Comrades Marathon 2014

  As our Mango Airline from Cape Town to Durban touched the tarmac at the King Shaka International Airport, Captain & Air Hostess welcomed us all with the announcement of “ALL THE VERY BEST TO THE COMRADE RUNNERS”. 

Wattay reminder for me and Khushboo!! The Cape Town holidays were well and truly behind us. I asked KV (Khushboo) how we missed this. The entire flight was choc-a-block full with runners. Stepping out of the airport for the shuttle bus, we were surprisingly greeted by a warm midday sun. This was in complete contrast to the cold and wet weather of Cape Town and KV was thrilled about not having to face the cold. To me, this seemed more like our lazy Mumbai afternoon sun which was scary given the level of dehydration they can potentially cause. Travel from airport to Durban beachfront takes about 45 minutes. However, as if to test our patience level, a big traffic jam was in place for us doubling our travel time to almost 2 hours.

During my consulting stint, I have had an opportunity to visit some of the biggest business sector exhibitions. Comrades Marathon Expo is right up there both in terms of scale and attendance. If nothing else, this reinforces that Comrades is the holy grail of running. Covered in their country jerseys, expo was brimming with runners from across the globe (72 countries to be precise!!) Running number BiB and chip collection process was almost over in no time. True to her character, first thing KV checked was whether the FREE T-shirt was her size (Luckily, it was!!). Formalities done, we decided to check out the expo. Within half an hour, we had not covered even a fraction of the outlets. It made us understand as to why Comrades novices are asked to limit their time wandering inside expo. Our discussion kept hovering around analyzing almost every runner that met our eye. If ever there was any doubt that runners come only in a particular shape and size; this was the place to junk that thought for good.

Walking around, a familiar looking face came across at the one of the outlets. My old friend Vineeta Singh, for whom this was the third run!After two years, she clearly seemed to have no last minute butterflies in her stomach. She asked us to join her for the book launch of a co-runner from India. If I had ever bumped into Anand Patil in Mumbai Local, I would have undoubtedly heaved a sigh of pity for this unfit looking heavyweight individual. He clearly turned out to be the “Dimmag ki batti jala de” individual. Not only was he the then second fastest Indian Comrade runner, he had also participated and excelled in International triathlons. Through his book, Anand has beautifully chronicled the mind-space of Indian comrade runners (38 till the 2013 edition of the event) over the years. In his two pence at the launch, Coach Linday Paris asked us novices to hold our horses till we were two thirds through the race. With about 30Ks to go, apparently Race started at 60 Kms mark!!! Maximum distance, we had completed at one go in practice was 56 Kms!!

  Coca Cola route map showed that an average runner has to take 1,00,000 steps to get through the Comrades finish line. Yeah, they serve Coke on the route. This is one place where carbonated drinks are worth their salt literally. After the customary photograph and signature at the Coca Cola route illustration, we felt we had enough of the expo. Being unsure of the outcome, we decided to pass over purchasing any memorabilia or maybe come back for it later over the next few days. Back in the hotel, we kept on gulping litres of water to keep us hydrated. Luckily, the Veer Zaara IPL semi-final between Chennai’s Whistle Podu and Punjabi Shers Kings XI, kept us entertained through the night. Sehwag’s majestic 100 and Raina’s blast! A match to remember for some time!

After light breakfast the next day, we were back in room to rest. While going through the local papers and promotional materials, I was amazed to see the sheer number of runners going for their Green Number (seeking their 10^th finish especially after being cut short by difficult weather conditions in their up run attempt last year). Few pages later the list of those going for 20^th, 30^th and 40^th was definite mind boggling. What with most of these guys starting their running well into their 30s!! If only, Mumbai Marathon back home could borrow a leaf out of this tradition.

For carbohydrate loading, we set out in search of a desi place for lunch. After a lot of internal discussions, KV finally coaxed me into trying the local shuttle which seemed to take their rapping a bit too seriously. We were hoping to run into our Australian co-runner from India, Mark Bellin this locality on North Beach but it turned out that he lost his iphone here and once again we were on our own. After a bit of loitering around, it was heartening to walk straight into an Indian Dhaba. From our Cape Town experience, we were fairly sure that it would be a Pakistani / Bangladeshi restaurant masquerading as an Indian one to garner crowd. And yeah, it turned out to be a Pakistani one. Strange, how these nations are at peace with each other everywhere other than their actual lands.

Back in the hotel, I was day dreaming about how this started. In the September of 2013, we took in the plunge with Comrade Registration. Though, we had tried to be regular at practise earlier, it just didn’t happen. An improvement in timing albeit by few minutes at Hyderabad Marathon in August made us realise that we can actually make some serious headway with disciplined practice. On the basis of my talks with co-runners and media articles, I built our running plan. With the plan in place, there was no stopping KV. To my utter surprise, even I started getting up in the wee hours of the morning. Our practice included four weekly runs – Stamina, Tempo, Casual and Long. First target was to outperform our timing at Delhi Half and Mumbai Full Marathons to gain some self confidence. Despite some last minute work related hurdles, I clocked 1:43 (first sub 1:45, 10 minute improvement over PB) while KV clocked 1:56 (her first sub 2 hours, 4 minute improvement over PB) at Delhi Half Marathon in December 2013. Mumbai turned out to be better with each of us shredding over 50 minutes from our previous year’s timing to clock 4:03 and 4:21 respectively in January 2014. Post SCMM, our single minded focus was on building strength and endurance through long runs. Had the pleasure of running with Top Gear (Mumbai based running group) Team on one of their Lonavala runs. However, due to work scheduleswe did almost all our runs on Bell Loops (christened after our Australian co-runner whom we owe a lot of our preparations to) in Malabar / Cumhala Hills of South Mumbai. About 1200 odd kilometres later, we had prepared ourselves for that famed starting line. Practise done, it was down to will power and luck now.

31^st May was clearly one of the longest days for us in recent times. Throughout the day, KV kept reminding me that “tomorrow we would be running at this time also!”

@ 5:30 Early morning!! Would be running. @ 08:30 Breakfast!! Morning Jog!! Would be running. @ 13:30 Lunch at Pakistani Dhaba!! Shopping!!Would be running.@ 15:30 Snacks and expo revisit!! Would be running.  @ 17:00 Getting our running dress in place, resting on bed!! Would be running. I don’t think I had a wink of sleep for first few hours that night. It was difficult to believe that I could actually stay on road for over 14 hours.

TRING!! TRINNNGGG!!! TRINNNNGGGG!!!! 1^st June, 2014 @ 01:30 AM

This is it ..the day has arrived. We had our dose of morning yoga, ate our banana and set-off. Despite some preparation previous evening, we just relied on following some Comrades veterans in our hotel to the place where buses were parked. We started off at @ 03:00 AM to Pietermaritzburg and the bus company was aptly named Maharaja. As luck would have it, lights on our Maharaja Coach conked off even as we set off to the cries of Har!! Har Mahadev!! And Ganpati Bappa Morya!! (There were few other Indian runners were also in the bus). A “runner” mechanic got this sorted and very well became the messiah for all of us in the bus. Slowly and steadily, we made it through the hills to PMB. Nowwe had to run this route back. PMB was cold. Seriously cold. Early morning temperatures of around 3 to 5 degree Celsius alongside icy wind was enough to chill our bones. Throw-away sweat shirts saved the day for us. Looking around, runners seemed to have everything from blanket andwind cheaters to shawl and even large poly-bags around them. After dropping our tog-bags in the truck, I bid bye to KV who was to start from Group G while I started from Group F (Groups are allocated on the basis of submitted qualifying times). Entered my Group at @ 04:30 AM

@ 05:00AM PA system was blaring away to glory. But my mind was numb. We were caged together like thousands of sheep just behind the gate waiting eagerly to blast off through that narrow road. South African Anthem...Zulu Song follows Chariots of Fire...Cock crows..boom...Comrades Marathon 2014 is on. With each man to himself, see you at the finish line. I startedout slowly. Well, with so many people around, running fast wasout of question anyway. Soon, I reached the infamous Polly Schotts considered the last killer hill on the up–run. As advised by the co-runners, I paidmy due respect to the slope and move ahead. 82 Kms to go.. There was no space on the road or on the sideways. Entire locality was either up running or cheering from the sideways. I tooka moment to have a look in the front and back only to see hundreds and thousands of runners just moving on and on and on. Past the Lion Park Turnoff, we were welcomed by the smell of Chicken farms.

It feltalmost mandatory to take water sachet at every outlet to keep the dehydration at bay. Somewhere on the horizon, the first rays of Sun came rushing as if even they were eager to run. Crimson skies and early morning wind was taking my attention away from the race. Attending to nature’s call was clearly one of the toughest job during these runs. What with almost all toilets blocked, we were kind of forced to pollute the forest area we were passing through. There was no dearth of runners indulging in the act at any point. Till this point, it was a happy go–lucky down run or so I believed?With 70 Km to go, I reached the Umlaas Road, the highest point of the race. Road ahead seemed flat, literature said it will be so until Cato Ridge and Camperdown. I wasfeeling quite comfortable by now and hence decided torevise my target upwards. I decided to go all out for 10:30 finish?

Alongside two runners from Top Gear, I was going at a solid speed on this otherwise flat section of the course with rolling hills (reminded me of the course of Hyderabad Marathon!!). Couple of minutes back,gave my sweat shirt to a local.I stretchedmy hand for every kid on the road-side (With some trying to pull away my gloves!!). Running steadily through the second quarter of the race, I reached the Ethembeni Home for physically disabled children. The joy one gets at seeing the enthusiasm of these kids (some without hands, others on wheelchairs or polio stricken) clapping, cheering and shouting continuously for thousands of runners is unmatchable. As runners, we should be thankful to God up there for giving us what we have. Our suffering endedby the evening that day, but there may be no way out for some of these kids. Hi 5ing every kid on the stretch made me forget my present pains for a while till I woke up on the slopes of the mighty Inchanga. Besides another runner from Top Gear, I walked the Inchanga hill and moved steadily on the downward side and almost raced through the half way at Drummond at 05:07.

Shereen, the new Indian friend we made other day at Expo,met us at the halfway mark and informed that only three Indian runners(we realized later, it was five!!) had crossed us till then. I felt stronger. However acting on the advice of the coach at expo, I decided to go slow in the hills right after Drummond. Whosoever named this a down run must be having a great sense of humour. This ‘short climb’went for about 8 Kms. Living by the tradition of Comrades, I paid my homage to the seat of Arthur Newton (first winner of comrades) and asked him to take care of us for the remaining journey. Moving ahead, uniformed students from Kearsney college (was reminded of my own Blazer from Scindia School Days) cheered us all the way to the top of the Botha’s hill. After some more walking, I reached the top of the Winston Park completing almost 56 Kms. About, 32 Kms to go which any self respecting ultra-runnerwould have covered multiple times in practise.

However, right ahead of me was the first serious down section of the race moving right into Pinetown. During our practice runs, Mark kept reminding us that we should walk not only on the steep hills but also on the steep down hills. I hadadhered to this rule of thumb on all the up hills till now, but first serious slope downwards and I couldn’t control myself. Somewhere on the slant road, I started to cramp. Rather than walk, I continued running down the end of the field hill which did hurt me.So when the real race started with less than 30 Kms to go, I was a dead duck. 11:00 Hour Bus crossed us here. I asked my fellow runner to go ahead while I hobbled through with my dreams of debut Bronze (for completing within 9 hours to 11 hours) snapped in the bud. I stopped on the footpath multiple times still slowly moving ahead. Vineeta caught up with me with about 28 Kms to go and pulled me through till 25 Kms. With my legs hurting, I asked her to go for her bronze and that I could only walk.

Fewkilometersahead, two other runners from Indian contingent caught back with me. I had done multiple half marathons, but seeing 21Ks mark now felt like eternity. I literally rode with another Indian runner beyond Cowies right halfway through the Durban Boundary and finally again was on my own. Somehow, I kept moving ahead gobbling tons of water sachets, salted potatoes and oranges. In hindsight, it helped that I didn’t pull ahead at this stage or I would have seriously hurt my hamstrings. By this time, the crowd around was just a mere blur on the sidelines. And then the distance mark reached 9 Kms. Single digits finally..Yet another Top Gear runner kept with me here-on. As if running 81 Kms are not enough, we reach the 45^th Cutting Hill at this stage. My first thoughts were to make the 83 Km time cut-off at this stage. With last cut-off done, I felt energetic for few minutes only to be beaten back by yet another hill at Toll Gate. That is it, I said to myself... no more running. It has to be done walking but covering 5 Kms in little over an hour also started looking difficult.

While resting at around 4.5 Kms mark, from almost no where KV came through panting on the road. Honestly somewhere on the route, I was wondering how far she had made it given her regular speed being relatively slow. But then as they say Slow and steady wins the race. Here-on, we ran together with KV almost pulling me through the last paces. Finally, we entered the Sahara Kingsmead Stadium together with an Indian Flag (courtesy Shereen) on the route. With thousands cheering from the stands and within the ground, it almost felt like a gladiatorial arena over the last 300m. We crossed together at 11:31:03 to get our debut Vic Clapham Medal.

PS: Almost every-one on the route was adorned in Comrades jersey, Tracks, Tees, Caps or whatever it is they possess. It is not just a race. It is festival out there and everyone on the route is totally committed to it. Most locals have run the race at least once if not more. Even those who have not, it is their way of showing unanimity with the runners. Back in the hotel while checking out the following day, I had the following conversation with a similar comrade Tee clad receptionist:

Receptionist: So, are you coming back for up run?

Me: Please, This is it. I don’t what to talk about any run now. Am hurting all over

Receptionist: (with a loud laugh) This is what all runners say. But they return..they always return!!

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Comrades Marathon is the world's oldest (since 1920!!) , largest (18000 runners from 72 countries and all for just one race category!!) and arguably the toughest Ultras. Race has multiple cut off points through the route with the final cut off at 12 hours. Indian Contingent at Comrades has grown enormously over the last two – three years. There were 71 registrations this year from about 10 in 2010. Amongst the Indian runners who eventually make it to the start line, Comrades 2014 had a substantially high number of finishers.

Anyone who can run a marathon under 5 hours and is ready to grind it out for 5 months after December has a reasonable chance of finishing strongly at the 89 Kms Annual event in Kwazulu Natal region of South Africa. Marked with numerous hills, the run alternates every year (Down / Up run) between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.

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