Comrades Marathon Blog

I just finished the Grape Run this morning. After being warned several times about the severe hills in this course, I really did expect the worst. So I set out slowly, aiming to conserve energy. And then hills came in, one after the other. However, the scenery was absolutely amazing, and I don’t remember thinking once, “I wish this hill was over soon.” I slowly edged my pace up, and really made an effort to make up time on the downhill’s, which from about 8km to 13km, shared some of the route from last weeks, Tokai Forest 15km. I quite liked the graph I jigged together from last week, so here it is again:

Click the graph to get an enlarged version.

You can gauge how those hills had an effect on my times by looking at this graph. I again had a strong finish, although I perhaps pushed a bit hard too early, as I didn’t have the energy to make the last 2km in under 4 minutes/km.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic race, run amongst some truly amazing scenery, thanks to the wine farms, (Groot Constantia, Buitenverwachting, Klein Constantia, Constantia Uitsig, High Constantia, Steenberg Vineyards, Constantia Glen… too name a few) Check out the pics of last years race, and I’ll definitely be back next year!

Update: I forgot to include my time: 1:35:18, with an average heart rate of 161. I’m very happy with it, and hopefully will be able to break 90 minutes on a flatter course.

Update 2: Results are in. I came in 48th out of 1119 finishes, not too bad me thinks. Another runner & blogger, Meijer-the-b, also ran the race. Read about it here.