Especially when you consider South Africa's deeply divided history when it comes to race relations, this event now takes place on a day when black and white, man and woman can race together side by side, with a common goal of making it to the finish line.
The event started in 1921 to honour those who fell in World War 1, and this year marks the 85th anniversary of the event. While over 23,000 people entered, only 16,480 made it to the start line at Pietermarinzberg, for the 89.28km run to Durban.
Usually the event runs uphill from P'marinzberg to Durban in "even years", (and the other way in "odd years") but in recognition of the 85th anniversary, and as Durban is a World Cup Host City, for the first time ever, this was a double down run.
While it is a net downhill to Durban, there is still almost 1200m of vertical ascent on the way to Durban, with about 1900m of vertical descent. The only ground you could describe as flat, is the last 2km into Durban stadium... other than that you are going up or down, its just a matter of degree as to how much!
PRE RACE
We stayed at the Southern Sun North Beach hotel right on the beachfront in Durban. Lovely view from the hotel window...
Registration was a doddle. We registered early on Thursday morning and international competitors have their own area. The process took 2 mins... couldn't ask for better than that.
Then it was time to look around the expo, and there were some fantastic paintings...
And some great tracksuit jackets...
In the history area of the expo, they showed lots of photos of past events, but one part was particularly inspirational... the story of one guy who just wanted to finish so badly, he kept trying and trying until he finally made it....
Lots of stalls at the expo... tempted by an extreme marathon with elephants perhaps?
We went on a tour of the course on the Friday, which frankly scared the hell out of people who weren't prepared for all the hills. The trip included a stop at the Comrades Museum at Comrades Marathon House.
Its nice to see the history of the event noted on the start sign...
And these are the actual VIP seats at the start... no expense spared!
Love the event logo.
Out on the course, you can see that the locals take security of their property seriously.
Then it was onto the Ethembeni School, the official charity of the race. These kids sing and dance for the crowds and the Comrades event is a highlight of their year, and of course a major fundraiser for the school.
Then it was down to the Wall of Honour. If you've finished 1 Comrades, you too can put your name on a brick...
Next stop was Arthurs Seat, where the great Arthur Newton allegedly ran to in his training runs (about 40km from Pietermarizberg), sat down, had a rest, a smoke, and then ran back. It is an event tradition that on race day, you should stop, put something green in this spot, dip your hat and say "Good Morning Arthur". Not to do so means you will have a poor second half of the run.
RACE DAY
The day had arrived... breakfast at 2.30am, bus arrives at 3am, departs at 3.15am for the drive to Pietermarinzberg. Arrived at 4.30am, and the gates were closed to each of the starting areas at 5.15am. If you're late, you start in the last group... which would not be good. Race start at 5.30am.
My 3.51 marathon qualifying time, got me into starting block D.
Then as the starting time draws near, the fences are taken down between the stalls and you get to creep forward so its a mass of people all together... for the playing of the South African folk song Shosolosa, then Chariots of Fire, and then the Cuckoo... and then you're off. We were pretty close to the start ...
And then, with a full day of running ahead of you, the gun goes. 3 mins 20 later I waddled past the start and then finally was able to break into a trot and get moving towards Durban.
The crowds... I can't tell you how big the crowd was. But the following photos will give some clue....
Lovely running through the sunrise.
It was cold early in the morning, spectators were burning slow runners to keep warm on the right hand side of the road... best to keep left (only joking!).
The hills came at you early, and steep. Oh, and crowded!
But its really a glorious view as the long line of runners goes as far as the eye can see.
Ok, now we have done 15km... but the signs here don't say how far you have done, comfortingly, they remind you how far you have yet to go!! So as I pass the 74km to go sign, mild stages of panic are starting to begin. My heart rate has been higher than expected, so I have been trying to follow my pacing strategy and walk to keep it down.
But its taken me 2 hours to get to the 15km mark... right on target for a finish on the 12 hour cut off... but well outside my target time of sub 11 hours. Hmmm so with 74km to go... and never having run that far before, I now begin to run harder than planned to chase a guaranteed finish (under the 12 hour cut off), and hopefully under 11 hours.
Didn't manage to get myself a Zululand running singlet... but it would have been great!!
This is at 71km to go... still lots of people around... and happily you can't get the smell from the nearby chicken farms from the photo!!
Lovely view across the plains...
At 70km to go you reach the Highest Point on the course... and the organisers even make a joke on the sign!!
I think it is an old Comrades tradition, that its bad luck NOT to take a photo of 5 attractive girls cheering you on... so I did!! (And that's my story and I am sticking to it!!)
Fancy running 89km in a rhino suit... its a fair effort by this bloke!! There is no truth to trhe rumour that he got shot by a poacher at the next aid station!
Always a big crowd at the aid stations... and along the route
At 51km to go... we have done 38km and the crowd is still pretty thick.
Its a tough slog climbing the Inchanga hill....
The aid stations were great, especially if you liked your oranges and potatoes salted!! There was also coke, creamy soda (green), water, energade, bananas... it was a feast!!
It was great to reach the half way point... and I was making ground on the 11 hour target, but was still a tad behind time. I arrived at half way after 5.35... still some work to do. As a guide, the vertical ascent to half way was 745m... so most of the climbing had been done...
My intention at the start was to negatively split the run... but apparently less than 2% of people do that.... I would need to do that to break 11 hours.
Back past Arthurs Seat.... most people followed the tradition and placed something green on the spot.
One thing is for sure, you'll never walk alone in the Comrades marathon!!
Running through the well-to-do suburb of Kloof.
So many big hills to run down on the 2nd half of the run... real quad busters. Be warned!! This photo gives a good view of the Energade sachets in the bottom left of the picture. The idea is to bite the end open and then drink carefully without completely saturating yourself... apparently not everyone is that good at that!!
This is Cowie's Hill... the last of the big hills, but not the last of the hills. I was still feeling good here, but I wasn't making enough time to get under 11 hours. So I started to sit back and really enjoy the day. Time for some photos of me for a change!!
It is a big hill...
This next photo was just short of my big moment in the race. I was eating some salted potatoes approaching the 12km mark... suddenly the stomach turned and I headed for the side of the road. Out some came... and then 30 seconds later... the full stomach cleaner. Hmmm this was not good. I took stock of myself... felt ok, albeit a little lighter, and apologised to the woman who was standing about 5 metres away from me.
I had a look at the time... 73 minutes before the 11 hours mark... 12 km to go. I took off like a bat out of hell and just went for it. Determined, determined, determined.
This is about 4km down the road, I had passed hundreds of people, and was taking a short walk on one of the more moderate hills. I was sticking to the right to avoid the crowds!! It was my passing lane, although you still had to step around people even this far into the race!!
I covered the next 6km, including two small hills, in 36 minutes. So I had 6km to go and 37 minutes to get under the 11 hour mark. And then the last hill came up in front of me... about 1km long... and my heart sank. I wasn't going to do it. So I satisfied myself with having fun enjoying the last few kms... time for some more photos of me!!
Not everyone was approaching the finish line in good shape. Not sure if this guy actually finished.
87km done... just 2km to go and we are well into the streets of Durban by now. Quads are sore, haven't eaten anything since vomiting with 12km to go and starting to feel a little short of energy. But the stadium is so close...
Inside a km to go now... and there are more dancing girls... and you know the rules... you HAVE to take a photo!!
Around the corner and your eye leaks a little tear as the stadium comes into view for the first time.
Then its into the Sahara Kingsmead Stadium
Around the back of the stadium
And onto the ground...
And then around the corner... you see the day's Holy Grail... the finish line, in all its glory. And what a sight!!
Looking back on the finish after its all done... hmmm taking all these photos must have taken a while... its been a minute between the last two photos and I only travelled 100m or so!!
Proud finisher of the 2010 Comrades Marathon.
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