Comrades 2012 - Ultra / Adventure racing

Slow Duck

06/06/2011 at 22:45

Can I mention 2012 now?

Ben Davies 15

06/06/2011 at 23:25

We might be able to get an invading army together!

Peter (P47.....)

07/06/2011 at 05:24

Thanks Slow Duck for starting the new thread ... next year will be my 4th (3rd down) and I am in for sure. I think entry opens on 1 September and finishers this year do not need to do a qualifier (thats been the criteria for the last 2 years at least).

Hernia fixed yesterday ... so taking a forced break now!

Sportaloo

07/06/2011 at 07:20

I am running out of excuses to do this race. It will be my 5th next year. I got the Bill Rowan I so dearly wanted, I have done 3 ups and 1 down. I doubt I have what it takes to get silver, so no reason to go back really.

The thought of running a sub 3 marathon really motivates me and I may well work towards that goal.

I won't make a definite decision before January though, which means I will enter in September (and will probably en up doing it again) but time will tell.

Edited: 07/06/2011 at 07:22

Keith L

07/06/2011 at 08:02

Just popped in to say hello and so I can follow your progress....not going back next year.....honest

Douglas

07/06/2011 at 09:50

I'm back!!

Come on Keith, you know you want to.....

WarrenK78

07/06/2011 at 09:54

I will be back. I have a score to settle with this race

First though, a few targets to shoot for in the second half of 2011. Target 1 is sub 80min half. Target 2 is sub 2:45 marathon. I may kill myself trying to get them but it will be good fun nonetheless.

Stevie Michael

07/06/2011 at 16:21

Warren - Target 1 will be a breeze for you and Target 2 is well within your reach with a solid training period and race. For comparisons, to get a championship start at London you need either a 2:45 marathon or a 75 half.

I'm very jealous of you all going back next year, I'm going to have to wait until 2013 or 2014.

marty74

07/06/2011 at 17:06

Well done for starting the thread SD. I reckon i will go back as well for that "extra" medal you earn for a back to back run. Not run since Comrades and don't intend to for the next few weeks. Foot aches a little and back of the knee still not 100%. Loads of time to plan my assault on those pesky hills though....

Larry S.

08/06/2011 at 21:22

I'm in somewhat the same boat as Sportaloo. Have now done three Comrades, 2 Up, 1 Down, two bronze, one back to back, and now one Bill Rowan medal. Silver is far beyond my capability so as much as I love the race, running out of solid reasons to make the trek from USA.

In the back of my mind I think I'm worried about doing 1 or 2 more, then being on the track where I simply must shoot for my green bib.

My plan is to try and recover from the constant cold I've had since Comrades, then take stock later this summer. If my mate who I've done two with wants to make a run for a BR, what kind of person would I be if I didn't help him

Ben Davies 15

08/06/2011 at 21:34

A question.

I got 10.35 this year.

Can I get the Bill Rowan next year and what will it realisticaly take?

jelly bean

08/06/2011 at 21:43

Hello Ben what's your best marathon, half and 10k times?

Larry S.

08/06/2011 at 21:44

Ben I did 10:30-something at 2008 Up, 9:30-something at 2009 Down, and 8:57 this year. I don't really buy some of the generally-accepted guidelines for what your marathon time should equate to at Comrades. For example, on the Down Run 9hr00min pace band I have from 2009, it says it is for 3hr43min marathon qualifiers. I think, in general, that's far too generous.

While there will be 4hr marathoners who get their Rowan, based on my experience I think you need to be in solid 3hr30min marathon shape going into Comrades. Your training must lots of hill running, especially downhill for 2012. Then figure a way to do that training and get to the start line healthy. If you can do these things and then run the race smartly, you'll get a Rowan. Key is taking it easy first half. That second half of the Down absolutely hammers your quads. Going down Fields, I recall weaving to try and keep the decline more gradual. Unlike the Up, where walking the tough hills is standard practice, in the Down it's embarrassing to walk downhill.

Ben Davies 15

08/06/2011 at 21:50

Jelly Bean-

I don't really bother with such distances for the most part.

My only marathon was a trail marathon and I got 4.02. I got 1.53 in a half marathon, but that was my first ever race, and I have never done one since. I recently got 2.45 in the Ashby 20, which would imply that I could probably get sub 1.40 in a half marathon today. My best and only time for a 10k is 46 minutes.

So what do you make of that?

Larry-

Thanks for the advice.

Edited: 08/06/2011 at 21:55

jelly bean

08/06/2011 at 21:55

I agree with Larry on the 3.30 marathon. I ran 3.28 back in September and finished in 9.21 - 9.11 if you take off the 10 mins lost in the portaloo on fields hill. I also did two sessions per week in the gym working on the legs, core and lower back. I started in January but on reflection several months earlier would have been better.

jelly bean

08/06/2011 at 22:04

What I make of that is that you're probably not far off. The 20 suggests a better marathon than 4.02 possibly around 3.40 if you trained specificly for the marathon. How hard did you run to do the 2.45 20m?

Fido2Dogs

08/06/2011 at 22:06

Not tempted to go back right now (presumably if you are ever THAT desperate for a b2b medal you change your name and suck up the extra 2 races you will therefore need to get a green number) but who knows. It is not so much the race but it's just a hell of a long way to go and of the order of a thousand quid in travel expenses, and, you know, maybe I'm not just that sucked in to the collect-the-tokens stuff (different colour medal, extra medal, & so on). But never say never. It would be nice to overcome my gut issues and get a bronze -

- in fact I would be interested here and now to hear any tips on dealing with that.

I think it's a big leap from marathon running to Comrades (where folk like me are walking maybe about half the way and not running all the fast the rest of the time). Presumably (I should do the maths some time) a LOT more of your energy comes from fat and so the big mistake a lot of us make, perhaps, is not to scale down the gels/drink intake to be in line with the reduced rate of glycogen depletion...?

The other main issue I had was the horrible early start - I was thinking maybe I should have just spent most of my pre-race time in SA trying to sleep and not worrying about trying to acclimatize to the early start, but what do I know...?

Fido2Dogs

08/06/2011 at 22:11

Not sure btw there is a big correlation between marathon time (or other shorter times) and Comrades time - or rather there is certainly an enormous amount of variability because stuff just kicked off.

We could probably draw up a table of thread members mara vs comrades times, but the short version is that Carmen beat the Yelling/Williams pair by 4 minutes!

SlowDuck - I keep on forgetting to ask - when the cutoff was 11 hours, who did the 11 hour bus then & what was it like?

Ben Davies 15

08/06/2011 at 22:14

jelly bean-

I went pretty flat out in the Ashby 20, but I did not taper for the event, and effectively treated it as my long run that week.

The Leicester marathon is on my doorstep in October, and would be well suited to getting a better seeding/testing your theories.

Fido2Dogs

08/06/2011 at 22:25

Slotwin (assuming she has come over here from the 2011 thread) - for shin splints you could try sports massage. Might hurt like billy-oh but a good masseur/se can work wonders.

Still in Seattle here - it's half past 2 in the afternoon and there is a brief lull in the frenetic activity. Day started with 8am conf. call and I worked through lunch so nice to have a bit of down time (have just caught up with OH via a google talk video call, isn't modern technology wonderful).

Oh blimey - is it Father's Day on Sunday?!