Comrades Marathon Provisions
Yesterday I wrote about the food that can be expected during the Comrades Marathon, so today I’m giving you a list of the non-food items, baring in mind that these things were based on last year and the year before, I am still waiting on what will be available for 2010, however I don’t think the list will change dramatically.
There are extensive medical and emergency stations along the route and at the end. At about 21km into my first Comrades I was getting blisters so had to stop. The people manning the station I stopped at were very helpful and had me patched up in about 2 minutes flat. They are very well prepared and if you want, they will do a blood test right there and then to see if there are any serious sugar problems after which they treat you so you can carry on or lie there until you feel better.
At the end of the race they have an entire Marquis set up with rows of stretcher beds and drips, these guys certainly prepare for any eventuality. My mom has landed herself in this tent before and she even got a free ride in on a stretcher from the finish line:) Once they have hooked you up to a drip and sorted out any other problems you usually start feeling better pretty soon.
There are 8 dedicated physiotherapy stations. These stations are manned by what seems like hoards of physios armed with vats of deep heat and Vaseline. I pulled into one on my first Comrades when my shoulders were aching, 3 ladies launched into working my rock hard shoulder and neck muscles into submission. I know some people who stop at every single station just for the leg massages… yes Brucie, that’s you!!
A fleet of ambulances and emergency vehicles as well as a dedicated emergency helicopter are stationed along the route.
Loads of porta-loos /porta-pottys or whatever you want to call them can be found along the way. As you can imagine the state of these facilities can become questionable after thousands of people have passed through them ahead of you, although its quite acceptable to just duck into the bushes or behind a car if you don’t suffer from stage fright…
My feet with medical attention along the way, imagine what they would have looked like without...
2 Comments / 
October 29th, 2009 / 
Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Reluctant runner
Comrades Entry Newsflash!
As of yesterday – if you were procrastinating with regards to your entry to the Comrades (as a previous participant), it is too late!! The limit of 15,000 was reached yesterday, 4 days before the cut-off which makes me feel nervous for my Novice friends who will need to enter from November 1st.
Another little update on Novice entries – they open at 9am South African time on Sunday, so wherever you are in the world, make sure you make allowances for the time difference – South African Standard Time is 2 hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC +2).
Leave a Comment / October 28th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Reluctant runner
Food Along the Comrades Route
This is a list of the food which was available at the refreshment tables for the Comrades Marathon last year – I have yet to hear back from the Comrades Association confirming any additions to this list, however I’m pretty sure it will stay more or less the same.
48 Refreshment tables, roughly 2- 3km apart are stocked with the following:
- Water sachets
- Powerade sachets (non-carbonated energy drink)
- Coke and Cream Soda (green, sweet carbonated drink) poured into plastic bottles
- Bananas cut into chunks – they leave the skin on so I usually grab an end piece and just squish it into my mouth without fiddling with the skin.
- Oranges cut into segments – also still with the skin on but I usually just suck the juice out and ditch the rest
- Energy sachets (I never get to see these because I’m too far at the back
- Chocolates – Bar One which is a South African brand of chocolate
- Baby Potatoes – boiled and sprinkled with salt, only available at every second table from the half-way mark
- Biscuits – these are the equivalent to cookies in the USA
There are also spectators who stand on the side of the road handing out food which they have prepared. Salt is readily available, just make sure that if you hold out your hand for some, you have enough water to wash it down with, I saw a guy try and dry swallow a handful of salt and felt so sorry for him based on his facial expression that I donated the extra water I had taken, to him…
What my mom and I have done in the past is have our trusty second (better known as my dad) meet us at strategic spots along the route with food which we like to have on a long run. I usually stock him with GU’s (this is my energy gel stuff of choice), jelly babies and cooked sweet potato with butter. My mom likes cooked chicken and some people give my dad sandwiches and even eggs.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to eat at EVERY opportunity!! I try and get something down my throat at each table I get to. If you start feeling nauseas it is almost too late and the only way to stave it off is to eat – so be very aware of what your body is telling you. If you start feeling sick then force something down your throat, jelly babies do very well because they are small and palatable. Just water or energy drinks are not enough!!
There are other things available along the route too which I’ll write about in my next post…
Me and my lunch box
2 Comments / October 27th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Nutrition, Reluctant runner
Comrades Sign-Up
I know I’ve said this before and you guys probably have November 1st highlighted in your diaries (yes Sally that’s you and Michelle and Team Flash) but I can’t stress enough how quick you are going to have to be off the mark. The Comrades talk I went to last week, of the group that was there (they had to bring in more chairs to accommodate us all) roughly half were novices, that was just one talk at one club…
5,000 Novices is the limit (unless the 15,000 isn’t reached for previous runners) which isn’t much considering this is an international event – so here are the ways you can enter:
- Online at http://www.comrades.com/OnlineEntry.aspx
- Any Mr Price store – this is advised if you can’t access the website
- Hand it in at Comrades House in Pietermaritzburg
- Pay at any Nedbank branch and then mail the payment confirmation and entry form
- By mail
Obviously for those of you who are not South African your options are limited, I wish I had alternatives for you because there is nothing more annoying than trying to get onto a website which is struggling to handle the traffic, although I’m sure the Comrades Association has made provision for this. Also to you guys NOT in our time zone, if entries open at 12am South African time, then remember to make allowances for whichever time zone you are in. I use this time converter thingy…
3 Comments / October 22nd, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Reluctant runner
Comrades Talk
On Wednesday last week I went to one of the Comrades Road Show talks – I went to one before the first Comrades I did and I found it quite interesting. If you have one in your area then I’d urge you to attend, even if it is just for some motivation, if not then here are a few interesting facts they parted with:
- The 2010 Comrades medal is 20mm bigger than the regular one (which still makes it the smallest medal I have) – if you aren’t sure what to do with another medal then make sure you read this.
- The Guinness World Records guys will be out to see if we set a new one for ‘The Most People Running an Ultra Marathon’ – so you will be part of that record, what a great bragging opportunity!
- Women traditionally only make up 18% of the field – so come on ladies, you know you can do it you grow human beings for heavens sake!!
- 17% of the field won’t finish – so make sure you train your body with running and train your mind by reading Reluctant Runner
- The average age in 2008 was 41 for Males and 40 for females – where are all the younger generations?? There are no excuses, I’m 28 and have a full-time job and I’m in a relationship (no kids but there are dogs, 2 of them) so get your bums into gear!!
- Wally Hayward was 80 years and 10 months old when he completed his last Comrades Marathon – again, there are no excuses!!
- If you fancy winning an entry the Comrades association is giving away 10 free entries – all you have to do is sms 2010 to 38275, you can do this now before Novice entries open on November 1st. Oh and sms’s cost R10 just to warn you.
The Comrades Medal is on the bottom left in the corner.
2 Comments / October 20th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Reluctant runner
Calling all Comrades Novices
Novices, Noobs, Newbies, First-timers – whatever you want to call yourselves, I’m speaking to YOU!!
Over the past few weeks I’ve had some correspondence from people who are planning on making Comrades 2010 their first attenmpt at the Ultimate Human Race and to tell you the truth I’m flattered that there are some of you who are looking for any advice or just want to muffle those little voices which are saying “You’re crazy, you can’t do this” – by reading my musings…
In light of this I’ve decided to create another section here on Reluctant Runner for those of you who are planning on doing the Comrades for the first time in 2010 – it will be called First-Timers (I know, so totally original), where I will be writing posts dedicated to the first-time runners of this amazing race.
So, if you have anything you’d like to contribue, questions about the race or if you just want a place to vent or if you need some motivation then feel free to do so here!!!
2 Comments / October 14th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, First-Timers, Reluctant runner, Running
Comrades Marathon 2010
Everyone interested in doing the Comrades Marathon in 2010, you need to pay attention to this!!
The Comrades Association has anticipated a huge influx of entries for the 2010 race. It also happens to be the 85th Anniversary of the marathon and is being run as a ‘down run’ which the route originally followed.
The entry process has changed somewhat from previous years – if you have entered the race before, you have the privilege of pre-entry which started on September 1st and will go until October 31st with the entries capped at 15,000.
If you are a newbie, your chance to enter starts on November 1st and continues to November 30th OR until the limit of 5,000 entries is reached.
No entries will be taken in 2010!!
All of this is why I sent my entry in on Monday 
Now I know I said I was going to give it a break with this kind of running for a while but what happens if I change my mind next year and then can’t enter – confined to being a spectator at the Ultimate Human Race – I think NOT!!
Get your entries in, the counter is sitting at 4,541 just 10 days into the entry process!!
Here is a little inspiration for those of you sitting on the fence
2 Comments / September 10th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Motivation, Reluctant runner
Weird Running “Shoes”
Way back in 2008 when I had some knee trouble I visited an orthopaedic surgeon to make sure I wasn’t causing any damage in my training for the Comrades, one of the things he told me while he was examining me was that I should incorporate some barefoot training into my running schedule.
His reasons were quite valid I thought – when you run with shoes on you strike the ground with your heel first, when you run barefoot you strike with the ball of your foot first which causes less tension on your knees.
Of course the barefoot training never materialised, actually coming to think of it neither did the schedule, but last week a runner passed me on the road while I was driving home and he had these on.
I have seen these (called Vibram 5-Fingers) before and mentioned them on a few of the running forums I go on from time to time, but I’d never actually seen someone using them. The theory behind these shoes follows what my knee guy had to say about training barefoot – which due to obvious reasons isn’t really the way forward when you are looking at boiling hot, tarred roads with glass, stones and various other foot piercing materials littering your way.
I’m curious to see how these rather peculiar ‘shoes’ perform… Have any of you out there used them??
One Comment / September 8th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Half-marathon, Injuries, Reluctant runner, Running, Training
Old Charity Partners
For those of you who have been here from the start, you will remember igiveada.mn and its founder Andy. They were the guys I used for my first Comrades Marathon fund raising activities, to help consolidate international donations for Reach For Recovery. Basically igiveada.mn was a networking site where you could recommend a cause and the people in the network would support you and send the word around. This sounds like any social networking site but the reason it worked for me was because as South Africans, PayPal won’t allow us to receive money into a PayPal account – why I have no idea, but igiveada.mn bridged this gap which meant I was able to recieve international donations from all my friends overseas via PayPal through igiveada.mn
After chatting to Andy about using the igiveada.mn service again this year, I was sad to hear that he had put the project on the backburner because of a lack of support – BUT igiveada.mn is back and this time all the focus is on one project!!
Andy and a bunch of mates are coming out from the UK for a building project on the Wild Coast – an exquisite piece of coastline in South Africa. The details are not finalised yet but the project is to build a house near to a small local hospital which will house the much needed doctors and nurses which serve this community.
I think it is a wonderful project but at the moment it is entirely self-funded. If you would like to get involved please read more about it here and if you are keen to help in any way then get hold of Andy and let him know.
Leave a Comment / August 21st, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Fund Raising, Reluctant runner
Running Stories – From the Legends…
This is the sixth story in my series of Running Stories, some of the others can be found here, here and here
I’d like to introduce you to Bruce Fordyce. Bruce won the Comrades Marathon 9 times in the 80’s. Now I have to confess, Bruce was part of some of my earliest childhood memories – waking up at 5am to watch the start of the Comrades and then being glued to the TV for the rest of the day until I saw him running over the finish line, arms in the air… Of course back then I didn’t even contenplate running, I was more concerned with getting back at my brothers and ballet!
What made you decide to start running?
I started running on June 17th 1976 (major date!) as a result of sadness following the 1976 Soweto uprisings in which we Wits students had been involved. My girlfriend had also recently broken up with me so I suppose suppressed libido is a good reason, and I had also met a couple of Witsies who had run and their enthusiasm was infectious.
Why the Comrades Marathon?
Comrades was and is part of the South African culture. If I was going to start running it could only be to run Comrades. (Please direct any negative comments to Bruce!!)
When you are out front in a race, what goes through your mind?
At the front of the race my emotions were fear, panic and then great joy and sadness.
What is the impact racing like this has had on your body?
Intense racing at stupid distances has left me very stiff and unsupple but otherwise all the other side effects are beneficial.
In my experience I’ve learned some valuable life lessons from endurance racing (like Vaseline has many many uses), what have yours been?
The most valuable lesson that I have learnt from endurance racing is that the worthwhile things in life are always those for which you have to strive for and work for. Winning the lottery might be nice but winning the lottery of life is more satisfying.
Obviously winning a race like the Comrades 9 times gives you “celeb” status, what are the best things you’ve gotten out of being famous??
Fame, if only limited fame, gets you upgrades on plane flights and tables in full restaurants
If you could give 3 points of advice to a newbie what would they be?
Don’t hurry the process. It takes years to achieve your true potential.
Start slowly in races.
Injuries always win
Leave a Comment / August 6th, 2009 / Comrades Marathon, Reluctant runner, Series