Tag: Comrades

Comrades 2010 Training: May 2009

This was my first month of training for Comrades 2010. I am following Hal Higdon’s Intermediate Spring training program. The target monthly mileage for the month was 151 KM, and mileage achieved was 119 KM. So, I was short by about 20% in this first month. The schedule called for 6 days of running a week, and I sort of struggled a bit to get that done, mostly getting 5 run days. This month also had a lot of travelling, which resulted in a few missed runs too. I tried to compensate for some of the missed runs by combining mileage for a couple of runs into one.

Summary: Monthly Mileage
Target: 151 KM
Achieved: 119 KM

Key intermediate targets achieved were a couple of 10K runs where target pace of sub 6:00/km and sub 5:45/km were comfortable achieved. Also, tempo runs in the range of 5:15/km to 5:10/km were also done. Just managed one 200m interval run (repeats) in about 50sec range.

Overall assessment: Pretty satisfied with the entire effort, a good first month. Getting in the groove of getting up early. More regularity now once those travels are done with. From fitness point of view, no injuries or concerns, so going good on that front too.

Next month: More of the same, June and July will just continue on the lines of May, with slightly increased mileage. More 10K target pace runs will be run, at slightly faster paces. Meeting the tempo run, interval and 10K target run pace will be an indication of how I am shaping up. It is less than a year to go for Comrades now (actually 360 days from today).

Comrades marathon 2009 results: Muzhingi wins

The race is still on for the thousands, as the winners are already through with theirs. More than 12,000 runners from 47 countries participated in the Comrades this year, a rise in participation count of 17% over the previous year.

Complete results: results.comrades.com
Track Your runner: Comrades track your runner service
Live finish line video: Comrades video streaming service

Last years 3rd place finisher, 33 year old Zimbabwean Stephen Muzhingi won the mens race in a time of 05:23:26, which is the second fastest time ever, behind Russian Leonid Shvetsov’s 2007 time of 05:20:49. Stephen was 3rd in Comrades 2008, 7th in 2007 and was 4th in this years Two Oceans. Defending champion Leonid Shvetsov (winner 2007, 2008) was second in 05:33:05 and Charles Tjiane (South African) was third in 05:34:18.

From twitter updates, I can see that out of the top 10 finishers, 9 are from Africa (including 8 from SA) and 1 Russian. Watching the live streaming video from the Comrades website, though a defective power adapter means I am out of sound.

Russian twin sisters Olesya (winner 2007) and Elena Nurgalieva (winner 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008) lead from the front, and were separated by just 3 seconds at the finishing line, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively. Oleysya’s time was 6:12:08 and Elena (last year winner) finished in 6:12:11. The twins had earlier won at the Two Oceans 56 KM run this year, where they finished the run with their hands joined, and the judges had a tough time deciding who was first!

Russian Tatyana Zhirkova (winner 2005) was 3rd in 6:15:00, another 3 minutes behind. 36 year old  Farwa Mentoor was the first South African to finish, in 5th position in 6:45:03. Farwa has a number of top 10 places over the last several years.

Results (Mens):
  1. Stephen Muzhingi (ZIM) 5:23:27
  2. Leonid Shvetsov (RUS) 5:33:10
  3. Charles Tijane (SA) 5:34:21
  4. Fusi Nhlapo (SA) 5:36:17
  5. LucasNonyana (SA) 5:39:29
  6. Mncedisi Mkhize (SA) 5:41:14
  7. Bongmusa Mthembu (SA) 5:41:52
  8. Peter Molapo (SA) 5:42:25
  9. Bethuel Netshifthefhe (SA) 5:43:35
  10. Harmans Mokgadi (SA) 5:44.49 
Results (Womens):

  1. Olesya Nurgalieva (RUS) 06:12:12
  2. Elena Nurgalieva (RUS) 06:13:14
  3. Tatyana Zhirkova (RUS) 06:15:03
  4. Marina Myshlyanova (RUS) 06:30:42
  5. Farwa Mentoor (SA) 06:45:33
  6. Lesley Train 07:01:07
  7. Marina Bychkova 07:03:24
  8. Lindsay Van Aswegen 07:08:55
  9. BelindaWaghorn 07:09:36
  10. Kashmira Parbhoo 07:16:13

Some interesting stats from the event:

12,952 runners entered the race, 11,505 started the race, 10,006 finished the race. So, 86.9 % of the starters finished the race.

On the medical front, 671 runners required treatment, which is less than 2% of the field. 58 runners were hospitalized. 3 runners had seizures and were admitted to intensive care.

Comrades marathon 2009: A Preview

Just 5 days to go for the 84th edition of this ultramarathon, which will be run on a Sunday (unlike past traditions), May 24th. This years run is an 89KM ‘down’ run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. The cutoff time for the race will be 12:00 hours, which means that the race starts at 5:30 am and any runners still running beyond 5:30 pm are on their own.

Defending champion Leonid Shvetsov of Russia will be there again, looking to break his down run record. He owns both the up run (2008) and down run (2007) records.


Participation numbers: 12,890 runners from 47 countries. This includes 590 international runners, and the rest from South Africa. 2404 runners will be running Comrades for the first time.

For the first time ever, live coverage from the finish line will be available on the event website at Finish Line Live Footage. I can see the footage today (day before race) and its already evening and the stadium no longer resembles a cricket ground on which the matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket happened just a few days back!

There is a special SMS service for runners to track their progress as they cross the 5 timing mats on the route. An SMS message will be sent to the specified number indicating the time when the runner reached the specific point. Users will also be able to follow their runner by entering the running number of the person at the Track Your Runner page, and see the live status.

Top Contenders (Mens):

  • Leonid Shvetsov (Nedbank)
  • White Modisenyane (Nedbank)
  • Gift Kelehe (Nedbank)
  • Joseph Maerman (Nedbank)
  • Harmans Mokgadi (1st SA runner home in 2008) (Nedbank)
  • Lucas Nonyana (Nedbank)
  • Frans Kutu (Nedbank)
  • Jaroslaw Janicki, former champion from Poland (Mr Price)
  • Fusi Nhlapo (Mr Price)
  • Sipho Ngomane (Mr Price)
  • Butiki Jantjes (Mr Price)

Top Contenders (Womens):

  • Twins Elena and Olesya Nurgalieva (Mr Price)
  • Marina Bychkova (Mr Price)
  • Lindsay Van Aswegan (SA) (Nedbank)
  • Farwa Mentoor (Bonitas)

Weather outlook looks to be good, with temperatures peaking at 24 degree celcius, and there may be some cloud cover in the afternoon.

Hear Coach Norrie Williamson’s podcasts at The Witness website. Useful information on eating, hydration, tapering, strategies, avoiding injuries, etc.

Want to calculate your Comrades finish time, check out www.runner.co.za.

Want to take a Comrades quiz, check out www.witness.co.za.

Comrades 2010: Training plan and Strategy

I am dividing my training plan for Comrades 2010 into three parts or phases.

Phase 1: Base building phase

This will be the first 3 months of my training, May to July, and will mostly be oriented towards bringing regularity to my running, ensuring that I am running 5-6 days a week, that too in the hot summer months. Another focus area would be to build up speed for Phase 2. I am trying to do most of the running in the mornings, unlike other seasons where it is mostly evenings, and which is a bit disruptive in the daily scheme of things. I am following Hal Higdon’s Spring training programme (Intermediate) for this phase.

Phase 2: Improve pace

The second phase is another 3 months duration, August to October. The focus in this phase would be to improve my pace so that I get a reasonable time at the Comrades. This phase will have a key element, which is to prepare well for the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, which happens on Nov 1st. The target time for this would be 1:45. This will also be an incremental step towards getting a good qualifying time for the Comrades marathon (Yes, Comrades does require a sub 5 hours qualifying time, and have different gradings/starting positions for qualifiers based on their times. I would be following Hal Higdon’s Half marathon training plan (Intermediate) for this.

Phase 3: Qualifying for Comrades

This is less of a phase, and more of an intermediate goal from Phase 4. I am targeting qualification with a sub 4:20 marathon time, intending to do this at the Dubai marathon on Jan 22nd, 2010. This will place me in Batch F starters. An alternate / exceeds goal here is to qualify with a sub 4:00 marathon time, which will put me in Batch D, and saving precious minutes waiting to cross the starting line. Why Dubai, and why not Mumbai marathon (which happens on Jan 17th), from the weather statistics I can see Dubai at 15-20 degrees C, while Mumbai can be anything like 25-30 degrees C or beyond, and that I am sure will make one big difference to the qualifying time.

Phase 4: Core Comrades Training

This will be a six to seven months training phase starting November, where each and every run would be oriented towards doing well at Comrades. There are two popular training plans for Comrades available on the web.

  • Don Oliver’s training plan : This is more on the lines of Hal Higdon’s plan, where emphasis is to gradually build up weekly mileage by small increments to the weekly run, and small increments to the one big long run in the weekend. Started in August for 2010.
  • Norrie Williamson’s training plan : This plan is different in philosophy, advocating a variety of runs like hill repeats, track repeats, fartleks, and the load of the one big training run is spread over 2-3 runs, mostly one mid-week, and two long runs over the weekend. 2010 plan awaited.
  • Lindsey Perry’s training plan: Lindsey is the Official Comrades Coach nowdays, and his plans are quite popular on the discussion forums and there is a separate section called ‘Ask the Coach’ there. Lindsey’s plans are for sub-9 hour, sub-11 hour, and a Finishers training program. Started in July for 2010.

I have yet to decide on which one to go for. All above seem to be equally popular with the running community, but I am probably more inclined towards the Don Oliver plans.

Comrades marathon: Indian participation (or lack of)

It was an interesting thought which I got today, to find out about any previous Indian and international participants at Comrades over the last few years. It was not as straightforward to find this data, but with some quick Google searches, I was able to retrieve what I was looking for.

Comrades 2000 (biggest one in years, 24552 runners)
Comrades 2001 (15363 runners)
Comrades 2002 (12167 runners)
Comrades 2003 (13373 runners)
Comrades 2004 (12059 runners)
Comrades 2005 (13899 runners)
Comrades 2006 (12066 runners)
Comrades 2007 (12006 runners)
Comrades 2008 (11189 runners)

Result: Not a single Indian since 2000. That’s very disappointing to say the least. (Update: 2009: There will be exactly one runner from India at Comrades! All the best, Amit)

The biggest chunk of International runners seem to be from Australia, Brazil, England, Switzerland, Germany, United States, and of course the neighbors Zimbabwe.

So, what could be the reason for no Indian runners at Comrades.

  1. Lack of Indian ultra runners: India does not have many regular Ultra runners. Probably 5-6 names (maybe more less known runners), the biggest one arguably being Arun Bhardwaj, the ultra runner from Delhi. He regularly runs multi-day events through the year. Check this post from Shruthi on Indian ultra runners.
  2. Lack of ultra events in India: The two real ultra events which I have heard till now in India are The Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race, and the 2 year old Bangalore ultramarathon. So, there is not a big enough platform to begin with. There is a new event on the horizon, the multi-day Great Indian Desert Run, so things are getting better.
  3. Awareness: not many regular marathon runners in India may have heard about Comrades. General lack of information and awareness about ultras.
  4. Logistics: South Africa is a more far-off destination compared to more convenient ones in Asia, particularly Singapore marathon, where there are hordes of runners from India. In fact, about 20+ runners went from Chennai alone in 2008 (Low cost airlines between Chennai-Singapore, like Tiger Airways help the cause too).

Add your thoughts on this subject in the comments. Would be interesting to get more perspectives on this topic. Have you run an ultramarathon, when and where?

Update for Comrades 2009: 12890 runners, a 17% increase over 2008.

Of the 12890 entrants, there are:-

  • 460 : International Runners – Men
  • 130 : International Runners – Woman
  • 2120 : South Africa Runners – Woman
  • 10180 : South Africa Runners – Men

From the 12890 entries 2404 runners are Novices (first time Comrades Marathon runners).