Comrades 2013

Ive been waiting for this thread. Ran the down in 2010 . Can never get my BTB now but at least want the pair

Think this will be 2 years time for me but will keep an eye out on the thread.

I've decided to aim for this in 2014, so the downhill will be my race as I need to work on my marathon times first as I know I need to be able to run a marathon in under 5 hours, but was watching this on Sunday and really want to be able to take part and be successful. I will follow the thread so that I can be as informed as possible!

I'm also going for this in 2014 - so far, I anm determined to try a 100 miler in 2013 then would like to do this two years in a row.

I'd love to get a definitive run down of the entry requirements, and the split times and cut-offs but it takes a lot of reading up

There is a good section on the Comrades website for cut offs.  All I know for entry requirements is that if you want a certain start pen you must provide proof of a qualifying time for that pen, and all runners must meet certain time standards, such as being able to run a marathon in 5hrs or less.

The first cut off time if I remember correctly is to get to half way in 5hr 10 min.

How do you train for this?   Run on roads lots and lots???  LOL

i too am aiming for 2014 to celebrate (!!!!!) my 50th birthday.  think halfway cut-off is 6hrs 10m though.

Don Oliver's book "Make Sure Of Your Comrades Medal" and www.alsoranrunners.info are good resources.

Basically the Comrades course is very tough. Take a marathon course that we in the UK think of as "hilly" such as Sussex or Halstead. Then double it and add five Box Hills.  You will be doing this all day starting at 4:30 UK time. And eventually it might get pretty hot. For me it was much harder than doing my first marathon and I screwed up worse. So in a way, a good simulation would be doing a hilly marathon in the summer on the back of a longest long run of 15 miles or less, fuelling only on what they have at the aid tables.

Fido-Thats a bit tough. Yes all its very tough but I think the greatest race in the world. If it helps in 2010 my pb at marathon was 3.48 my 5 longest runs were a 35 a 30 and 3 x marathons and I finished in 10.23. Despite what FIDO says she has just finished her 2nd so  FIDO

Hi David

Thanks for opening this thread. How hard is it to get a place as an non-ZA runner? Is there anything you need to do early?

Thanks

ChalkyWhite - it's easy if you have run a sub-5 hour marathon and have $160 (2012) for the entry fee - just wait for the entries to open in Sept (2012).

STFC what happend?  I thought you said you were coming to Comrades this year??

Also did you send out invitations to the UK runners for this year's Ambassador's run and Sundowner?  No one in the 2012 forum received anything from you...

Hi SD Congrats again. So sub 10 as planned or ????????

Thanks Martin. Unfortunately it wasn't as planned... I tried for a sub-9 and crashed and burned... Staggered home in 9:54...

I am thinking back to backs for this 2014 and 2015.!

Sub 10 was your original target SD. Still a pb

I'm looking forward to 2013 being both my first Up Run finish and my first time to line up at Comrades without being sick/missed the last 2 months due to injury/running with a gammy knee.

David - I heard that some sew on badges etc used to be generally available from Comrades but are now only 'on request' because a lot of runners just binned them. Given the expense we all go to for this race, I'm sure the majority of the UK contingent would want these - could you just ask the CMA to send them to all of us, as I gather they can be included with some sort of official results they are due to send us ? That would save a lot of individual email traffic....

SD - inclined to try for a B2B, assuming finance and holidays permit, but think I would want to do that with a BR in mind - for obvious reasons, but including having 3 different medals   Much work to be done then, but I need a goal.... Other headache might be getting lucky in the Western States lottery, but I know the chances of that are very low. And it would be a nice problem to have !