races.

Poorly maintained gravel roads become a friend and concentration levels are part of the training. In the days that remain, it is not too late to walk or run on the many magnificent beaches in our local universe.

Run a sand dune, on your own or with friends.

There is a particular dune that I have shared with runners down the years, and it is on the Surfers route between Eastward Ho and Bonza Bay, about 1km from Quenera Lagoon. It is not just a sand dune but a combination of climbs offering variable options in height, camber and spectacular views. Breathtaking in every way.

Another superb activity is to run in the sea. It offers an almost childlike “lift me up” during the run and assists in improving balance and strength. On a hot humid day simply drop to your knees and cool off.

Tending your garden might seem an unlikely running companion, but it too adds to mobility through bending, kneeling, balancing when negotiating a drop off of the land being worked, if there is one. It also offers time in the sun and extra vitamin D you were maybe denied for two years.

Rather than simply run through every single day as the race approaches, go for a cycle, paddle if the means are available and swim. There are after all two rivers to cross.

In the last week, concentrate on walking light and embark on one session of speed-play either by running four times five minutes hard, followed by a two-minute jog/rest or four times 1000m, with the usual warm up, cool down and stretch session. And don’t forget the significance of water intake.