So the big morning came and the great thing about not training for an event is that you wake up felling relaxed and not tense at all as all i was looking to do was finish. I was very lucky enough to be getting a lift down to the start with a mate of mine who was looking for his 8.30 time which I was glad I wasn’t going to be trying to do.
Weather was perfect and not too cold. This year I had Dean and Jackie being my 2nd and man what a difference that made to the day. I was in long compression tights and warm top and for once I was on the start line and not freezing my ass off.
When the gun went we set into a little jog down the road. There were about 14 500 people at the start line and yet I manage to cross the line in about 3min which wasnt bad at all as some of the back markers will loose 20min just here alone.
My plan was to just cruize and that is what I did. My legs felt ok, not great but ok. The spirit at comrades is something I hope you all get to experience, they say there was around 100 000 people on the side of the road and its like nothing you have ever experienced.
At around 16km i met up with Dean and Jackie and took off all my warm stuff and put on my compression socks and took a bit of extra food etc with me and set off again. The plan was to see them every 15km if possible. When i next saw them at 30km i took my first anti inflammatory and was feeling a bit flat. all i was doing was 1 gel every hour at this stage and water at every table, nothing else.
It was awesome to have a chat and see them and again stock up on gels, I also ate half of my chicken sandwich and took a energy bar to eat for next 5km too. I found that now i was having to focus and bit more and start to pay more attention to my pacing. This race goes uphill for the first 65km odd and so you are always cramped up an tight. Every time I walked and there were lots of those times, I tried to stretch my legs out which felt better.
I was getting a little frustrated at around 40km and started to open up a little and run in my normal stride, this felt great and I put in some nice 5min km in between there and 50km. I went through the half way mark in 5hr 02min which was spot on the plan and I was very proud of my pacing. I started coke at this point, although to my horror they were giving us Pepsi instead, which for the record isnt as nice as having coke, but none the less it was sugar and caffeine which is what the docter ordered.
By the time i got to 60km both my little toes were blistered and bleeding, i made the mistake of leaving my first pair of socks on from the morning and the pressure of 2 socks had cause my little toe to fold under the one next to it. So literally every step was painful. My legs still felt ok, my mind was good so i pushed on through, trying to hold sub 40min 5km at this point.
I had a road stop and a bowl movement which was great, felt so much better getting back onto the road after that and settled back into my pace again. I also had my ipod in my ears which was helping me just stay in a focused state.
I had 5km to go when i hit the 10hr mark and i knew now i was going to break 11hours which was the plan. I jogged into the stadium and i must was a bit of a let down, its not nearly as nice and entering the durban stadium, but i absorbed the moment anyway. I finished on 10hrs 41min which I am very happy with.
A big Thanks to Dean and Jackie for being amazing the whole day and for the guys who are involved with me Puma, Oakley, you guys make me look good even though I am not winning races. Having the best of best equipment to take on challenges like this makes a huge difference. I can’t live without my Oakley Transition lenses which were perfect for a day like this when you start in the dark and finish in the sun, they were amazing all day long.
I think everybody should do at least one of these in your life time, but please do some training, its not pretty if you dont. I will be back as I know I can easily run a sub 9hr here if i put some mileage in and I would like to do that, but for now its all about recovery and finding the next race.
See you all out there