Uncover your inner athlete!

Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be eaten.. Each morning in Africa a lion awakes - it knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve.


No matter if you are the lion or the gazelle, when the sun comes up you had better be running!



Friday, July 2, 2010

Comrades 2010




Comrades 2010 (the 85th race of its kind. Yes folks only the Boston Maraton is older) was indeed a special time for me, now before I begin my report, I must give a plug to the great work that the Can Too organisation are doing for cancer research in Australia.


In them I have found some wonderful friends as well as a cause that I can identify with (keeping fit while assisting a worthwhile cause). With your help I have in a small way been able to help them by raising money through my Comrades run in 2010. Any form of distance event for me is always a battle of the mind and I find that the best parts of these events (aside from the post event ice bath and pizza) is that you continue to learn things about yourself during the many hours that you spend out on the track. Often times in midst of the pain that I am going through, I attain a sense of perspective and calm about things in my life - during Comrades this is easy I only focus on my departed friends and family and know that the pain they went through in battling cancer is far worse than anything that I will face in any of the events that I do and that my journey will end in about 9 or 10 hours, whereas sadly they could not 'call time' on things that easily.

A few things always remind that I am back in South Africa. The first being the sulphur smell that you get the moment you step off the plane in Johannesburg and the second being the ability to run in parts of the country with baboons and other wildlife either chasing you or curiously looking on as you make your way through the bush tracks.

I was fortunate enough to sit next to another athlete from Melbourne on the plane over to South Africa and through the 14 hours we discussed the race and this helped to build the excitement in preparation for the journey we along with the other 21000 entrants would be embarking on.

Comrades is not something to be taken lightly and your mental state needs to be right to maximise your chances of a positive result. As such on landing, I headed to our coastal flat in the small town of Ballito (just north of Durban) to rest for a few days before the run. Over the next few days I would be catching up with old friends and family that I don't get to see very often, as well as enjoying mini runs through the area (again often chased by a curious baboon or troop of vervet monkeys and sometimes in the company of local children). For me this part of the trip is in some ways more enjoyable than the race itself.

Roll on three days prior to the race and I head with my mum and sister to the race Expo in downtown Durban. We go early to avoid the massive midday crowds and so that we can still walk around and look at all the stalls. I am always blown away by the sheer size of the Expo and also the generosity of the sponsers in the amount of freebies that they provide to all entrants.

Another really great side to the Comrades is the amount of charity work that they are involved in around the world. On arrival at the Expo, I head straight for the charity stalls first and on completion of donations, I go to pickup my number and run into a few old friends - catchup chats done I go off to find my mum and sister and we head home.

Sunday 31 May and the day of the big event: This is what I have been preparing for for the last 6 months and over the next 8 or so hours I will discover what I am made of and whether my preparation was good or not. As we line up in our respective groupings (based on qualifying times), we wait nervously while rock music rings out and African drummers drum in time with the music. I am in the second groupng of runners and hence quite near to the start line. New friendships are developed as we discuss race plans and end times.

Much of this will come to nought though as with lengthy events like Comrades, there is alot more that can go wrong along the way and alot longer time for it to go wrong. As I will later learn it is 70% about what happens on the day. I must admit it is quite daunting knowing that about 20 000 people are behind you as we venture forward.

Following some tradtional african work songs and the SA national anthem, the cock crows and the cannons fire and away we surge into the cool morning darkness. In the ensuing 12 hours, around 15000 people will complete the 90km journey into Durban. 6000 will not complete the journey and for them there will always be the lure of the following year. I am determined not to be amongst this group. I have my Garmin GPS on and am taking things easy through the first 10km so as to ensure I have power later on in the race.

At the 10km mark I turn around and look back only to see a mass of runners coming down the first hill. Now into my stride and waving to the farmers and young kids along the road am careful not to repeat last year's mistake when I tripped in a pothole and injured the knee. 30k in I am still comfortable and after a short strategic walk break I am back into my stride and running with my friend Grant from Melbourne.

10km later we approach the mighty Inchanga hill and my knee starts to get a bit tender and strangely my stomach also is not feeling that great. I slow my pace and see Grant rocket off into the distance. Out of nowhere nine time champion Bruce Fodyce comes up behind me and coaxes me up the 2km Inchanga hill. He makes it so easy and waits at the top while playfully teasing those of us who are taking abit of strain. Onwards we push and I try my best to stay with him as not only has he won the event 9 times, but he has run it a total of 30 odd times and knows the course like the back of his hand.

We go through halfway at 45km and I am forced to stop to get ill - Bruce is gone and that is the last I will see of him until the end. For the first time ever I consider quitting the event after halfway, but after a period of drinking some flat Coke and eating a bit of banana, I decide that even if I walk the 45k to the end I can still finish in the alloted 12 hours.

Onwards I trudge up the next 8k incline. With not many crowds along this section of the race it can be called the graveyard of the race and you see the many wounded from the first half stopping at the physio stations and some giving up all together. Knowing that I have beaten this situation just a few Kms back, I plod on safe in the knowledge that it is only a marathon left to go and that can't be too hard.

I look forward to the 30km to go sign, only to be greeted by the steep declines of Botha's Hill and Fields hill. These follow shortly after one another and if your legs are not yet shattered by this stage, they are by the time you get to the bottom of Fields. Sadly the battery of my Garmin went dead after 7 hours leaving me to run the last 19k blind so to speak. Having beaten the urge to quit I decide to throw it all to the wall at the bottom of Fields and run the last 21k non stop.

This went fine until 8k from the end when I had to walk up the last incline with another lady that I met. She was doing her 8th run and so had heaps more experience than me. We urge each other on and make a pact to finish together. She also has a GPS that still has power and so I get an idea of what we are doing pace wise.

With much of the last portion run on the freeway, it is very desolate and it is like a God send that we suddenly spot the 3k sign and enter the city of Durban. With alot of urging we run these as the fastest of the race to cross in 8.34.

This is not what I wanted time wise, but after the line I am reminded of the words of Tim Noakes when he said that Comrades is not about winning or losing - such trivial matters are reserved for those who have gone to lesser places than we have. The race does definitely change you forever and I could see myself running many more in the future.

In the international tent afterwards I am greeted by my family and many new friends, each of them safe in the knowledge that they have completed an achievement that not many on earth have.

My learning has been that the urge to quit any event comes but once. Once beaten like a coward it will not return. For anyone thinking of completing Comrades in the future, I would highly recommend it. You do not have to be a high quality runner to complete. A strong will and stubborn nature can outweigh sheer talent by a long way on the day. As for me I am sure I will be back... Not sure about next year, but would also like a chance to have more of a social race and possibly attain a different class of medal. Thank you all for your support for Can Too, kind words to me, acting as training buddies and for listening to me ramble on about this event over the past months. -- Sean Muller

2 comments:

  1. Hi
    great to read your exploit !! it's always enlightening to find out about these events around the world. Having done a 100km road race twice in France (Millau - the reference for French Ultra runners), i really appreciate your remarks... not about winning or losing, but achieving !
    good luck with the future races...

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  2. Thanks mate. I have completed it now for the second year in a row. It truly is the ultimate human race and if you get the chance to, I would say go ahead and complete it. Something truly special happening out on the Old Durban Road come Comrades weekend. I wish you much success in your endeavours!Be the very best that you can be on each day!

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