RobbyRicc: Comrades 2019 - The Up Run #11 (better late than never)

Despite good intentions, I was unable to finish my 2019 Comrades Marathon race report. Life got in the way. Anyhow, I managed to lump together some pictures and notes. There may be some titbits in here for people interested in such things. Hope it floats your boat.

~RobbyRicc (March 2021)

Oceans Eleven

I took it as a positive that the 9th June was my birthday and the running of my 11th Comrades. Also it was my first Comrades in green (#47714) and Alby's 16th. So the planets aligned nicely for the 88k's that lay ahead.

Leave no stone unturned

With just over 21,000 runners on the day, and food and drink already catered, I had a good feeling about the run. The beginning of the year had a few glitches with a twisted ankle and a sore knee, that thwarted my volume goal of 1,400k's, but those troublesome weaknesses in the body eased in the days leading to race week. I managed 1,030 k's from January. Alby was close to 1,300.

Before the race, I asked Alby what pace we should adopt.

"We'll see," he said.

This in Alby-speak means "I'm not feeling well. There's a good chance we won't make Inchanga."

Or it could mean "The gods have predestined us for greatness. Glory and untold fortunes await us at Pietermaritzburg if we head out at Silver 5-minutes per k pace. Death before dishonour."

The Running Year So Far

I mentioned to Manchild, Jake (13), that he runs like Eric Liddell. Eric was the winner of the 400 metres in the 1924 Olympic Games held in Paris after refusing to run the 100 metres due it being held on a Sunday. He was a missionary and running on Sunday was against his religious beliefs. The movie Chariots of Fire was about the 1924 games, and its musical score by Vangelis is played minutes before the start of the Comrades.

Ever since I told Jake that he runs like Liddell he throws his neck up and looks at the sky every time he runs by me.

Man-cub, Ben (10), has started picking up on his cross country running. "It's quite easy for me because I am skinny," he says. He decided he wants to break the world kilometre record. "That'll be easy because it's shorter than cross country."

Umhlanga Park Run, the day before Comrades. Good to be surrounded by my friends. The Cows, one and all, most in Apocalypse Cow outfits who are in their 10th year.
Bainbridge junior is the runner to keep an eye on. Hailey-Jade will be ripping up the world of running in the near future.

I turned 47 on race day.
Luis Massyn ran his 47th Comrades.

Marco De Stefano in the black Tshirt ran 1,700k's between January to race day.
He PB'd by almost an hour with 9.37.

Hanging out with the Cow Girls

Jackie Mekler (87) told me it took him 45 years to write this book.
It was well worth the wait. A keeper for the library.

Jackie ran way over 100 miles per week, sometimes closer to 150.
And he never ran in socks for the first few years!

THE RUN

Alby and I started off in batch C with the sub 3.40 and charity runners. Batch C was the third biggest batch with 3,384 runners. Batch F has 3,551 runners. Batch D is the largest (and most snug batch) with 4,502 runners.

So here's the run in numbers:

Fastest K Splits: 5m08s at KM17; 5m13s at KM42; 5m19s at KM84
Slowest K Splits: 10m10s at KM77; 9m56s at KM81
Average Pace: 6m44s
Finish time: 9h55m
HR average of 135 (mostly zone 1 & 2)
Calories expended: 5,054 calories or 9 Big Macs

We ran, we survived. Life is good.