Author: pagodapacers

by Melissa Lin

So many people told me that the Comrades Marathon in South Africa is their favorite race–that it is life-changing. I wanted to see why!

It was created in 1921 to honor fallen soldiers in WWI and is the world’s largest and oldest ultra. We spent a few days in Cape Town to get use to the time zone. There were great restaurants at the Waterfront. We took a bus tour to the Cape of Good Hope and to Boulders Beach to see the penguins.  

Then we flew to Durban and met up with Marathon Tours. They made everything so easy! It was nice to meet runners from all over the world.  Marathon Tours took us on a bus preview of the course on the day before the race, with Patrick Boyd, who I think has run it 14 times. He and Coach Markus gave excellent advice: be patient and slow early on; don’t trip on the reflective lane markers; and drink at each aid station. I felt anxious and out of my league, so one of the tour guides, Coach Markus, made me a pace chart, which freaked me out until I realized it was in kilometers.

I didn’t sleep well and felt terrible when I woke up. Garmin said my body battery was 5% charged. I didn’t know how I was going to run. There were 22,500 runners and only 200 portapotties at the start, so don’t show up with a full bladder. We had to be in our corral 15 minutes before the start, or we had to start after all the corrals. You have 12 hours to finish the race. The clock starts when the first runner crosses the start line, so if you start after everyone else, you can lose 20 minutes.

The race started at 5:30 a.m. with the South African national anthem, then Shosholoza (a song originally sung by gold and diamond miners), the theme from Chariots of Fire, a rooster crow, then the cannon. Unlike in the US, everyone sang, and in different parts! The energy was incredible!

The race direction alternates, going “up” (from Durban to Pietermaritzburg) one year, and “down” (the opposite) the next year. This was an “up” year, and, because of road construction, an unusually “short” distance at 85.914 km (53.4 miles). It was really crowded for the first several miles, and I focused on not tripping. The climbs weren’t bad, compared to Tuesday Hill Repeats. (Thank you, Jim Blandford)!

I had to use the portapotty 3 times. I waited in line the first 2 times, so I kept getting stuck behind the 11 hour bus (pace group), which was huge. It was so crowded! After a while, I managed to extract myself and get ahead of them, but then I got stuck behind another group, which was going slower than the 11 hour bus. The bus ran me over and I was trapped again. By the way, I am very grateful that I wore my hydration vest and carried toilet paper and hand sanitizer!

I was so happy to see my friend, Cathy Hopkins. This was her 11th Comrades!

There were lots of kids to high five. However, 2 children, maybe 3-4 years old, stepped onto the course. I couldn’t stop fast enough and tripped over the little boy, knocking him over. I felt so bad. I kept asking whether he was okay, but he just looked at me. He got up and left, so I think he was fine. Luckily, I landed on my sachet of water, busting it open, so I used it to clean my wounds. Water is given in sealed plastic bags, not cups. They were easy to carry and always cold.

The crowd support was amazing! People played music, sang, danced, cheered, and offered food. I ate bananas, oranges, salted potatoes, potato chips, cookies, energy bars, and a sandwich with something like marmite, although the woman offering it called it something else. (I was very grateful for this–and for the fig bar I carried–because the aid stations did NOT have a lot of food options.) The other runners were kind and friendly. It was very cool to be midpack and see the huge pack of people of all different ages, sizes, shapes, and nationalities moving towards the same goal.

I pulled out my phone and saw the app was predicting that I would finish in 11:03. I overheard someone say that if we finished under 11 hours, we would get a bronze medal. There was no way I could go any faster, and I still had to climb the last 2 hills (Little Pollys and Polly Shorts), so I gave up hope. (I am Gen X. It sounds like Pauly Shore to me, too). However, there was some gentle downhill. I looked at the tracker a little later, and my predicted finishing time was around 10:50. Then I started drinking Coke and running. I drank more Coke than I did in the past 20 years combined. The course kind of makes you run a negative split, but I’m so proud that my last mile was the fastest! I finished in 10:46:03, which I am really happy with, considering that I didn’t think I would finish before the 12 hour cut off.

The finish was as crowded as the Eagles Super Bowl parade. Marathon Tours arranged a hotel room for me to shower in before the long drive back to Durban. Use the bathroom before the drive back to the start! There is a lot of traffic.

The next day, we were invited to Bruce Fordyce‘s party. Bruce is a 9-time winner of Comrades. Even if you weren’t into running at all, you would love Bruce’s stories. They were inspiring and very funny. Gerda Steyn was there. She is a 3-time Comrades winner and such a sweetie. One of the runners in the tour group was Kieran Alger, from the YouTube channel, Manvmiles. His video explains things much better than I can.

We did the extension to Thanda Safari afterwards and it was wonderful! Thanda is owned by Christin and Dan Olofsson. They do a lot for conservation of endangered species and employ a lot of local Zulus. I highly recommend it.