Life past 42km at Comrades Marathon Blog

So the race is over. Besides feeling rather chuffed with myself, I hurt all they way from Saturday to Monday. I regretted the decision to live on the 3rd floor in a block of flats with nothing but stairs. Going up was fine, down was highlighted by sharp pains in my quads.

How did my race go? Well up to now, every distance I’ve run, I’ve had the measure of it. I’ve always thought to myself,

“That wasn’t too bad.”

Until I ran the Two Oceans.

Running past 42km is a different race altogether. A race I discovered that consists of pain and mumbling to myself. Cramps are also a prominent feature in this race, especially in my right hamstring.

The start of the race was fantastic, so many runners. I felt quite privileged to have a B seeding, and was starting near the front. It was somehow marred by a fellow runner who decided to relieve herself just next to where I was standing. Not cool.

I digress. The race started, and I enjoyed the first 21km immensely, crossing it in 1:35:45, which was about target pace, perhaps a little slow, but not to worry. Legs were feeling good, I was still chatty, but there was a long way to go still.

The first major climb comes, I felt pretty good up to top of Chapman’s Peak. I was that guy cheering the other runners, laughing and having a great time. Getting to the top was a great feeling, and we were rewarded with a great view of Hout Bay.

The moment we started running down hill, I started to take strain. The wind was swirling. Sometimes it was behind us, then we were running into the wind. It just wasn’t pleasant.

My parents were waiting for me about the 39km mark, and provided a much needed lift, which lasted up until the marathon mark, 42.2km.

I passed the marathon in 3:16, which was fine. A little slower than I expected, but I was content in my pace. I took my third GU here, hoping it would give me enough energy to conquer Constantia Nek. In addition to water and GU’s I took the odd sip of Powerade, just to make sure I never went hypoglycaemic.

Just after that, I decided to take my first walk break, give the legs a little rest. I walked for about 30 seconds, through a water station, and tried to absorb energy from the supporters. It worked, and I was running again, feeling good.

Constantia Nek arrived quickly, and it was hell on a hill. To be honest, it’s much of a blur, I don’t really remember it at all. My right hamstring, for the first time ever, started cramping, but this is to be expected. I was told by a prominent sports scientist that stretching helps cramping, so I stopped maybe 3 times to stretch it. Or was it 4? I can’t remember.

The moment I saw the flags, indicating I was near the finish, I could feel energy returning. Just enough to get me to the field and run past the thousands of supporters (great feeling that) and finish the race. The photo on the right shows my pain. And to think, Comrades is another 30+ kilometres. Ouch.

I’ve got two graphs I want to show off.

Below is a comparision of my average pace (red line) versus the goal pace based on the spreadsheet I was sent. 4:20 in blue, and 4:30 in red.