Fordyce: It’s good to run scared
As Comrades runners leave behind them the screaming crowds and the thick, acrid pall of braai smoke blanketing the village of Camperdown they encounter three unnamed hills.
The first two hardly warrant a mention as they are really just bumps rather than hills. (Although after almost 70km of running many runners will walk up these two bumps) The third hill, however, is vicious.
It rises steeply for about 750 metres and it were found in any other race in the world it would be called Coronary Thrombosis Heights, or Seared Lungs Mountain. Amazingly it has no name. A third of the way up the hill a lone tree casts a thin shadow in the blazing afternoon sun. Runners lie prostrate in its shade, others trudge wearily up its steep gradient.
This hill breaks the spirits of so many runners because they aren’t prepared for it.
It suddenly leaps at runners as a nasty shock. Every Comrades runner is prepared for ultra marathon’s famous climbs. For months they have been preparing themselves to tackle the Big Five, the legendary Cowie’s Hill, Fields Hill, Botha’s Hill, Inchanga, and Polly Shortts.
They will also have been warned of the climb up the Berea, and Little Pollies, the precursor to the most famous hill in Comrades, but it is the unnamed, unpleasant surprises that break spirits and humble the bravest runners.
I wonder how many Comrades runners fully appreciate the relentless intensity of the first half of the Up run.
How many actually realise that for most Comrades runners the hardest 42km marathon they will ever run will be the first 42km of the Up Comrades.
And so the one final act of Comrades preparation I thoroughly recommend for every runner is a drive over the 86.7km of the race day route. Even those who have run several Comrades marathons should undertake this important pilgrimage.
Yes even experienced runners who have not tackled the Up run for two years. In that time the brain forgets huge chunks of the race and the distance concertinas in the mind. How many experienced runners will round a bend in Comrades and quietly curse, “Oh no not that bit”?
And besides that there is a different finish this year. After runners summit Polly Shortts the route has changed as they head for the new Scottsville finish, and that’s all unknown territory. I’m not even running Comrades this year and I intend to drive the entire route while leading a route tour group.
I’m commentating for television and I need to know exactly where the runners are as I speak. There are formal Comrades route tours that runners can join, but even a simple drive along the route can have the desired effect.
Normally it’s tricky following the route, particularly as it winds its way out of the confines of the city of Durban but in the days before the race, the route is helpfully and liberally marked with gold and black route posters.
These assist the struggling Comrades map reader enormously. TV camera scaffolding and taped off running club seconding areas add to the sense of reality. The road between Durban and Pietermaritzburg is holding its breath for the morning of June 4.
The purpose of the drive is twofold. Firstly it informs and prepares the Comrades runner for what lies ahead, but more importantly it terrifies runners. And “terrified” is the best state of mind in which to start the race. I remember leading a route tour full of excited foreign runners a few years ago.
As our bus headed off along the route they were all abuzz with excitement. Occasionally one would ask me: “What’s the name of this hill Bruce” and then they would all chuckle when I replied “This one isn’t steep or long enough to warrant a name guys.”
From their reaction I knew my audience did not agree that the hill should remain anonymous.
Gradually as the journey unfolded and we travelled the length of the brutal course the conversation died and each runner appeared to be lost in his or her most private thoughts. When the journey ended a few runners had adjusted their finishing time and some looked ashen and weary. I was not concerned for them. I knew that they would line up two mornings later, scared and cautious.
The Comrades starting line welcomes scared runners. Those are the runners who start cautiously and conserve as much early energy as possible. They make their way prudently up those famous hills.
Scared Comrades runners understand that it is not a race for the bold and brave. The Comrades marathon rewards the timid and it is the meek that inherit good runs and fast times. It is the meek who get close to running “even splits” at Comrades.
The brave and the bold start well and look good for the first couple of hours, but they generally crash and burn somewhere on the lonely bleak stretch known as Harrison Flats.
Perhaps I’m belabouring the point a little too much, but since the training is now almost completed I cannot think of any better advice for runners at this stage than to insist they drive the route before race day.