The Comrades Up Run

The up run

It is evident from the profile below that what lies ahead in the up run is no trivial feat.  You will climb for 40 km tackling 3 big hills in the first half of the race, namely Cowies, Fields and Botha’s Hill. The first half of the up run will probably be the toughest standard marathon (42 km) you’ll ever run.

Comrades Up run route profile, it is evident that you will star climbing from the first kilometer. 
Picture Credit: J Hanna

The night before the race

The night before the race you will not sleep at all. You’ll plan, like all of us do, to be in bed by 7 pm with the intention of being up by 2 am the next morning. In bed you will be for sure, asleep NO.  You will toss and turn, waking up to go to the bathroom and checking your watch. The time will be moving, at around 1 am sleep will come and it will come in a form of a deep sleep,  you will go into a deep sleep for about an hour or so and then it’s time to wake up.So it is advised that you have enough sleep (at least 8 hours) during the nights leading up to the race. Sex before the race? As Bruce Fordyce puts it “There’s nothing wrong with having sex the night before Comrades as long as you don’t stay up all night looking for it”.

The Start

It is much easier to get to Durban than it is to get to Pietermaritzburg, there are more roads leading into the city and more accommodation. By 3 am the mood is very festive, the streets resemble a Brazilian carnival or a modern day jamboree, you could easily mistake it for a rock concert, Woodstock or a Soweto football derby (up the Bucs) no guessing where my allegiance lies, okay back to running now.

There are long queues at the toilets, bright lights everywhere, music playing. It is important not to be overwhelmed by the festivities, they can be energy sapping and that's the last thing you want before running a hilly 87 km race. In 2015 I witnessed one runner being overwhelmed by the music, he started dancing and as he was walking on the pavement he missed a step and twisted his ankle and that was the end of his very short comrades. Talking about being overwhelmed by the atmosphere, I witnessed another sad soul who decided that running on the beach the Friday before the race was a good idea, come Saturday morning he was limping to the breakfast table needless to say that was the end of his comrades marathon.

You need to get to the start very early, the toilet queues are along so you want to get that sorted out so that you can be in your hard earned seeding pens in time.

On the up run, in Durban the streets are wider and there is more lighting than in Maritzburg, so you can cross the start line quicker (remember Comrades is gun to gun and not mat to mat). In Durban it will take roughly 8 mins for an H seeded runner to cross the start line whereas it will take them 10 mins in Maritzburg every single minute counts.

The official ceremony will start about 5:00 am with the singing of Shosholoza and then the National anthem you will witness a few teary eyes and then finally Max Trimbourne’s cockcrow. The city mayor will fire the gun off at 5:30 am sharp, A and B seedings start running immediately C and D a trot E downwards it will be a frustrating walk for them for at least 4 mins. Average expected temp is about 11 degrees Celsius, 2013 was an exceptional year where we saw temperatures in the mid to late teens degrees Celsius.

This is the start of the 2013 Comrades Marathon, it was an exceptionally hot year this was also my maiden run, so I knew no better.

Max Trimbourne sounding the cockcrow in the 1948 edition of the Comrades marathon

First Half

The first half of the Comrades up run is tough really tough and it's scary just have a like at the route profile, and you’ll understand why. It is energy sapping and requires a lot of energy to conquer those hills. The first 1 km in Durban is flat, but then you on ramp onto the motor way and you start climbing, so you literally start climbing after a kay or so. Historically the up run used to start way up in Berea because the organisers thought it was too a steep hill to start the race in Durban. Climbing at such an early stage of the race is a disheartening and my offset your average race pace, but the trick here is patience and confidence in your training and pacing strategy. I’ve seen pacing charts lying (assume thrown) on the road as early as Cowie's Hill (16 km into the race).

45^th cutting comes at about 7 km  into the race, it is a decent hill but you probably will not feel it as it’s still early in the race and  it's still dark too. At about this point you will off ramp the motor way and get into Jan Smut Avenue, Mayville/Sherwood (7 km). The leading runner will go past this mark in about 25 minutes (average pace 3:35) the first lady in 29 minutes (average pace 4:08). Bill Rowan bus (usually lead by Johan van Tonder) will go through here at 44 minutes (avg pace 6:17).

There is a bridge just over Jan Smuts Avenue in Mayville you’ll find a lot of runners under that bridge fertilizing and watering the soil, so do tread carefully if you need to make a "pit stop" as it's still very dark. From 45^th cutting to Westville are rolling hills which feel very good on the down run but now not so good on the up run, by the time you get to Westville you would have been climbing for about 12 km.

Cowies Hill lies 17 km in to the race and is 366 metres above sea level (now that’s some serious climbing there), it is the first of the big five hills and the first "hot spot", there’s also a mounted TV camera there, so please do smile at the camera as this is probably the only chance that you still look decent. The first elite athletes will go over Cowies 17 km at just under an hour, this will typically be your “rabbits” or TV runners, the main contenders will be about 2 mins behind and in this group are some of the fiercest ultra-marathon runners.  The first ladies will crest in 1:13. (average pace 4:13).

Cowies Hill will take you into Pinetown where the mood is festive and there’s a lot of support. The stretch through Pinetown is a 4 km long, in 2015 there was an additional 800 metre loop due to road works (that loop added an hour to my finish time hehe).

   

After Pinetown you get on to the motorway to tackle Fields Hill (the second of the BIG FIVE) it lies 480 m above sea level and is 3,2 km long. You are 21 km into the race, up to now you would’ve done a half marathon which can be compared to the “king of the mountain” Pirates 21 km,I hope you get the picture. Those long hill repeats you did in your training run are going to come in handy now. Patience is the name of the game, there’s no shame in walking, walk before you need to walk (remember Caroline?), don’t forget to breath, shorten your strides and have a deliberate conversation (even if it’s with yourself) to gauge your thermometer. Remember how painful it was running down Fields Hill last year on the down run?  Now this is where the up run starts. Patience is key do not panic. You will start asking yourself a lot of questions, self-doubt will visit you numerous times you need to keep calm and trust your training. You are not the only one hurting. I’ve seen a lot of pacing charts already lying on the road as early as this stage of the race. This is where the damage gets done, the quads are going to work overtime, but you would have done the necessary strength and cross training to tackle this beast isn’t it? In order to conquer the up run you need to do a lot of strength training, I find hill repeats and cycling a good way to get strong. Bruce Fordyce always liked the up run and he’d do hill training on Sweet Hoogte in Auckland Park with the former world marathon champ Mark Plaatjies. You’ll climb from Fields Hill 21 km (3.2 km) going through the villages of Kloof and Hillcrest all the way to Botha’s Hill. I love the part of the race because of the support, but it’s also tempting to stop for a chat when your see a familiar face, don’t stop just keep moving forward.

Here you see the elite warriors leaving Pinetown and are now about to tackle Fields Hill

Caroline Worstmann doing strength training which helps in avoiding injuries and to use all your muscles optimally when running.

Fields Hill  - In this running bunch are some of the fiercest ultra marathoners in the world tackling one of the toughest road races on earth.

Botha's Hill - Botha is pronounced differently in KZN the “th” is an English “th” like how you would pronounce the “th” in "throw", my friend from Hillcrest always reminds me of this. You will climb from 21 km to 37 km to Botha's Hill. Botha’s Hill lies 37 km into the race, is 2.3 km long and 740 metres above sea level. You will be greeted by the boys from the prestigious Kearsney College. By now you would have tackled 3 of the big 5 hills, you should ideally be feeling “strong”. There’s as a little bit of rest from the top of Botha’s Hill.

From Botha’s Hill there’s a long downhill into halfway mark –Drummond, you need to get to Drummond “fresh” the hills in the first half need to be approached with caution, walk, walk, walk. Don’t be shy to walking we saw what Caroline did in 2015. Guys leave your testosterone at home, mind you the competition is getting quite tough and at times nasty amongst the ladies too {say no more}.


Second Half

The second half is easier than the first half, however given that you’ve being climbing for an odd 42 km and have completed your toughest marathon with another marathon and a park run to contend with, easy is relative.

Drummond 43.7 km is a hype of festivities, a lot of the clubs will have their gazebos there. If your family and friends are supporting you, this is the best place to be, it’s tricky to get to, but this is probably where you would need them the most. It can get congested at times, make sure your tell your seconder to keep an eye out for you and give them them your ETA (to the closest hour at least haha).

I call Drummond the "belly of the beast" its a nice dip into it, the crowds spur you on and you feel good, or at least you should, given that you’ve covered half the distance of the race. But getting out of the “belly of the beast” is a task and a half. You have to contend with the mighty Inchanga which is a 3 km climb. Inchanga has got a lot of twists, turns and false summits. I remember driving this route with my friends in 2015 and we counted about 13 turns. I then cycled the route in the Amashova Cycle challenge (DBN to PMB) it was a scary ride going down doing speeds of close to 70 km per hour, now imagine running up Inchanga. In the second half, the gradual slopes are more forgiving if you’ve been patient in the first half. Out of Inchanga 50 km you would have conquered 4 of the big 5 hills, pat yourself on the back, 37 km to go now. There's a nice gentle downhill for 4 km towards the Ethembeni School (a school for children with special needs), very inspirational for me personally.

Peter Molapo, Gift Kelehe (2015 winner) and Harmans Mokgadi going through halfway

We are heading to Harrison Flats it is dry and lonely, theres no shade not many spectators or support. This where you can get you momentum going, provided you’ve been patient in the first half. There are a few climbs, you can have a faster leg turnover, so your track  and fartlek training will come in handy here. RAC, one the biggest and oldest running club in the country, hosts a 10 km run 2 weeks before Comrades. Now you may wonder why such a big club would do that, it is purely to fine tune your legs for Comrades. The high mileage during March and April would have devoured you speed, your legs would have been used to running at slower paces for longer runs. Urban legend has it that back in the days if you couldn’t run the RAC 10 km under 37 minutes you were better off staying at home and watching the race on TV or better yet seconding the other club runners who had run sub 37 minutes. It is also no coincident that the Cross Country season starts in May and by the time you go to Comrades there would have been 2 or 3 cross country races. Cross country is a good way to fine tune those legs for the last kilometers of the up run.

Cato ridge is about 57 km into the race a little over Two Oceans distance, so if you’ve done Two Oceans and/or the RAC 60 km long run the body would be familiar with such distances. Anything beyond this is unfamiliar territory so brace yourselves. Cato Ridge is characterized by two things 1.bridges that start to meander and run parallel to the N3 highway and 2. the long haul trucks lining the side of the road. The climb from Cato ridge to Camperdown village is about 6 km, you’ll run on an undulating course between the sugar canes ,this is a popular site for “pit stops” fertilising the soil for the sugar canes before the last hill at Polly Shortts. I remember running beside an American runner who said to me "There's something liberating about dumping in the open air."  (TMI).

The rolling hills between the sugar canes of Cato Ridge and Camperdown.

From Camperdown Village you head off to Umlass road which is a 4 km slog and lies 827 m above sea level. Once you get to Umlass road it's about another 18 km to the finish. This was Bruce Fordyce’s hunting ground, this is the area he would start reeling in fatigue runners. From Umlaas it’s a nice gradual slope for about 6 km into Ashburton/Little Pollys. Do not mistake Little Polly for Polly Shortts, however it does serve as an appetiser for what lies ahead. In 2006 Brian Zondi surged up Little Polly mistaking it for Polly Shortts. He was finally caught by Oleg Khoritonov at the bottom of Polly Shortts, Oleg sumitted Polly Shortts first and breasted the tape in Maritzburg to win the race.In the words of the famous Bruce Fordyce “The one that summits Polly Shortts first will win the Comrades up run”. Polly Shortts is longer (about 1,7 km long), steeper and has more turns. 

Remember how you ran down Polly Shortts last year and how steep it was going down, now imagine having run 79 km and now having to tackle this beast of a hill. No one runs up Polly Shortts, well except for a few maniacs (Bruce Fordyce and recently Gift Kelehe). Once you crest Polly Shortts you’ve got Comrades in the bag you have 8 more kilometres of undulating course to go.

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The finish this year is in Scottsville. Getting into Maritzburg is a hype of festivities lots of supporters on the road, you can hear the cheering, the music and the loud speaker from a distance. This is the home stretch embrace the moment, let it sink in, capture this moment and save it on to your mental hard drive. Embrace the hardship you’ve over come and recall this moment when you're faced with challenges in any sphere of your life. Scottsville is a race course so the grass will be heavy under your feet so tread carefully and suck up the atmosphere.

Euphoria - noun - a feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness. Derived from "euphoros," a Greek word that means "healthy."

GOOD LUCK AND ENJOY THE RACE!!!