Comrades Marathon 2010: Registration begin

Today is that historic day when registrations for the 85th Comrades Marathon, the world’s largest ultramarathon, begin. The race will happen on May 30th, 2010, and 20,000 runners are expected to run over the countless hills between the cities of Pietermaritzburg and Durban in South Africa that day, all of them running the historic route 89 Kilometers (56 Miles) long, in a ‘down run’. In fact, it is also referred to as The Valley of a Thousand Hills.

Date: Sunday, 30 May 2010
Start: 05h30 at the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg
Finish: 17h30 at Sahara Stadium, Kingsmead in Durban
Distance: 89km – 56 miles

The official website of the event www.comrades.com, currently seems to be down in anticipation of the event launch today, must be coming up anytime soon now. However, an alternative site is available, which is the Mr. Price website, who are the official IT support for the event, and they seem to have setup a duplicate website of the actual Comrades site. This website can be seen at:

http://www.mrpricesport.co.za/Comrades/

and this website too has a link to Register Online, which is not yet active. So, just wait for some more time. The website also seems to have a live registration counter, displaying the number of people who have already registered, which is currently obviously at zero.

The registrations starting from September 1st are for previous Comrades Runners only, and are capped at 15,000 entries and close on Oct 31st. For Novice (first time) runners, registrations will start from Nov 1st, and will be capped at 5,000 entries. This will close on Nov 31st. Check more details on the entry criteria here.

Qualification
All registered runners must qualify for the Comrades marathon by running an IAAF certified marathons within 5 hours (or other distances in specified times). The details of various group qualifying times can be found here.  

Qualifying period: 24 May 2009 to 26 April 2010

Bangalore Ultramarathon & Kaveri Trail Marathon coming up

As the running season unfolds in India, two of the most anticipated events on the calendar have been announced by Runners for Life, the Bangalore based group. I can say without any doubts, and with the reference of so many delighted runners, that these are one of the most organized runs in the country, not quite upto the level of the SCMM or ADHM in numbers, but very well done, and thats what matters.

The Kaveri Trail Marathon (KTM) has a 10K run, half marathon and the marathon. The Kaveri Trail Marathon is a picturesque but tough trail marathon conducted in Srirangapatnam, on the banks of the river Kaveri. It’s an event that is slowly and steadily gaining popularity among long distance runners in South India. With a canal from the river Kaveri flowing right next to the trail throughout the route, it is one of the most amazing trail routes to run in Karnataka. But the humidity and the heat of the area also make it a very tough route to run.

The Bangalore Ultramarathon will have 25K, 50K, 75K, and those who really want to go beyond, the 100K distance. At the Bangalore Ultra, runners can pick any distance (the favoured one is 50 km) provided they manage it within the 12 hours that the course is open. The distances in an Ultra Marathon (up to 100 km) are truly testing and the event attracts runners for whom the only competition is against themselves. That is why the tagline of the Bangalore Ultra is “It’s Tough. Are you?

Registrations for both the events are open. Click on the event websites listed above to register.

Comrades Marathon 2010: 300 days to go!

Comrades Marathon: Worlds largest ultramarathon, and 89 kilometers of joy!

Well actually, its only 297 days to go, but hey, I was just 3 days late in writing this post, and 300 looks cool in the title, so why not :). Anyway, the fact is that the time is running out fast. It was not too long back when I decided upon doing this, and started training with about 13 months to go, and here we are, not even 10 months now.

Less than a month remains to Sep 1st, when the registrations start for the previous Comrades participants (for first timers, registrations start Nov 1st). I am also excited about the rolling out of a brand new website design for the event website in September. Frankly, the existing design looks particularly bland and dull, and I really want to see more energy, more style, and more enthusiasm in the look.

As for my personal training progress in July, well there was none. I have been undergoing treatment for lower back pain at Back 2 Fitness, and though the pain (or rather discomfort) has not reduced considerably, the strengthening exercises would probably help me in the long run, and avoiding any injuries going ahead. I did my first run after more than a month today, a slow and easy 5K. The pain does not bother me in my running, which is good.

I also got updates from African Link Tours, the official tour operators for Comrades marathon 2010. Below is the price summary for their various packages.

#
Stay
ZAR
(single/twin sharing)
INR
Includes
1
Beach Hotel / Flights R 4740 / R 3740
29,442
3 nights + flights + transfers
2
Tropicana Hotel / Flights R 4920 / R 3990
30,560
3 nights + flights + transfers
3
Hilton Hotel / Flights R 8160 / R 5820
50,686
3 nights + flights + transfers
4
Beach Hotel /Accommodation only R 1620 / R 1080
10,062
3 nights
5
Tropicana Hotel / Accommodation only R 1800 / R 1230
11,180
3 nights
6
Hilton Hotel / Accommodation only  R 5040 / R 3060
31,306
3 nights

Facebook group of Indian runners for Comrades 2010

Few days back, I launched a small initiative (actually, the idea is from my running friend, Aditya) to connect with Indian runners (or runners from India) who might be interested to run the Comrades Marathon on May 30th, 2010. The Comrades Marathon is the world’s oldest and largest ultramarathon run over a distance of approximately 89 km between the capital of the Kwazulu-Natal Province of South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, and the coastal city of Durban. The direction of the race alternates each year between the up run starting from Durban and the down run starting from Pietermaritzburg, 2010 being the “down run“.

Event website: http://www.comrades.com/

About 12-14,000 runners run the 89 KM run most of the years. 2000 was a special year and saw 24,000 participants running the 89K. That’s right, not the fun runs, not half marathon, not the 42K marathon, all 24,000 running the 89K. Year 2010 is the 85 anniversary of the run, and falls on May 30th, just before the Football World Cup kicks off in South Africa. 20,000 runners are expected to take part with increased quota.  The race has a 12 hour cutoff (with intermediate cutoffs too) in which you either finish the race, or you are royally escorted out, in a pickup bus!

As part of my learning about Comrades, I went through all the results pages from 1921 to 2009, that’s right, each and every results page, searching for runners (or rather finishers) from India. Surprisingly, I found none, not even one Comrades finisher from India in all these 84 years! That was really, really shocking! So, 2010 does present Indian runners with a wonderful opportunity to create history by being the first ever Indian finisher at Comrades!

So, I thought why not use this opportunity and combine the most popular social networking platform ‘Facebook‘ to create awareness, and help people get in touch. So, this Facebook group – titled – “Indian Runners for Comrades Marathon 2010” was launched. The intent is to support each other towards the final goal, in terms of information, training progress, logistics, etc. We are currently small team of 26 interested people, and the list is growing. If you are interested, please join the Facebook group (If you are not on Facebook, you will have to create an account first). The group website location is:

Facebook: Indian Runners for Comrades 2010

Does this interest you? Right now, I am not sure of how many people from this group will actually go to Comrades, but I am sure that something will be better than the nothingness of the last so many years, so even if there are a handful of participants finally, I would consider it a big success for all of us in India.

Comrades 2010: Official training plan published

Right on cue, the official training plan from Coach Lindsey Parry was published on the Comrades website. Following training plans are available

  • Sub-9 hours
  • Sub-11 hours
  • Finishers plan
The training plans start July 1st! Thats right, officially, training for Comrades 2010 has begun, today (though the first run happens tomorrow). At this point, I intend to go ahead with the Sub-11 hours plan, and will later decide if I continue with this plan or move to some of the others, like those from Don Oliver or Norrie Williamson.