Road Running – Page 3

COMRADES IS 90% FROM THE NECK UP :

Posted on April 11, 2017February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

This blog was written from my own experience as a finisher in Comrades in times between 8:29 and 10:43 in a collection of runs over 14 years. What I am saying here has certainly worked for me to get me home in that time range and without any great degree of discomfort.

In saying that Comrades is 90% from the neck up I am assuming that the reader who is running Comrades has trained physically and properly and has taught his or her legs how to run at least 60Kms on at least one but preferably two or even more occasions in the four month build up to Comrades. If the Comrades runner who is the reader of this blog has done that, then Comrades generally becomes 10% physical provided he or she doesn’t go into Comrades either sick or injured.

I had a chat to 2016 women’s winner, Charne Bosman, who agrees with me that the mental side of things is massive and is certainly as high as 80% to 90% come Comrades day, again provided you have done the physical training and you are not sick.

I also asked my good friend and winner of the 1966 Comrades, Tommy Malone what he thought about the importance of the mental preparation is for Comrades and his answer was simple. He said

“A strong mind can carry a weak body but a weak mind gets you nowhere”

So having spoken to both Charne and Tommy I want to talk to readers about the mental training that needs to be done from now – the middle of April – up to Comrades in preparation for the big day – the part of your Comrades that happens from the neck up!

Your mental training is not something that is done over a period of one day. It is something you need to do for the better part of the remaining time from now until race day. It’s that important. Many of your top runners are getting assistance from sports psychologists so important do they regard the mental side of things and those top runners are not only your potential winners so that makes you stop and think!

When I was preparing for my first Comrades way back in the dark ages under the watchful eye of that wonderful old man, the late Ian Jardine, he told me that 90% of my Comrades was going to be from the neck up and that if my legs could run 60km they could run 90km and that the rest was going to be up to my head to get me through. I believed him and I worked towards Comrades on that basis every time I ran.

I have been blessed by having always been very strong mentally when it came to Comrades day and never once did I ever give thought to stopping during the race or not finishing even on the three occasions when I was taking a bit of strain. It was my mental strength that carried me through on those runs.

So let’s get onto this mental thing I’m talking about and it starts quite a while before Comrades day I discovered.

Very recently, and remember that I last ran Comrades exactly 30 years ago in 1987, I woke up for some reason at around 5am and couldn’t go back to sleep. It was pitch dark outside and I started thinking back to those far off days when I was training for Comrades and here we are in mid-April, the most important of all months for Comrades training.

About 6 or so weeks of serious training to go and at 5 in the morning the alarm goes off and it’s time to get up and get out onto the road on a weekday to do that run. It’s cold if you live in places like Pietermaritzburg or Gauteng. It’s still dark and very often those weekday runs are done alone and you have just about had enough – but you are too far in to call it a day and pull out of the whole thing. Too fit to give up now but yet you still have around six more weeks of this to go.

The weekends are not the problem whether you are doing a long run with your mates or an organised club run or race. That’s different. It’s those mid-week runs. Can’t not do them. They are simply too important to miss and if you’re amongst the working class it’s a 5am start to get onto the road.

This is where the head has to begin to do its work and we are still the better part of 6 weeks of serious training away from Comrades! It would be so easy to just turn over and sleep for another hour, especially if you are not meeting anybody to run with but you know deep down that if you do that today, it could happen tomorrow and if it happens again tomorrow it could also happen the next day and the next and all the work you have put in since January will slowly start to disappear out the window so after this argument with yourself you get up, get dressed and get out onto the road into the dark and cold.

Once out on the road the guilt hits you big time that you almost cheated yourself out of your run this morning and so this internal war rages on for the last 6 or so weeks on those cold dark mornings when, all alone, you force yourself to get out there.

So now you’ve in all likelihood taught your legs to run at least 50 plus kms so come Comrades day and by fighting yourself to get out of bed on those cold dark mornings you have also started to sort out the mental side of things – but it doesn’t end there. In fact that’s just the beginning.

Those fortunate folk who live in and around Durban and Pietermaritzburg or anywhere in between will almost certainly have done some training on the route but if you are from anywhere else and you are perhaps one of the huge number of novices this year who have never even seen the route you need to start doing some more training of that part of you that makes up the 90% required on Comrades day to carry you through and you need to start that training NOW!

But how do you do that? You start by studying the route. Over and over. Get to know the landmarks. Get to know the various points where you need to be at what times and get to know them well and break up your race according to those landmarks so that your head can handle chunks of distances you have run before. With this, Comrades has actually helped you and most people haven’t even realised it.

In all my Comrades I never ran more than about 20Km at any one time. I never concerned myself with anything beyond the 20Km with which I was busy at any one time and when I had completed that bit, it was gone forever and I didn’t worry about it again. I then focused on the next “chunk” however long it might have been, but it too, was never very long.

In other words your first “chunk” can be to the first cut off point in Pinetown and Comrades have kindly told you what the latest time is you have to be there. Don’t worry about running time. Worry about what time of day it must be.

You have to be there at 10 past 8 at the latest and it’s about 19Km. You’ve run that distance in 2:40 before and probably many times so that’s not a problem so train your brain to understand that it’s the longest run of the day and even if it takes you 9 minutes to get across the start line it’s not a problem.

If you have done your homework properly you will know that it’s about 19Km to the first cut off and that’s all. You shouldn’t be worrying about it on the day. All you need to worry about is where that point is and what time of day you need to be there. When you get there forget about what you’ve done and focus on your next run. Pinetown to Winston Park. That’s not far either. Don’t worry about anything else. When people around you are talking about Inchanga and Polly’s – let them but don’t join the conversation. It has nothing to do with you. It isn’t part of your run from Pinetown to Winston Park. Field’s Hill is at that time.

See how much of this is from the neck up? If you don’t get this right that 9 minutes to get across the start line is going to be playing on your mind all of the 87Km that you shouldn’t be thinking about anyway!

Don’t whatever you do, stand at the start in Durban and think to yourself that you have 87Km to cover. That will just do your head in. It’s more than the best of us can handle!

And remember that Comrades have kindly stuck up huge boards telling you where the cut offs are and you can get those off their website and that’s what you spend the day doing. Here’s an example of what the boards look like.

Run a collection of 7 short runs (not races) from cut off to cut off for the day. You simply have to train your brain to know where they are and to recognise them and to know when you have to be there.

What you’ll probably find when you do your schedule (or pacing chart as some prefer to call it) and use it and no other because you have done it to suit you and give yourself a 15 minute time range to get to each cut off point. In other words say that you want to be at the first one between that time and that time (those times 15 minutes apart).

Remember it’s time of day and not overall running time that interests you. The reason for that is that you don’t want to have to start adding and subtracting when you are starting to get tired later on. The number of people I see wearing watches that can almost make scrambled eggs on toast is mind blowing. What for?

By the time you have done the better part of 65Km you need everything your brain has to offer to help you to get to the end and not to start trying to work out how many minutes per Km you did for the last 7.2753Kms! Who cares? I promise you that by the time you get to 65Km you are certainly not going to care.

So how do you learn where these landmarks are? Simple. Comrades tell you firstly on their website where they are and then “on the day” they put up huge big boards that you can’t miss so you know that you are at the end of one little run and time to start your next little run and time to forget about everything you have already done.

Go to my blog entitled “Up Run Route Description” and it’s all there in as much detail as I have been able to provide as well as any known dangers for the section you are looking at. Incidentally Comrades are going to be publishing my route description in the Comrades brochure you get at Comrades Expo and which has been endorsed by 4 time winner Alan Robb. Unfortunately for those who don’t see this blog it’s going to be a little like cramming for the finals but you have an advantage. Use it and your day will be a lot easier.

So there you have it. The work between now and Comrades is to “train the brain” to get it to do 90% of the work on Comrades day.

Fight it when it tells you to ignore the alarm on those cold dark mornings. Those runs have to be done no matter how hard they might be to do. You have put in the work since January to get to where you are now. Don’t waste it now.

Study the route over and over and find out where the cut off points are and how far it is between them and at what time (time of day) you have to be there. You’ll thank me for this after the race when you realise you didn’t have to try to work out Kms per minute.

Then go out and enjoy the fact that you only have to run about 7 little runs during the day and that the longest is just under 20Km and the shortest is shorter than your average club time trial.

Now how easy is that, but you have to do the mental training and you have to start doing it now!

April 2017

MAY I HELP YOU AT COMRADES? :

Posted on March 14, 2017February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

I suppose with the title of this blog I’ll have coaches up and down the country in a terrible state wondering what exactly I’m trying to do by getting into their territory but they needn’t worry at all because I’ve said before, I am not a coach so I won’t say anything about coaching other than just one thing and it’s this. When you decide on a coach, and it doesn’t matter who it is, please stick with the training program offered by that coach and don’t whatever you do jump around from coach to coach because that is a recipe for disaster and probable failure come the big day.

What I’m wanting to do in this blog is to give a few little tips that helped me on the day and leading up to the day when I was running and had nothing at all to do with the way I trained and if you think they may have some merit, please feel free to try them but please do so well before Comrades – as in two months before Comrades – and if they work for you keep doing them until they become part of your normal routine.

Some of them you can only do a day or so before Comrades as in my first suggestion so let’s see what we have.

My thanks to Comrades Marathon for the use of the photographs taken from the Comrades website and as always for their help with my blogs.

EXPO

Before we even get to the start line, we have to go to Expo. This is basically a no option exercise if we are registered to collect our numbers in Durban. It’s exciting with an amazing atmosphere and you can feel and smell Comrades. There are things to see. People to meet. Celebs to bump into and a massive number of products that the manufacturers will tell you will help you get to the finish easier.

expo

Don’t be tempted. Your main purpose for going to Expo is to get your registration done and to have a quick walk around (try to make it a maximum of an hour) and a quick look and to get out of there and to get off your feet and to go and rest.

TRYING NEW THINGS

You don’t want to try anything you have never tried before. The last new thing you tried should have been at least six weeks before Comrades.

Other runners will tell you about “magic potions” they have discovered a week or so before the race that are “guaranteed to get you to the finish at least an hour faster than you planned. THEY WON’T – SO DON’T TRY THEM.

You don’t want to try any new magic “muti” that is on offer at Expo. By all means take them and use them in your training for NEXT year but not for this year. Don’t buy new shoes at Expo and wear them the next day at Comrades. People do this believe it or not. You should know by mid-April which shoes (and any other clothes) you’ll be wearing on the big day.

THE BIG DAY ARRIVES

Finally the big day arrives, you get to the start and you are convinced that you are the only person there who hasn’t done enough training. Every other runner is so incredibly confident. Jumping around shouting to their mates, singing, dancing and generally having a great time.

Eventually the cock crow and the gun and you slowly start to move forward and you look at your watch and by the time you cross the start line it’s already 7 minutes since the gun fired. Got to make that up – and fast. Everybody around you is taking off like a bullet to do the same.

DON’T DO IT. You’ll make up that 7 minutes easily and long before you get to half way and those who tear off will be broken before they reach halfway.

DOWN RUN START

They forget that the first 25km is tough. It’s very, very tough. You climb out of Durban in a steady climb all the way to Kloof which is at the top of Field’s Hill just the other side of Pinetown and many of those who tried to make up those 7 minutes will be broken by the time they get there.

Not you though. You left the start at the nice gentle pace without any panic because you knew exactly what you have to do because you’re only running 20km anyway and you’ve done that plenty of times before.

BREAK UP THE ROUTE

It’s crucial that you study the route and get to know it really well and then break it up into chunks of no more than say, the first 20km from the start and then after that 10km chunks to the top of Polly’s and then the last bit of only 7Km.

Then learn where those landmarks are so that on race day you know that the first 20km is not an issue because you’ve done that dozens of times. When you get there, then chuck that away. It’s done. It’s gone. The next 10km is all you have to worry about. Nothing beyond that. You can run that. You have done it plenty of times. You can do it so why not today?

Forget about trying to work them out from your watch. By 2pm that’ll do your head in but landmarks won’t. Oh, here’s Umlaas Road. I recognize that. It’s the highest point between Durban and ‘Maritzburg and it’s only 2 o’clock – cool!

Don’t even worry about anything beyond that. When you get there, throw that away and then the next 10km and so you go and you don’t run anything further than that first 20km during the entire day and how many times have you run 20km in training?

REMEMBER I TOLD YOU COMRADES IS 90% IN THE HEAD. THIS IS A MAJOR PART OF IT – AND IT REALLY DOES WORK BUT YOU MUST STUDY THE ROUTE AND YOU MUST TRAIN YOUR HEAD.

WALKING

Virtually everyone in Comrades walks during the course of the day but the secret is not whether you walk or when you walk but HOW you walk. Make no mistake, Comrades is a hard day’s work (with apologies to the Beatles) and you will be very tired and you will be very sore and if you are frightened of being either sore or tired then it’s perhaps best if you don’t bother.

That said if you accept that you are going to be tired and sore then you may as well go the “whole hog” and work really hard. In other words when you walk, don’t aimlessly saunter along the road. That wastes very valuable time. Walk with purpose and determination and hurt properly.

Of course it’ll hurt to do that – but it’ll also save you the better part of 30 minutes or even more. Walk like that on hills, through refreshment stations and in fact anywhere you have to walk.

There comes a point where you can’t hurt any worse!

This is part of the mental part of Comrades and remember that 90% of Comrades is mental work. This is the mental work they talk about!

WALKING AND DRINKING

I have often been criticized for telling people to take their drinks at a refreshment station and keep walking and don’t waste time by stopping to drink. I am told that the drink – especially if it is in a paper cup will splash up your nose if you try and drink whilst running.

refreshments

Not if you drink it through a straw it won’t. I used to carry a 15cm plastic tube held under my watch strap at one end and by an elastic band at the other end. Get to a refreshment station, pick up the drinking cup, squeeze the top almost shut, insert your drinking tube and drink while running! NO splash back up your nose and probably about a minute saved. Only a minute! Yes but a minute at 20 refreshment stations is 20 minutes at the end!

CHAFING

I have spent the last several Comrades as a spectator at the side of the road at Botha’s Hill which is more or less the 39km mark on the Up Run and more or less the 50km mark on the Down Run and I am amazed by how many runners are in need of something to stop chafing when they get to us whether it’s Up or Down and it really is so easy to stop and you don’t want to be trying to stop the chafing once it’s already started.

Firstly let me say that in this case I am speaking to the men as I have no experience at all in stopping chafing for women runners.

Men generally chafe in three places. The back of the armpits, the nipples and the crotch.

Ordinary Vaseline applied generously to the armpits and crotch before the start takes care of those two areas and what I found worked very well for the nipples was waterproof plaster cut into a small piece the size of the nipple and applied to the nipple. Be careful not to get it onto the skin around the nipple as the sweat will cause the plaster to come off.

That takes care of the chafing even in the rain.

A lot of runners these days are wearing cycling type pants under their running shorts to stop chafing but I am not able to comment on whether that works or not as I have never used them.

Strangely though, as soon as I started wearing a T shirt under my vest the chafing at the back of my armpits stopped.

HILLS

There are hills in Comrades. In fact there are quite a lot of them. Some of them have names and some of them don’t but whether they have names or whether they don’t on the 4^th of June you are going to have to have to get up all those hills and you are going to possibly do a fair amount of walking as you go up those hills. Remember what I said about managing your walking as you climb those hills and it will make life very much easier but many years ago as I was getting ready for my first Comrades, I was approaching a hill and a seasoned runner said to me “Take care of the bottom of a hill and the top will take care of itself”

polly-shortts

I have never forgotten those words and it is the way I climbed every hill in every Comrades and every other run and race I ever ran after that. It’s a simple statement.

Think about it. It really does work and it works well.

“Take care of the bottom of a hill and the top will take care of itself” BUT then manage your walking if you’re going to be walking on that hill.

PHYSIO STATIONS

It’s not an uncommon sight in Comrades to see a runner lying down at one of the physio stations or alongside a family member getting his or her legs rubbed in an effort to ease the pain to make the rest of the trip easier.

In most instances those leg rubs will do nothing other than waste valuable time. Possibly as much as 15 to 20 minutes and imagine if you stop three or four times during Comrades for one of these rubs that won’t help you. That’s an hour that you have wasted. Gone.

There are some genuine cases where muscles are in spasm and a physio is needed to ease those but in the vast majority of cases the rub is nothing more than muscles that are sore from the work you are asking them to do by running a fairly long distance so before you stop for a rub make sure that the stop is one that can genuinely be helped by a physio or whether it will be the waste of 15 or 20 very valuable minutes.

KEEPING WARM AND KEEPING COOL

I’m going to share with you a little trick I learnt from my running days that might work for you but it might not. A word of warning though. Whatever you do, don’t try this for the first time on Comrades day. Try it long beforehand. If it works for you that’s great. If it doesn’t work then throw it away as a waste of time.

It certainly worked for me.

I found that the early mornings were uncomfortably cool, cold even, so as a result I always started off wearing a plain T shirt (unbranded – this is important or you are breaking the rules) UNDER my club vest. I did all my long training runs in a T shirt so this was comfortable for me and at the same time it kept me warmer in the cool early morning. Then on top of that my club vest helped a bit to warm me as well.

The T shirt I wore at Comrades I started wearing in April so that by the time we got to Comrades I was perfectly comfortable in it. I didn’t buy it a few days before race day and wear it.

As it started to get warmer my T shirt started to get wetter and now it started to play another role. It started to hold water and started to cool me down. Again this didn’t bother me because I was used to wearing it on my long training runs and I was used to running in a fairly wet T shirt. The advantage during Comrades was that I kept my T shirt wet and the hotter the Comrades, the wetter I would deliberately keep my T shirt and as a result the less I felt the heat. The only slightly uncomfortable time was around 3pm when it started to cool down and my T shirt was still wet but that didn’t last too long. The advantages far outweighed that slightly uncomfortable half hour.

MY HAT- MY SPONGE
Usually in your “goodie bag” at Expo you are given some sort of headgear. Either a peak or a cap of some sort which bears the Comrades logo and possibly a sponsor logo. If these are not what you are used to wearing, don’t wear them. Get yourself an unbranded (it must be unbranded or you are breaking the rules) hat NOW that is comfortable and get used to it and wear that.

In my very early Comrades, I hadn’t yet learnt the value of keeping my head cool but in later years after some experimenting I found that the thing that worked best for me was the fisherman’s type “bucket hat” which could easily double up as a sponge if need be. Again I kept my hat wet and my head cool.

I also used this in even later years to carry an actual sponge. A piece of Velcro sewn onto the side of the hat and another piece of material to wrap around my sponge with a piece of Velcro that held that and also held it onto my hat so I didn’t have to bother with carrying it. I attach a photo of what I am talking about and I hope it’s clear enough to see what I am talking about.

comrades-1985

I hope these few tips that I have picked up over my years at Comrades may be of some use to some of you and even if one or two of you benefit I will be pleased. As I said though, if any of them, such as the T shirt under your vest is something you might try, please do it now and not on Comrades day for the first time.

Some of them may sound really silly but as I have said many times before, Comrades is not about how fast you can run on the day. It’s about how much time you don’t waste on the road on the day.

March 2017

COMRADES DOCTOR GIVES MEDICAL ADVICE

Posted on February 17, 2017February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

Dr Jeremy Boulter has been responsible for the medical facilities at Comrades for many years and has been involved with the facilities for the last 38 years – 2017 will be his 39^th consecutive year. I asked him how he had got involved with the Comrades medical facilities and that was the subject of my previous blog but in addition to that he gave me the article he wrote for the Pre-Race brochure for the 2014 Comrades which he tells me is as applicable today as it was three years ago and it’s certainly worth publishing on its own and given the importance of the subject here it is.

My thanks to Dr Jeremy Boulter and to Comrades Marathon Association for the use of this article.

Comrades Marathon has focused attention on the health, fitness and responsibility of runners. The following is aimed at providing advice as to what runners can do to prevent themselves from ending up in a situation where they are in need of medical attention. It is important to remember that medical attention is retro-active, ie. we only respond when a runner is in trouble. Prevention is better than cure, and the prevention of problems is in the hands of you, the runner.

WHAT CAN RUNNERS DO TO PREVENT SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEMS?

Firstly, it is important to appreciate that runners who collapse after they have finished a race, even if they require urgent medical attention, will almost certainly recover fully. However, those who collapse during a race are most probably suffering from a serious and potentially life threatening condition. So, what can be done to prevent this latter situation from arising?

The first thing that runners can do is to make sure that they are adequately prepared. This means that they should have done enough training. They should also do their best to ensure that they have no underlying medical problems, of which they may or may not be aware. The following is a list of questions that runners should ask themselves. If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions, it is strongly recommended that you see your doctor or a Cardiologist for a full check-up before starting the Comrades.

Has your doctor ever warned you that you have “heart issues” or that you should only be physically active or do sports under medical supervision?

Are you overweight or underweight?

Is your girth over 88 cm (for women) or 102 cm (for men)?

Are you over 35 and have not been physically active for a long period of time?

During blood pressure monitoring, have you ever recorded high blood pressure?

Have you ever been diagnosed with high cholesterol?

Do you smoke or have you smoked extensively in the past?

Has anyone in your direct family ever suffered from high blood pressure, calcification of the coronary blood vessels/heart attack, blood sugar disease, or stroke?

Do you have diabetes?

In the past few months, have you had the sensation of a ‘racing heart’, problems breathing, or chest pains, whether while at rest or during athletic activity?

Are you taking any medications for high blood pressure, heart or breathing conditions?

Do you ever feel dizzy or pass out, whether at rest or during physical activity?

Do you have any problems with your musculoskeletal system, which worsen during physical activity?

Remember, any of these symptoms could be indicative of a serious underlying medical problem.

Another important point is to prepare yourself to get used to the fluids etc. available on race day. Don’t drink a fluid during training that will not be available on race day. You may well not be able to tolerate these fluids if you are not used to them. The same applies to food.

Don’t try anything new on race day. This also includes running shoes.

Do not run if you have been sick in the 3 weeks prior to the race.

A cold is different ie the symptoms are “above the neck” with a runny nose, possibly a mild sinus type headache, and a feeling of not being 100%. BUT you don’t feel really sick.

If you do run, then be extra careful and be aware of any untoward feelings and pull out. However, if you have had a temperature, generalised aching body, chest symptoms and you feel pretty miserable then that is Flu and you should not be running. Similarly, if you have needed anti-biotics then don’t run.

Do not return to training, or run the race, after illness or injury without first being cleared to do so by your doctor.

During the race be aware of any unusual symptoms that may develop eg chest pain, dizziness, severe nausea, unusual shortness of breath, change in your running style, confusion and disorientation. If this happens, stop running and seek medical attention. It has become apparent over many years that people feel it is more important to finish the race than be concerned about their health. [Or is it a matter of pride?]

DO NOT TAKE ANY MEDICATION AT ALL, either before or during the race, especially anti – inflammatories [eg. Voltaren, cataflam etc].These are commonly called N.S.A.I.D’s. They are a class of drug which reduce pain and inflammation after an injury. However they can have serious side effects. One of these is irritation of the lining of the stomach, causing an ulcer. This will cause pain, but can result in [sometimes catastrophic] bleeding. Another serious problem is the effect on the kidneys. It has been shown that NSAID’s constrict the artery to the kidney, reducing the flow of blood through the kidney and thus reducing its ability to filter waste products. Combine this with dehydration, and Acute Renal Failure [ARF] can result. This can be fatal. There are increasing numbers of runners developing ARF after Comrades, and one of the major contributing factors to this trend is the taking of anti-inflams during the race. Renal Failure is a serious condition and can be fatal.

Not only NSAID’s are dangerous. It is known that Paracetamol [commonly known as Panado] can cause Liver and Kidney damage in very high doses. Evidence now shows that it can also damage Heart muscle, causing ECG changes similar to that of a heart attack. Although these effects are usually only apparent with high doses, when dehydration is present kidney function is reduced and metabolites can build up in the body, sometimes to toxic levels. This could cause heart problems as well as affect the kidney. Anti-cramp medication can also be a potential problem. It clearly states in the packaging that they should not be taken in the presence of dehydration. When this is present problems can arise. If one considers that about 45% of the runners who come into the Medical Tent after the race are dehydrated, then one can see that taking products like these could put runners at serious risk!

PAIN!

Pain is a sign that all is not well with the body. In my opinion, any runner who needs pain killers before the race should not be running. They are not fit enough!

Pain that develops during the race indicates that some damage has occurred. It may be of a minor nature, but could be something more serious. If the pain reaches a degree where a runner cannot continue, then he/she should stop running and climb into one of the rescue busses. DO NOT TAKE PAIN KILLERS.

FLUIDS.

Ensure that you take in adequate fluids. During training you will have reached an idea of how much and how often you need to drink. Approximately 500ml per hour should be adequate. However, this is just a guide. Each runner is different. Do not simply start filling up right from the start, rather drink when you are thirsty.

FOOD.

Make sure you take in enough food to keep up with your energy requirements. Don’t try new products on race day. If you are going to take things like Goo’s, then make sure you have used them before.

My appeal to runners is that they demonstrate a great degree of self-responsibility. Take care of your health. Make sure that you are adequately prepared to run Comrades. The following is a list of the basic principles every runner should adhere to.

DO drink enough.

DO eat if necessary.

DO listen to your body.

DON’T run if you are not fit enough or not properly prepared.

DON’T run if you have been sick or on anti-biotics in the three weeks prior to the race.

DON’T take ANY medication during the race.

DON’T be afraid to bale.

Remember, the aim is to enjoy the race and finish in a reasonably healthy state. It is your body, and your responsibility to care for it! Be sensible, take note of what is happening to yourself, and make responsible decisions.

If you start running into trouble, pull out before it’s too late.

After the race it is important to make sure that you take in adequate fluid, to correct any minor level of dehydration which may be present, as well as to monitor your urine output. If you have not been passing much urine during the race it may be due to the presence of a hormone called ADH, which can be released by physical stress. If so, you will start passing large amounts of urine very soon after finishing. However, if you continue to pass very little, or none at all, late that day or night, it may be indicative of a kidney problem such as renal failure. One should then seek medical attention.

Rest is also important. Get over the initial stiffness and then start with some gentle jogging. Don’t get into any serious running too soon. Let your muscles and joints recover from Comrades!

Dr Jeremy Boulter

First Written in 2014

COMRADES MEDICAL BOSS – DR JEREMY BOULTER

Posted on February 2, 2017February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

Virtually every runner in Comrades is aware of the medical facilities offered by the organisers and they know about the Medical Tent at the finish and most know that it is the biggest temporary medical facility in a the world outside of a war, disaster or conflict zone.

Most runners also know that it’s that it’s the one place they don’t want to visit on Comrades day. The one place they don’t want to go anywhere near when they finish their gruelling journey over the almost 90km between Kwa Zulu-Natal’s two cities and especially they don’t want to be brought into the facility by ambulance from the road before they even reach the finish.

In fact they would prefer it if they leave the end of Comrades with no knowledge at all of what the inside of the Medical Tent looks like.

The Comrades medical facilities, as much as the runners would prefer to avoid going anywhere near them, form a very important part of the world’s greatest ultra road race and without the facilities offered there would be tragedy. It’s really that simple.

The man who has been responsible for overseeing in medical facilities for many years is Dr Jeremy Boulter who has been part of the medical team for the last 38 years – 2017 will be his 39^th year, and that is some going.

I had the opportunity to chat to Jeremy and I asked him about his involvement in Comrades and more specifically with the medical facilities and I started off by asking him how it all started and whether he had in fact been a runner.

DJ: How did you first get involved in the medical tent facilities to begin with way back in 1979 and had you in fact been a runner and sort of drifted into the job in the medical facility because you were a doctor?

JB No, I had never been a distance runner. At tea time one morning in May 1979, when I was an Intern at Edendale Hospital, Dr. John Godlonton asked me if I would like to help him in the medical tent at the finish of Comrades. My reply was “yes, what do I have to do?” “Oh, just put up a couple of drips on dehydrated runners” was his reply. So began an association with The Ultimate Human Race which has lasted 38 years.

DJ: It was a fairly small operation back then when you compare it to what we have now. What did you have to cater for the runners at the end of the seventies?

JB: Let’s go back to the very beginning.

In 1976 Dr. John Godlonton, a Paediatrician at Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, heard of an acquaintance who had been admitted to hospital in a state of dehydration and Renal Failure after running the Comrades. He realised that if the runner had received fluid via a drip immediately after the race, he would almost certainly have avoided being admitted to hospital. He approached the then organising committee with a proposal to set up a Medical facility at the finish to treat those runners in need of fluid after the race. This was accepted, and so the Comrades Medical Facility was born.

In 1977 Dr.John, as he was to become known by all associated with the race organisation, set up “shop” in the change rooms at the finish at the Jan Smuts stadium, now known as the Harry Gwala stadium. As far as I know, he worked alone that year, and treated about 5 runners with intra-venous fluid.

Details are a bit sketchy, partly because of the passage of time, but mainly because the medical tent, and the number of patients we had, was so unremarkable, especially when compared to the present. The tent was a 3x3m army mess tent, of the type where there was a gap between sides and roof. We had 4 camping stretchers, one trestle table for supplies, and another for belongings and refreshments.

John was present all day, but the rest of us worked in pairs in 2 hour shifts. There were six of us, all young doctors working at Edendale Hospital.

I worked two shifts and treated one patient! Our medical equipment consisted of a blood pressure cuff and drips. The intra-venous fluids were “donated” by the Edendale Hospital pharmacy. All patients who came into the tent were treated with intra-venous fluids, as the thinking in those days was that they had to dehydrated, we had not heard of over-hydration then. John’s wife, Mary was our “caterer”. She arrived with a basket containing a flask of hot water for tea or coffee, and some rolls for lunch!

To my knowledge, having a Medical Tent at the finish of a race was unique to Comrades at the time. Now it is a requirement stipulated in the rules, as laid down by ASA, at all athletics events.

DJ: Then with the retirement of the Dr John who was in charge before you, you then took over the running of the entire operation in 1996 and you have watched it grow dramatically over the years you have been in charge and it’s been in your time that the fields have consistently been over 12,000 which has meant bigger staff needed by you and you were in charge in the millennium year with the biggest ever field at around 20,000.

JB: Over the years the tent grew in size as the number of Comrades runners grew, and thus patients, increased. We moved from somewhere in the centre of the field to the side, adjacent to the track just before the final straight. We were able to sit outside our tent and watch the runners coming past us. It became a game amongst the doctors to watch these athletes as they struggled past in varying states of exhaustion, to predict who would be coming to visit us in the Tent. We were seldom wrong! Then we were moved to an area behind the stadium, as we had become too big and took up too much space inside it.

Sometime in those early years, our “Medical I.T.” section was born. This was a system to inform the public which runners were in our tent. It consisted of a blackboard at the entrance to the tent, on which the patients’ race numbers were written in chalk. When discharged, the number was simply rubbed out. A far cry from our current set up, where we have laptops linked to the information tent and the main Comrades data base!

We have also introduced a mini laboratory into the tent. This enables us to have vital blood parameters of our patients, such as blood Sodium levels, available within a few minutes, which have a direct bearing on the treatment.

DJ: How do you know the numbers you need in terms of specialists and doctors, nurses, etc. You told me previously that you have a three bed ICU section in the medical ten. Is that just a guess and a hope that it’ll be enough or do you look at different requirements on the Up Run versus the Down Run?

JB: The staffing of the tent has grown year by year as the size of the field has increased. We treat between 2 and 4% of the field, so I know roughly how many patients we’re likely to have and so how many beds and doctors we will need. We currently have about 40-45 Interns, 20 Medical Officers, 8-10 Specialists and about 20 nurses working in the tent, as well as the mini-lab and admin staff.

The ICU size is essentially governed by availability of space and essential equipment. Is it enough? It has to be!!! Whether up or down, our preparation is the same, and there is not really any difference in patient numbers or the type of problems we see.

DJ: Are you responsible for the medical staff who are out on the road as well and are you in touch with them? So in other words if there’s a runner who is in trouble and is picked up by one of the ambulances do they contact you for instruction based on what they find?

JB: Yes, I am responsible for everything Medical to do with Comrades. We have a medical JOC adjacent to the tent, which is in control of, and in contact with, all the ambulances, rapid response cars and personnel out on the route. I can communicate via radio or cell phone with them if necessary.

DJ: Is there a team making the decisions when you have a seriously ill runner or does that all fall on your shoulders alone as to whether this case is hospital or worse – ICU or not and that one can be treated in the facilities you have and discharged.

JB: Yes. The specialists are each allocated an area of the tent for which they are in charge, and they make all necessary decisions for their section. Obviously if there is a complicated case, then other specialists and I will be involved in the consultation and decision making.

DJ: I’m going to put you a bit on the spot now. How much of what you see in the medical tent do you think is caused by inadequate training where the runner has simply not done enough?

JB: I think the level of training plays a part in the “state of exhaustion” of our patients, but not so much in the “medical problems”. Let me explain. Everyone is going to be really tired and sore after running 87km! The degree of suffering will be directly related to the amount of training and fitness of the runner. However, the serious cases we see are almost invariably due to runners taking part when they are unwell, or have been ill shortly before the race, have been inadequately hydrated or [probably the most serious] have taken medication [eg analgesics and anti-inflammatories] during the run.

DJ: Where in the field in terms of time, do most of your customers to the medical tent come from?

JB: 80% of the field finishes in the last 2 hours, and that’s when we get hectic! We quite often get runners coming into the tent up to 2 hours after the final gun!

So there you have it. Should you have the misfortune of ending up in the medical tent you can rest easy knowing that you are in good hands with Dr Jeremy Boulter and his team of around 85 trained medical staff ranging from specialists to nursing sisters with an ICU section and ambulances out on the road.

My biggest wish is that on the 4^th of June you don’t get to meet any of these really nice people.

February 2017.

HELEN LUCRE 1-2-3 TIMES A LADY COMRADES CHAMPION :

Posted on October 27, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

I first met Helen Lucre shortly after she arrived in South Africa in 1980 when she and I found ourselves, of all places, in Pretoria, we both arrived at Harlequin Harriers as our running home. Helen had decided that she wanted to do some running in her new home in South Africa and what better place to start than with a bunch of guys who were able to go out and run 30kms a week or two after running this thing she had heard about called Comrades which she had listened to on the radio a few weeks before.

If the people at “Quins” could do that then they had to be the people who would best suit her to join. And that is how our very long friendship started.

When I chatted to Helen I asked her whether she had done any running in her home country of New Zealand?

HL: No. Not really. I played a fair amount of sport. I had been travelling for about 3 or 4 years and I had met a couple of guys when I was skiing in Austria who were runners and they suggested that I should come to South Africa with them, which I did and that’s how I ended up getting into running as a sport.

I had always been quite fit and played a lot of basketball and drifted towards Quins to get fit. I started by running the time trial and then I heard about Comrades. I started to build up slowly and then towards the end of the year I had the confidence to try to run a club long Sunday run and by the time we go to early 1981 I was ready to try a marathon to qualify.

I was provided copious amounts of wisdom from all the guys at Quins/Phobians, in retrospect, some good, and some questionable…. The fun side was that if they saw a gap to tease you it was quickly taken. I can recall them telling one poor novice, the worst thing to eat was tomatoes when training for comrades, not sure where that came from other than the fact they knew he loved tomatoes. For a while with input from many, running seemed far more complicated than putting one foot in front of the other!

DJ: So did you run your first Comrades in 1981?

HL: Yes I did. I had listened to Comrades on the radio in 1980 and Isavel Roche-Kelly had won and I remember working out that she had run at around 5 minutes per Km and “naively thinking” “I could do that” so I went about qualifying and ran my first Comrades in 1981 and ran my first two out of Pretoria. My first one was wonderful. Everything went right but my second one wasn’t as so comfortable so I started to think this running was not for me. I had run a few Cross Country races and some of the people I had met suggested to stop all the “long stuff” and run shorter events, So I gave up Comrades. In 1983 and 1984 I focused on shorter events, winning Two Oceans, City to City, Joburg Marathon setting records in these events. Then towards the end of 1984 I moved to Durban.

Helen in Comrades

DJ: You started winning some of the serious stuff like Two Oceans and City to City and set course records before you went to Durban but what was it that changed in terms of your approach to Comrades when you moved?

HL: I think I got a lot more confident after my success over shorter distances. In February 1985 I ran a 2:47 at Hillcrest Marathon which was then the 5^th fastest marathon time in South Africa. It was over a very tough route on a very hot day so I was very happy with that.

DJ: Were you a believer in LSD as part of your training?

HL: I never considered myself a seriously elite runner. I didn’t mind racing every week especially the short distances, never thinking “I shouldn’t be doing this” so I did a mix of long and short. Living pretty much on the Comrades route, I did those long 35km runs at the weekend as well as a tri weekly morning run up Cowies Hill. There was a strong middle distance track league in Durban so I would often arrive to race the “trackies” over 3000 meters. It was all great fun.

DJ: Who did you consider to be your biggest competition in Comrades in those years when you were winning Comrades

HL: Lindsey Weight because she had won the two years before my first win, the media and everyone boosted up the “rivalry”. After the first win I thought it would be good to aim for a “hat trick” of wins which I achieved. On my fourth win, attempt I was up against the very talented Frith van de Merwe who took the race to another level. I was fit for the following year, but my interest in Comrades was waning, this was confirmed by accepting a beer at 45^th cutting from the Varsity students, sacrificing time and positions. So that was my last Comrades for several years, I went back to Marathons and shorter races.

DJ: When you dropped out of competitive running you stayed involved in administration. Weren’t you involved in getting what is now the SPAR 10Km Ladies races going?

HL: You might remember that Clicks started a Ladies Race in Cape Town, we encouraged them to also have an event in Durban which my club, Durban Athletic Club became the organisers. I had the attitude if women wanted to benefit more from sport in general, don’t sit back and complain, do something to change it. To encourage more participation and boost numbers for the ladies race I started a ladies running clinic for novices, first session over 100 arrived. The goal was to take part and complete the 10km distance. The race grew from there, after Clicks pulled out SPAR picked it up and the event has continued to grow.

DJ: It must feel good knowing that you were instrumental in being involved in the start of something that has been so successful.

HL: Yes, it does and what I love is when someone who I think is a stranger, will come up to me and thank me for the encouragement and support I gave them over 25 years ago, they will share how it helped them in life and that is why they still walking and exercising today.

DJ: And also served on the KZN provincial body as well as the Comrades Body?

HL: Yes, I was very involved in administration, it was during the ‘sports unification” process. I gave two or so years, but let me say I was a bit naïve and withdrew from administration.

DJ: When did your broadcasting start and has that been only Comrades?

HL: SABC often ask me to help with commentary on road races, specifically Comrades and Two Oceans. It is way to keep involved and aware of what is happening in the sport. Through the process I have learnt a lot about media broadcasting, which has been interesting. This year I commentated with Ellie Greenwood, the winner in 2014 who was side-lined through injury. She is very knowledgeable and brought a very enjoyable element to the day’s commentary.

DJ: You’ve been pretty successful in business as well. Tell me a little about that.

HL: I’ve been in IT and HR and married both skill sets going on my own in 2004 starting my own IT recruitment and HR consultancy. My running discipline has helped and to date it has gone pretty well.

DJ: And to keep fit now. No more running?

HL: I love the sea and have got into swimming. We have a surf swim group and conditions permitting that is where I head. I jog 2-3 times a week, taking advantage of low tides and running on the beach whenever I can.

DJ: Finally, is there a little part of you that sometimes says “I wish I could run just one more Comrades”.

HL: Nope, I really have no desire to run another Comrades. The only way I would even consider it was if I could raise R1m+ for charity or cause that I felt strongly about, but even then I would have to think about it very carefully.

There we have it. The girl we used to call the Wagga Wagga Whirlwind in those far off days at Harlequin Harriers when we thought the girl with the funny accent was from Australia before we knew she was a Kiwi.

BERNARD GOMERSALL COMRADES CHAMPION 1965 :

Posted on September 6, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

I have been privileged in the many years I have been associated with Comrades to have met most of the winners from the sixties, seventies, eighties (not difficult there with Bruce) and the nineties but missing from my list of winners I have met is 1965 winner, Bernard Gomersall who came home in record time in the wettest race in Comrades history.

Bernard is one of the elder statesmen of Comrades and is 84 on the 23^rd of August which puts him second in line behind Jackie Mekler as the oldest surviving Comrades winner.

He was last in South Africa for Comrades in 2015 but one thing is certain is that when he is next here, I am going to move heaven and earth to meet him.

One man who does know Bernard very well, is my good friend, Tommy Malone who has raced against Bernard in the London to Brighton but never in Comrades and I asked Tommy if he would be good enough to contact Bernard and to get his story for me for themarathon.co

Tommy didn’t hesitate and for that I thank him.

Here’s Bernard’s story:

In my youth I was mad about sport, mainly football. I did try other games like cricket, rugby, tennis. I always wanted to be successful at some sport and the only thing that stopped me playing football for England was my lack of ability. I was useless but I didn’t know it.

I did very little running up to the age of 17. I had qualified as a soccer referee and joined the local athletic club, Harehills Harriers to help me with my fitness on the football field.

I joined in some of the events (mainly track and cross-country) but once again I was rubbish but one day going to a track event in Leeds, the tram I was travelling on was held-up to allow a road-race to pass. When I saw some of the runners go passed I thought that I could do better than that, so I joined the road section of the club and started to improve.

My first attempt at the marathon was in 1958 in Hull and I managed to do 2:44 for 6th place.

That same year Mike Kirkwood a friend of mine from Hull won the London-to-Brighton and thought that if he could win that race I was capable of running it. I had no thoughts then of ever winning the race.

In my first attempt at the Brighton in 1959 I set out to run about 7:25 for a 2nd class standard medal I managed to do 6:15 for a first class standard A medal.

It was a start.

I first heard about the Comrades in 1960 when a lad from Leeds, Dennis Stevenson, came to the club. He had lived in New Zealand and came back to Leeds via South Africa where he had run in the Comrades and finished 6th in 1958. He told me about the steep hills and the tremendous atmosphere generated by the roadside crowds. It sounded wonderful but I knew I would never ever get to see it – or so I thought.

When I was invited in October 1964 by the road-runners club to compete in the Comrades, I had a British winter to face. But this was no different to any other year. We had to train in these conditions if we wanted to have a successful summer. I trained in the cold morning and nights, before and after work, seven days a week. Long runs at the weekend and a fair amount of track work during the week.

It would not have been possible to achieve all of the results without the unselfish support of my dear wife Ruth who looked after me and our four year old daughter Bernadette. As all top marathon runners know it is the wife who makes you a top runner.

When I came to the Comrades in 1965 I must confess that I was very ignorant about any of my opponents. I had run in the 1959 Brighton when Fritz Madel won and again in 1960 when Jackie Mekler won but I was just another runner and I never got to meet them. So I went into the race knowing very little about anybody.

The celebrations of the 1965 Comrades started at 10.30 pm the night before. I had just got into bed and was about to go to sleep when I was disturbed by a noise on my bedroom roof, It was RAIN and it lasted to the following evening after the race.

I was lulled to sleep by the sound of the rain-drops on the roof. I was further encouraged on race morning by the sight of Jackie Mekler sheltering near the Pietermaritzburg city hall with a look of complete misery on his face. Everybody was complaining about the cold. I asked “What Cold”?

During the race (after about twenty miles) I removed the light sweater I was wearing leaving just the white British vest which I found warm enough, I think this finished off the opposition.

I approached the race in ’65 just the same as in England because I had the same conditions. People accused me of bringing my own weather with me. They thought it was unfair!!! I think it still goes down as the wettest Comrades in history!

I was seconded by well known Comrades personality Derek Palframan who did a splendid job on the day

It may sound very “Big Headed” but on that day nobody would have beaten me. It was my day, thanks mainly to the weather. Also I felt has though I had “feathers in my shoes”.

I came back for the 1968 Comrades but that was a different story altogether. Due to some change in circumstances I was not able to devote as much time to my preparation for the race as I had in 1965. Then, of course , there was the weather.

It was hot by my standards. I fried losing 17lbs during the race. I was well beaten on the day and finished in 7^th place just outside the gold medals (there were just six in those days)

I was not as happy at the finish that time and was assisted by race official Bob Calder.

The London to Brighton was my event. It held priority over everything else I did.

My preparation for the race started three weeks after the completion of the last one and I spent eleven months working for it. No other race was important and all my the thoughts were for the race in September.

My record of four consecutive wins has not been beaten. Bruce won three on the trot and a Steven Moore from London has won it four times but it took him ten years to do it.

When thinking of the toughest opponents in the Brighton, three names come to mind. The first was Ted Corbitt of New York. He was a great athlete and an even greater gentleman. In the 1964 race he chased me all the way to the finish and was only 58 seconds behind at the end.

The other two were in the 1966 race Manie Kuhn and your good self, Tommy.. Between you, you managed to scare me almost to death. I was so afraid of the two great athletes behind me. How I managed to stay in front that day I will never know. It was the best race I ever ran in.

This photo in the London to Brighton shows 1967 Comrades winner Manie Kuhn wearing race number 45 in our lead group. Manie finished second that year. Over my right shoulder you can see John Tarrant who gained “fame” as the “ghost runner” when he came to South Africa to attempt to win Comrades and was not permitted to run officially by British athletics.

Although I had a very successful running career my best memories are of the many lifetime friends I made. I think that these a more precious than all the medals and trophies,

Today’s Comrades is so different to the event I took part in. It is so big. During my recent visits to the race I have been overwhelmed. I have enjoyed every minute. The three day expo, the meetings, the dinners but I don’t think I would like to be competing these days with so many runners, all the crush and the waiting at the start. It’s what each of us is used to and I always preferred small fields.

On 25th July 2014 I moved to the USA after living 82 years in the UK, to live with my daughter and it was the best decision I could have made. After losing my dear Ruth (we were married for 55 years) I was devastated. I was on my own with no relatives nearby. My daughter with her husband, Kevin, and two daughters Beverley and Theresa had moved back to the States in 2000. The two girls were born there in the late 80s. They were now firmly settled. She offered me a home which I eventually accepted. It took three years of paper work to obtain my entry visa, but I now have my green card and I have settled down nicely to life here.

September 2016

ROWYN JAMES – COMRADES RACE DIRECTOR :

Posted on July 29, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

One man who seems to have an endless supply of energy and is on the go non-stop is Comrades Race Director, Rowyn James and I managed to catch up with him on one of his flying visits to Johannesburg and sit him down long enough between sponsor meetings to find out a little about the man who drives Comrades and who is largely responsible for making it all come together every year. I started off by asking him when his relationship with Comrades had started.

DJ: A lot of people are under the impression that your relationship with Comrades started two years ago when you were appointed Race Director but that’s not right because it started way before that because you have run the race 15 times and have a green number. When did your love of this race start and how did it start?

RJ: It started in 1984. My grandfather was caretaker of a building in Pietermaritzburg opposite the start and we used to gather there yearly to watch the start but I had actually started running fun runs in 1981 when my dad noted that I had an athletic talent at school athletic meets. I eventually ran my first Comrades in 1987 and ran all 15 consecutively until 2002. I have Green number 1024.

DJ: Can you give me something that really stands out for you from your Comrades running days?

RJ: Two things that will stay with me always. I was the second youngest person to ever get a green number (at age 28) because I was able to start at age 18 in those days and I was presented with my green number by Wally

Hayward.

DJ: In terms of your work career you have a long history of being involved in the sports industry? Is that where you always wanted to be and was the job you have now always what you were aiming at as you travelled your career path?

RJ: I was born and bred in Irene, attended Irene Primary School and then matriculated at St Albans College in Pretoria, then 2 years national service in Port Elizabeth and after that Standard Bank for a while. I then studied BA business admin at Pretoria University and then in 1994 worked for the late Andrew Greyling in his specialist running sports shop until 1997. In January 1998 I joined Nike SA until December 2007 as Sports Marketing Manager with a specific focus on the road running category.

Then in January 2008 I was appointed as Race Director of Two Oceans in Cape Town and I held that position until May 2013. I then took a sabbatical after leaving Two Oceans and during December 2013 I was approached by Comrades to consider the position of Race Director of Comrades and I joined Comrades in March 2014.

DJ: You have a wife and your job requires that you spend a fair amount of time away from home because of the demands of the modern Comrades. How do you manage to balance your time particularly in the first five months of the year leading to the race itself?

RJ: My wife is a Grade 1 school teacher and all my jobs have required that I do a lot of travelling and I am very fortunate in that she is very understanding and supportive around that.

DJ: As time passes various things have to change to make Comrades an attractive offering in the world ultra calendar. I’m sure that people will smile and nod in approval but away from the meetings that decide the changes it’s a very different thing in many cases. Do you find that and how do you deal with it or do you just shrug it off.

RJ: My career operates with two analogies – DTIP…. “Don’t take it personally” and ” “If you have a perfect event, you have a problem”. Once something has had the approval of the deciding body or the board or committee then I simply adopt the attitude that it’s not something that I should allow to affect me personally. It’s a business decision and it’s been taken and if it is completely wrong it can always be changed or reversed if need be if it’s shown to have been the incorrect decision.

I want to ensure that the runner has a life changing experience with Comrades. It’s about the athlete and the event. I have been extremely fortunate to experience “both sides of the fence“ so to speak, so I know what the athlete requires and what they in turn experience on race day.

DJ: Do you watch and listen closely to what the runners are saying all the time to continually provide the best product to your customer – the runner. If so an example?

RJ: Yes always. I prefer to keep a low profile (it’s not about me) but will always mingle with the crowd and listen to what is being said. An example is the way we loaded the seeding batches this year came from somebody at a club meeting who came up with the suggestion of the way we do it at present and we listened and implemented it. We will always listen to good suggestions.

DJ: You have a very good team but you are still very hands on with a lot of things and I think of even little things like distance marking of the roads as just one example where you get involved with the team.

RJ: My work philosophies are TEAMWORK and attention to detail (ATD) but I work closely with the various portfolio teams and whilst I am very much steering the ship I am also supporting and involving myself with the crew and stepping off the ship last. I find that the various teams appreciate the input, involvement and support whatever that might be. I believe in getting stuck into the tasks and engine rooms with them.

DJ: It must be a great feeling as happened this year, to get to the end of a race and that there was no drug cheating and also to get the results through that the race was clean as it was for the first 10 men and first 10 women and that generally there were no major problems.

RJ: It is a great feeling and satisfying but by the same token it’s sad that we should have to celebrate something that should be normal. In a perfect world there wouldn’t be cheating.

DJ: The launch of Comrades 2017 is due in a couple of weeks. Are we in for any surprises of any sort?

RJ: Yes, some exciting surprises, changes and innovations are coming but I’m not going to tell you what they are. You’re going to have to wait until the launch on the 18th of August. Change is ultimately what keeps the Comrades brand fresh and relevant.

DJ: Any other innovations you would like to see coming in over the next few years and any you can talk about?

RJ: One I can tell you is that we’re moving the race date to the second Sunday in June from 2018 onwards because of the clash with the Royal show and problems with accommodation and essential support services in Pietermaritzburg.

Another thing we’re looking at in the future is the possibility is reducing the qualifying time back to 4:45 for a marathon. But that hasn’t been decided and confirmed yet.

DJ: Finally, it doesn’t take 9 years very long to pass and you just need to blink a couple of times and those 9 years will have passed and 100th Comrades will be with us. You may say you’re not but I’m sure that there is a little section inside your Race Director’s head that is already thinking about it. Am I right?

RJ: Yes you are. Still just a tiny blinking light in the distance. Nothing definite but ideas running around and one thought is to see an entry of 30,000 runners but I don’t know if Pietermaritzburg could handle a finish of so many so thought needed there.

Remember too that any novice who finished this year and who carries on every year will be in line to earn their green number at the end of the 100^th Comrades

The other thing we have before that of course is the 100 year anniversary in 2021 since the first Comrades was run in 1921 so that’s going to be another special one.

One thing I can tell you is that it was fascinating sitting chatting to Rowyn and I was really sorry when our time was up as I could have spent hours more talking to him about this “thing” that is certainly my passion and which I have no doubt at all is also his passion and I have a pretty good idea that as long as he is around my passion will be in good hands.

I’m really looking forward to the launch of Comrades 2017 that takes place on the 18^th of August in Johannesburg and all being well I will be able to write a chapter on what will be happening at next year’s race for themarathon.co

29 July 2016

SHAUN MEIKLEJOHN – THE QUIET COMRADES HERO :

Posted on July 12, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

One of the things that I have found that Comrades winners have in common, is that they are humble and one of the those who best fits this profile has to be the man who won Comrades in 1995 and who stands in third place in terms of the number of Gold medals he has won with 10, and that alongside Jackie Mekler and just behind Alan Robb who has 12 and Bruce Fordyce who has 11. Shaun Meiklejohn has 10 Gold medals and very few people know this because Shaun is so quiet and humble about his Comrades achievements and apart from saying that he won Comrades in 1995 he says very little else about his Comrades achievements.

I decided the time had come to find out more about this man so I asked him to tell me something about himself. 2016-07-05-PHOTO

DJ: Where are you from?

SM: I was born in Pretoria, but I have lived in Durban where I did my pre- and primary schooling, Carletonville where I did my high schooling and I matriculated at Carlton Jones High School in Carletonville.

I went back to KZN to Pietermaritzburg to varsity then back to Carletonville after national service where I worked as an assistant accountant on Western Deep Levels Gold Mine and then back to Pmb where I currently live in Hilton.

DJ: What attracted you to running?

SM: It was only in 1981 when I went to university that I joined some of my fellow students who had run Comrades in 1980 with the intention of lining up with them that year. It was really just something to do in our spare time, no real attraction at that stage, it did work up a thirst and would we quench that with ice cold beers!

My first Comrades was in 1982. In 1981 I qualified with a 3:50 marathon at the old Richmond Marathon but was knocked off my motor bike going to lectures one morning so I watched from the side-lines. Bruce Fordyce (black armband) and Isavel Rosch-Kelly won that year. I was hooked after that and I didn’t even run!

DJ: Did you have any other sporting interests as a child?

SM: I was a really keen soccer player and even got Western Transvaal colours U16. I started playing golf in my last couple of years at high school and got my handicap down to 5 at one point. I also enjoyed playing squash & hockey up until I left school.

DJ: What are you by profession?

SM: Financial Director at Innovative Shared Services

DJ: Do you have any hobbies or sporting interests other than running?

SM: I still manage to squeeze in a round of golf, no official handicap, but on a good day I’m an honest 14. I also love to watch the Sharks and Bokke performing at their best, which seems to be a struggle these days.

DJ: People remember you first for your Comrades win in 1995 but I remember you quite a while before that when you suddenly burst on the scene in the colours of Carlton Harriers and you had everyone in quite a stir because of how much they thought you looked like Bruce Fordyce.

SM: Folk first took notice in 1989 when I had moved back to Carletonville and trained properly after finishing 17^th in 1988 running out of Queenstown, I had set a top 10 as my goal and led the race until the top of Cowies Hill, Sam Shabalala won that year and I finished 5^th. Bruce was in the commentary team that year having won the Standard Bank 100km earlier in the year in Stellenbosch. There was a bit of chirping in the studio if I remember correctly…. I must have looked like a younger version of Bruce back then, ha ha …

DJ: You had been in gold before your win in 1995 but to eventually cross that line to win must have felt amazing! Is it possible to put it into words?

SM: I had 5 golds at that point and even a 2^nd place to Nick Bester in 1991. In 1995 I decided to run “full-time” from January and put all my eggs in the Comrades basket. It paid off, I was so confident in my build up and mental preparation that I asked Julie, my wife, at the start if “I looked like a winner”! The race was amazing, I felt in control all the way, running my own race and not panicking when Charl took off after Cowies Hill. I passed him going up Tollgate and opening a 1 minute lead by the finish, I was on such a “high” running into the stadium realising what I had achieved.

DJ: Your Comrades performances are quite remarkable. In 28 runs you haven’t gone slower than 7 hours have you?

SM: I have twice. In 1982 I did 7:17 and 2003 I was 7:15, all the rest under 7 hours

DJ: Your 28 years at Comrades haven’t been in succession and you took a break. Do you think that made a difference and allowed the “old” legs to recover slightly?

SM: I took 6 years off after 2003, feeling physically and mentally stale and running the last few with niggles. The break allowed my body to heal without a doubt but I had put on around 15kgs so it was a struggle to get running again, it was only after I embarked on a proper eating plan eliminating wheat, dairy, sugar and alcohol, did I shed the weight and I was back in 2010 with a 6:45 …

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DJ: Do you intend carrying on running Comrades and getting up to 40 Comrades and beyond? Only one other winner has run 40 Comrades and that’s Alan Robb.

SM: I don’t think so, at this stage I’m taking one year at a time, enjoying my running, if my body allows then 30 seems like a good time to reassess.

DJ: How have you managed to balance your running with your business life and family life so successfully?

SM: It is all about finding the balance, which may mean running at 4:00am so I can get kids to school on time and also making a few sacrifices along the way, in the really competitive days our social life would take a back seat, fortunately I have a really supportive wife and kids that understand my passion for running, even now in my “Master” years.

DJ: You finished 4^th in the 100Km world champs in Japan in 1994. A great performance. Did you find that very different from something like Comrades. A lot of people say that the 100Km is a completely different thing and interesting that it was the year before you won Comrades. Then in 1995 you did the same thing again.

SM: I was really keen to attempt the 100km distance, I just felt that that little extra distance may suit me. I ran Two Oceans that year in 3:21 so was in good shape, finishing in 6:26 and missing Bruce Fordyce’s SA 100Km record by about a minute. The 100km is not too different from Comrades, the hills in Comrades make up for the slightly shorter distance so if you can handle that you can deal with anything that a 100km event can throw at you, just the support in the form of spectators and drinks is very poor at those other events so you really need to be mentally tough!

DJ: Then in 1994 you won the London to Brighton. So the mid 90’s were good to you.

SM: I felt that I needed a confidence booster going into the 1995 Comrades so I chose London to Brighton, I had a good 100km under the belt and South Africans have a good track record at the event. It was tough, again little or no support and a hill called “Ditchlings Beacon”, the equivalent of Polly Shortts to greet you around 80km into the race.

DJ: For the last 4 years you have won the Master’s category and this year second by something like 42 seconds. What is it that enables you to just keep going year after year and is this still a target?

SM: It’s the competitive spirit I guess, I try to get the best out of myself on the day, if its good enough to be first that a bonus, it gets tougher every year now as I reach the mid-fifties!

DJ: Finally, your focus at Comrades now seems to be much more on charities. Tell us about that.

SM: I would love to do more; there are so many kids that, due to circumstances beyond their control, land up getting involved in activities that get themselves into trouble. Running, in fact sport in general is a great way for them to lead a fit & healthy lifestyle and for those with talent to reach greater heights in terms of personal achievement. I work together with my running club, Save Orion AC, on various projects within local communities to assist those in need.

If you would like to look at the blog with all the details of Shaun’s charities you’ll find it at Meiklejohn.co so go and have a look at the work he’s doing and give him your support.

28 Comrades to his credit, 10 Gold medals and all the rest silver and only two slower than 7 hours. That’s not too shabby a record. Shaun we salute you!

July 2016

CHARNE BOSMAN – COMRADES 2016 WOMEN’S CHAMPION :

Posted on June 12, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

I hadn’t met Charne Bosman before she won Comrades 2016 but I contacted her nonetheless and asked her whether we could meet for a cup of coffee and a chat for a chapter of The Marathon and she readily agreed.

When we met I found a charming, down to earth very friendly young lady bubbling over with excitement at what she had achieved just a week before, and why not? She had won the women’s race in the world’s Ultimate Human Race, The Comrades Marathon, and only 23 other women have done that before her since women were first allowed to compete officially in Comrades in 1975 – 41 years ago.

I started off by asking her if she had always been a Pretoria girl.

CB: No, I was born in Malmesbury and when I was still quite young we moved to East London and then when I was 16 the family moved to Pretoria and I have been here ever since. I currently live in Centurion.

DJ: So when did the athletics bug bite?

CB: Shortly after we moved to Pretoria I started running with my niece (a provincial runner) and then I developed an interest in track running with a focus on 1500m and 3000m and especially in Cross country and within 6 months of moving to Pretoria I had my Provincial colours for Cross country and it just carried on from there between track and cross country and shorter road races up to 10Km.

DJ: Throughout your career you seem to have slowly moved the distances up as you have got older without trying to do shorter distance racing at too old an age.

Is that a fair comment? So when did you get National colours for the first time and how many times have you had National colours?

CB: That is what I have done. I always thought that there was no point in trying to compete against people much younger when you are no longer able to do so, so I moved my distances up as I got older to half marathon then marathon and eventually to ultra but ultra wasn’t actually planned at the time. I first got National colours for Road relay at the age of 20 and I have been fortunate to have had National colours 23 times.

DJ: When you say that your move to ultra running wasn’t really planned at the time, what do you mean by that and when was it?

CB: I moved to Ultra running when I was 37. I desperately wanted to make the South African team for the Olympics in 2012 for the marathon but narrowly missed it. I was very down in the dumps about that and very nearly gave up athletics altogether thinking that there was nothing left and it was my husband, Carel who suggested that I should think about a move to Ultra distance so in 2013 I went to Two Oceans and did my first Ultra and was pleasantly surprised to find myself finishing in second place.

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I then decided that Comrades was worth a “go” so I entered and finished in 5th place in 2013. I actually came onto the track in 4th and lost 4th place on the track and finished in 5th. 2014 I came back to Comrades and didn’t finish because of ill health and then last year in 2015 I managed a second place to Caroline and so my ultra career had started.

I still run shorter races but I don’t take them seriously at all. If I happen to do well in them it is pure bonus. For example I won the Johnson Crane at the beginning of the year but the time was slow as I wasn’t going out to race hard. I ran Two Oceans this year but didn’t feel great on the day and ended up in 4th place. 4min behind the leader.

DJ: One thing I don’t understand and perhaps you can explain. There are two of you who are top runners. You and Caroline. You have the same coach in Lindsey Parry yet your strategy towards races in the 5 months before Comrades differs significantly. Who decides that strategy?

CB: We jointly do. We obviously discuss our ideas with Lindsey and listen to what he thinks. We will then go to the race with a very specific plan that we try to execute the best we can. lindsey and charne

We will sometimes race against one another in build-up races as we both stay in Pretoria.

DJ: In early April you had a mishap at home when you slipped and broke your little toe. It must have been very sore but you said nothing and I’m sure that Lindsey knew about it but he also said nothing so the media knew nothing about it either. Tell me about that.

CB: It was very sore and my foot was swollen a day or two after it happened to the point where I couldn’t get a shoe on. I knew that if I didn’t do something that Comrades was gone as I was going to be out too long whilst my toe healed so I did what everyone does. I went and asked Dr Google!

I found out about HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY (suggest you Google it if you’re interested) and with the treatments I had I ended I up being out for only two weeks. I broke my toe on the 8th of April and I was back on the road on the 24th. I was very fortunate.

DJ: And the toe didn’t bother you at all on Comrades day?

CB: Nothing.

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DJ: Now that we’ve mentioned Comrades Day, tell me about your day.

CB: My day was good. Everything went according to plan and I was happy and content to sit where I was and I came into Durban happy to be in second place and I had no idea at all that Caroline was in trouble until I saw the lights of the lead vehicles in front of me and getting closer all the time and then I started wondering what was happening. When I eventually saw her I couldn’t actually believe it and I caught her and passed her but I didn’t say anything at all to her and at the back of my mind I realised that perhaps I could win this thing but also that Caroline is very strong and could come back at me and then there was the memory of being passed on the track to lose 4th place two years ago so all these emotions were going on.

DJ: Eventually the emotions must have been replaced by reality that you were going to win when you came in sight of the finish tape. Are you able to explain what it felt like?

CB: Amazing! Just amazing! I crossed the line and one of the first people to get to me was Nick Bester the Manager of the Nedbank team and the first thing he said to me was “Are you crying?”. And I replied simply “Yes”.

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DJ: So now what happens? Comrades is over but everybody wants a piece of you for interviews and I’m sure you are not back on the road yet.

CB: No, I’m not. A rest for a week or two and then short races and quality stuff to the end of the year and then come January we start concentrating on building the quality longer runs and looking ahead to what I’m going to be doing until the 4th of June next year. IMGP0226

And there you have it. The story of a young lady who has come a very long way and travelled many kilometres to get to that finish line of Comrades – The Ultimate Human Race, ahead of the rest of the women in the field on the day of the race.

We wish you well Charne. You certainly deserve it!

6 JUNE 2016

AMIT B. SHETH – COMRADES THE INSPIRATION

Posted on June 1, 2016February 19, 2022 by DAVE JACK

One of the amazing things that I have discovered about doing what I do as far as Comrades is concerned is that that I have made some amazing new friends and some of them I have never even met.

One such person is Amit B Sheth who travels from India every year to run Comrades and who has a blog which is worth reading and which you’ll find at amitdaretorun.blogspot.com

He also wrote a book which has been a best seller in India and which is available on Kindle entitled “Dare to Run” about his early Comrades story.

Here is Amit’s story about Comrades 2016.

AMIT B SHETH – A DAY OF DAYS

So on the 29th of May, as I lay in bed at night, sore and in pain, I wrote about my Comrades 2016 experience. I wrote it and went to sleep. Later the next day I posted it on Facebook and sent it to my close friends.

What I had written about was primarily the post Comrades experience where I shivered due to cold IV drip in the medical tent Getting nausea, cramps, dehydration, aches and pains are all part of running Comrades. At Comrades these aches and pains are taken to an extreme.

But sometimes to someone who isn’t into running this all sound pretty awful. It seems to them, like it was a traumatic awful experience.

A non-runner who enters the Comrades medical tent for the first time could be appalled. He will think that some natural disaster has stuck and something terrible is going on.

On reading my post, someone from India, asked me, “Was this your first finish and will you come back again because you had such an awful day?”

I’m not sure which part of my post led him to the conclusion that I had an awful day. After all, I have in the past failed to finish Comrades and not thought of that as having an awful day and here I was at the end of the day with my 5th Comrades medal around my neck.

What part of that looked like awful? It wasn’t an awful day at all. It was just how Comrades day is.

The winner of last year’s Comrades had cramps and was limping much like me. She was in pain and at some point staggering on the road. I know she will not describe her day as awful.

Two years ago the indomitable Russian twins crossed the finish line and collapsed on the green. They landed up taking some IV. I know they won’t describe that day as awful.

Comrades is hard for me and I guess it is for most people. It is hard for those who win and it is hard for those who don’t. So it was a day just like a Comrades day is supposed to be.

And yes, for me, it was excruciatingly hard and I had to dig and dig and dig inside me to find strength to keep moving forward.
I managed.

I think if I can live my life, pushing ahead, one small step at a time, relentlessly, mine will be a well lived life.

I was in the field. I was struggling and fighting the clock. I was so completely alive to the passage of time.

There were times when I saw the hill rise in front of me and it made my heart sink. I wondered, “How in the world would I be able to soldier up that hill? How much time will I lose going up that monster?”

My legs didn’t have the strength to run up those hills so I decided that I won’t look in the distance. I lowered my cap and kept my eyes just 5 meters in front of me.

I looked at the legs of people in front and if they were running I ran. If they were walking, I passed them and tried to find feet which were running and followed those instead.

Did I have an awful day?

No!!! On the contrary.

What more can one ask for in life other than to be part of the world’s greatest gathering of crazy people?

And come to think of it, one can ask, “Who is crazy and who is normal ? ” I’ve come to the conclusion that the more times you run Comrades, the more normal you are.

The more times you fight your limitations in life (whatever they may be) the more normal you are. I cannot imagine life without having had this experience.

When I’m dying and if I get the time to look back at my life, I will think with great fondness upon these days. I will look back and know that I was privileged to be on that road and in the company of my heroes and heroines.

It makes my life, a well lived life.

It wasn’t an awful day.

It was a Day of Days