Comrades 2023 redemption

Posted: November 01, 2023

Finally I now have 3 finishes of this crazy race 💪. That is 4 starts and 3 finishes as my last one in 2015 was a big fat DNF. So this was my redemption run.

My 2023 race day went pretty much according to plan for my new PB of 9h:55min:57s. It was not easy and I had to work hard throughout the race. I was so happy with the result and it cleared up the questions about if I could I still do it again.

My last attempt was in 2015 where I got a DNF, making it to only 70km where I couldn’t carry on. I can come up with countless reasons for the 2015 failure but the only real reason is lack of training (I didn’t do the distance required for this insane race).

The 2023 race a was a very emotional race for me. I rarely cry day to day but during this race I was balling at all the milestones in the race. Everyone will cry at the end but during the race was a little odd (and it wasn’t because of the pain). It was all related to this being the redemption run and how well it was going. I was really scared something would go wrong. I even tried not to tell too many people I was doing the race because of the fear (it didn’t work though most friends caught on during the preparation).

I don’t have much to report on the race, apart from it being amazing and the best race I’ve had in a while!

Here are a few highlights and mistakes I made:

The build up and training with the Pirates club was really nice. They had a whatsapp group which provided great tips and motivation. The weekly runs also helped me keep up the fitness and milage.

This year we managed to stay the night before the race with a friend who lived in Pietermaritzburg so I didn’t need to wake up a 2am like in past years doing the race. It was however though to sleep though 😰.

The start of the race was as usual pretty intense with so many people and all the nervous energy floating around. It was funny or kind of unfortunate that they screwed up the sound system so the national anthem and Chariots of fire hype song kept cutting out.

I made a mistake and started my watch a minute or two late. You always got to remember Comrades is gun to gun (i.e. does not start when you cross the start but rather when the start gun goes off). So this was annoying as my goal was sub 10, but I wasn’t working with the correct start time on my watch.

The 2023 start was also pretty weird with a crazy right hand turn right in the beginning (due to roadworks). With 20 000 people trying to get through this caused a major and slightly dangerous situation. At one point there was a dead stop with people bunching up pretty tightly. But we made it through.

The amount of runners was mind boggling, I never had any part of the race on my own. Considering the distance it is so amazing to see how popular this race is. It was nice to have the odd chat with fellow runners and the camaraderie helping you on during the tough times. Then the crowds at all the different towns and water points was so motivating and at some times overwhelming (some parts were so loud).

My girlfriend met me half way with a resupply and some needed motivation. She really helped me so much over the race weekend (travel, support and encouragement). I also stashed some resupplies with Pirates who manned two water points on the route (props to them for volunteering time). I am now a fan of rehydrate as I had 2/3 during the race and I feel like they helped me keep going (it was a hot day). I did also do the usual GUI and chocolate bars which have always worked for me.

For pacing I used a chart from Pirates for a sub 10. I got a bit worried in the beginning as I was way behind, however I caught up slowly to about half way. After half way I kept being caught by the (multiple) 10 hour busses. So decided I would just join one and throughout the second half I basically stayed in the bus. The bus drivers are very good in Comrades even though I found it funny to have two 10 hour busses (they only started touching each other right towards the end).

I made a huge mistake after the race. I took Monday off which we used to drive back to Johannesburg, but then Tuesday I went straight back to stressful work and with so much body pain. I had no time to process the race or rest. This caused me to get really sick and I struggled for a couple weeks with a cold. I’m convinced if I took the week off all would have been ok.

I’m not sure if I want to do it again? Perhaps a sub 9, but wow the training and preparation it takes is tough (like weekends and early mornings). I am in awe of the people that have done 10+.

Strava link https://www.strava.com/activities/9245623966