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Gift to the Nation

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With three gold medals to his name, including a third place last year, Rustenburg policeman Gift Kelehe was one of the pre-race favourites to take the 90th edition of the Comrades Marathon – and he was happy to tell everyone that he would do it, too. Gift’s sensational win in 5:38:35 was thus not only vindication of his pre-race confidence, but also a historical first of two brothers winning the world’s oldest and biggest ultra, with older brother Andrew having won the Comrades in 2001. – BY LAUREN VAN DER VYVER

With the familiar strains of Chariots of Fire playing and the chanting crowd at the Pietermaritzburg finish cheering him in, Gift Kelehe soared over the line with arms outstretched to a history-making win in the 2015 Comrades Marathon. One of the first to embrace him was older brother Andrew, winner in 2001, and then the younger Kelehe still had enough fuel in his tank to do 10 celebratory push-ups in the home stretch, with the stadium announcer and crowd counting with him. It was a dream realised, says the winner. “I just had a feeling I would take it this year! Looking back, with a fifth place in 2011, eighth in 2012, bailing in 2013 because of a stress fracture, then coming back and improving with third in 2014, I knew a better position was in me.”

With about 25km to go, Gift took the lead from eventual runner-up Mohammed Hussein of Ethiopia and opened a substantial gap over all the chasers. At the top of Polly Shortts hill, he knew the victory was in the bag, and with final instructions from long-time coach John Hamlett, Gift maintained his pace to claim the win. “As I approached the finish, I saw people running to the stadium from their houses, or leaving their cars in the road. The minute I reached the stadium, it was electrifying, with people banging on the side walls. This was my dream race!”

“Taking the 90th edition of the race was special, and the fact that my brother won in 2001 and now I also have the title, that is history. The support from my coach, brother and sponsors has been unbelievable. I remember Andrew being with me when I didn’t finish in 2013, and he told me that it wasn’t the end of the world, that I must train harder and that I will be back. He was right.”

Strategy Sounds
Following his comeback third place in 2014, Gift started training for the 2015 edition as early as October last year, doing the base training that he and his Samancor Chrome Marathon Club teammates usually did in January in previous years. He still had to wake up early each morning to fit in his training runs before heading to work for the SAPS, where he is part of a specialised tactical response team in Rustenburg, and then in the evenings he’d change out of uniform and go for another run. By April, he was clocking 250 to 270km a week, and spent time with the team in Dullstroom to prepare in high altitude conditions. That’s also where a few race-day strategies were worked out for better communication between Gift and his coach for running in the bunch.

“I had to simply sit with the guys, not doing the work for them, so Coach had a whistle he would blow and that’s how we’d communicate, so I’d know when to slow down,” explains Gift. “Last year we made a mistake where Coach shouted an instruction to me and I didn’t hear him, but Ludwick Mamabolo heard and he backed off, because we were fighting alongside Stephen Muzhingi. This year, the whistle was something only I knew, and I could always hear it. The guys were confused – Coach would blow the whistle, they would look at him, then look at me and wonder what’s going on!”

Winning Focus
Gift’s introduction to the bigger distances was realised as a 20-year-old when he played second to his brother’s 2001 winning effort. At that stage, Gift was a middle distance athlete who was encouraged by John, who had been working with Andrew since 1989, to work with the team at speed work drills before the Big C. When Andrew took the title, a proud younger brother wanted to emulate that achievement. “I wanted to be a champion like him, I needed that feeling.”

The plan now is for the team to go back to the drawing board in the next two months, with a back-to-back win the main focus for 2016. “I like making history, so another win is in our minds,” says Gift. “I think my experience counts for a lot, and with the women’s race, too, South Africans are ready to start a trend where we locals win it. I think we can make the race ours for a long time.”

Unsurprisingly, there is little ‘down time’ for the new champ, with interview upon interview, being paraded through his home village of Taung Sekhing as well as being honoured by the provincial legislature, but Gift is happy to embrace it all. “What a response it has been! People have recognised me in the street and I hope I can keep my win in the community.” It’s also something to hear that the humble 33-year-old didn’t waiver from the team’s traditional fartlek session the day after his phenomenal win. “I’d never skip that! It loosens my legs and helps with recovery. And it feels better after a win, too…”

Im happy I finally signed up

My Comrades Cinderellas

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This year I was fortunate to make the trip down to Durban to support my third Comrades, and what a day it turned out to be! – BY RENE KALMER

I made the trip down with Andre, my now fiancée, his sister René, my best friend since kindergarten, her husband Francois, and my soon to be father-in-law, Oom Nicky. To be honest, I was not really confident in ‘Team van Wyk's’ ability to finish Comrades this year, because Andre was admitted to hospital two weeks prior to Comrades with a gall bladder infection and was just planning to start the race for the experience, while René had been battling with chronic ITB for the past year and Francois was also nursing a knee injury. I was not looking forward to an awkward trip back home with no medals…

Ready for Action
Race day arrived and it was time to strap René's knees with the help of a homemade video by my friend Magdaleen, who had earlier also suffered with ITB. René was desperate to try anything to help her get further than last year’s 50km. Then I shared the emotions and excitement with all 17,000 runners who were brave enough to start the Ultimate Human Race. What I love best about the Up run is the opportunity to experience the start in Durban, and I can't even imagine the emotions going through the runners’ minds as they play Chariots of Fire.

Our first stop was Pinetown and it was the only time we managed to spot and support all the runners, from the leaders to Andre, who was taking a backseat in Vlam's Modern Athlete 12-hour bus. Next stop was Drummond for the halfway mark, where we waited in anticipation for our troopers. René and Francois came through all smiles, while Andre snuck through halfway just under the cut-off time and was determined to keep going.

Keeping Track
I was really happy for social media and all my friends back home in front of the TV, giving me updates on how well the South Africans were doing, especially Caroline W?stmann. I met her in 2012 at the Midrand Striders prize-giving, where she was the star of the evening after placing 15th at Comrades that year, and I knew she was destined for great things! We have been friends ever since and it is always great to catch up with her at races and see how her joy for running rubs off on everybody around her.

Caroline proved everybody wrong on race day. She won the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon just seven weeks prior to Comrades, and according to the experts she would fade, and she took the lead too soon, then caused everybody watching to choke for breath when she started to walk, but Caroline was just sticking to what worked for her in the past. She made Comrades look like a walk in the park, finishing in an astonishing 25th place overall, after Gift Kelehe had won the men's race by more than seven minutes – the first time since 1992 that South Africans claimed both the men’s and women's titles. I was also thrilled to hear that Charne Bosman finished second, after her disappointing run last year when thyroid problems forced her to stop. These golden girls, along with Emmerentia Rautenbach and Yolande Maclean, really showed that South African ladies can run!

Chasing Medals
Back to the sub-12 bus, and René and Francois cruised through Cato Ridge, Lion Park and Polly Shorts, with René’s smile just growing bigger as they got closer to Pietermaritzburg. Unfortunately, I could not say the same about Andre, but I think the fact that René was about to finish her first Comrades helped him to dig deep and complete the race. I know our primary school coach, Juffrou Maggie, will be very proud of the two of them, as her motto was, “No guts, no glory, no pain, no gain.”

PS: Wedding Bells!
The Modern Athlete team is thrilled to congratulate René and Andre on their engagement, announced just over a week after the Comrades. All the best for you two, and many happy miles together!

Keep Firing in the Freeze

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There are two ways to approach winter from a training perspective: To stay tucked under warm blankets and sleep the winter away, or to toughen up, get out of bed and set your body up for a few early spring PBs. – BY RAY ORCHISON

The human body is an incredible machine. It only maintains the structures it believes are needed for survival. In other words, use it or lose it! There’s nothing quite like hitting the snooze button and rolling over under a warm duvet on a cold or wet winter morning. And given that we’re out of the official running season, you can be forgiven for hitting the snooze button every now and then. The problem is when the snooze button becomes the norm…

Within seven to ten days you lose your sharpness or racing edge when you stop training. It’s not a problem following a hard season or key event. In fact, it’s normal, as we allow our body to recover and repair itself before we begin to build up again. When you stop training for two to three weeks and longer, however, you begin to lose base fitness. This means that your endurance systems, which have been built over months of hard work, together with your muscles, begin to atrophy or waste away. So if you go into full hibernation during winter, you come back into spring requiring lots of hard work to get your systems back to where they were before.

Keep Ticking Over
The better approach to winter is to allow yourself a few easy weeks with one or two extra lie-ins, but keep the body ticking over at a maintenance level. Yes, you won’t be firing on all cylinders, but you should maintain a level where, given a few weeks of focused training, you’ll be race-ready or pretty close to it.

The type of sessions will depend on what you’ve built over the months, and the areas you want to work on. If you’ve improved your speed, strength and endurance, then at this point you’ll possibly reduce your speed and endurance and work a little more at maintaining or even building your strength. If you’ve greatly enhanced your endurance, then this is a great opportunity to maintain a certain level of endurance while working on building your speed. Basically, winter is a great opportunity to work on your weaknesses while maintaining your strengths.

Motivate Yourself
This all sounds great… until that alarm goes off in the cold dark hours and suddenly all motivation goes out the window. It is extremely difficult to get out of bed on a cold or wet morning when you have no purpose for doing so. So, one of the best ways to get motivated is to have a goal in place. For a beginner this might be to run your first 5km race. For a novice, it might be to move up to the half or full marathon distance. For an advanced athlete, it could be looking to PB at 10km or a half marathon. Winter also gives us a great opportunity to spend a little more time at the gym and to eliminate any muscle weaknesses or imbalances.

The worst possible thing you can do when the alarm goes off is to start thinking about it. The more you think about it, the more excuses you will come up with. When that alarm goes off, don’t think about it. Just turn it off and get up! The other alternative is to put the alarm far away from the bed, so you have no option but to get up to turn it off. Once you’re up and out the door, it’s usually not as cold or as bad as you thought it would be, and before you know it, you’re back from your session, standing under a warm shower, feeling good about yourself and glad that you got out there and did it.

Night Run Rocks in Jozi

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The inaugural Over The Moon Trail Run Series, hosted by Two The Core Events in association with Modern Athlete Magazine, was held on the evening of Wednesday 17 June in Johannesburg. Offering a technical 10km route for the more serious trail runners and a 5km shorter route for those looking to just enjoy themselves, the event was held at the RideFree Bike Park in Modderfontein Nature Reserve, and this was the first in the series of four events for 2015.

Entry to the race included sponsor giveaways, glow in the dark paraphernalia, as well as a free boerewors roll and first beer, while event frills such as music and fun for the whole family were also on the cards! Added to that, awesome prizes were up for grabs for the winners of each event, including weekends away at City Lodge, Subaru travel bags and a TimeX Ironman watch.

With the sun tucking behind the mountain, the temperature was only going one way… down! But in spite of the cold, just over 100 runners braved the temperatures and the dark to take part. A hush descended over the lake as Alistair “Allycat’ Cronk began the race briefing, followed by a bit of a warm-up for the runners conducted by Elsabe Venter, and then they were off for some fun on a brand new, never run before route at the RideFree Bike Park. The first 800m were flat or downhill, then the route climbed a long, gradual hill towards the top of the highest point, before descending through the bush on technical single track back to the finish.

The 5km race was won by Dudley Turner in a time of 24:52, and he was followed in by Jason Meredith (25:09). The women’s title was claimed by Debbie Ward in 26:45, with a lead of 1:15 over second-placed Nicola-Jayne Kirkby. The more challenging 10km race came down to a sprint finish as Bennie Roux and Raymond Orchison burst out of the bush and headed for the finish straight side by side! Bennie’s legs proved to have the edge over Raymond’s as he claimed a narrow four-second victory in a time of 38:31. For more results visit www.twothecoreevents.co.za.

Here’s what a few runners had to say about the route:
Ashleigh: “The route was challenging and involved a lot of single track, but all round was very enjoyable.”
Lauren: “The route was very flat for the first part, which was great because we could get into a rhythm before it got sandy and rocky! It was my first night trail run, so it was disorientating with the lamp – you never know where to step, but the runners warn each other about puddles or descents in the trail. Then there were some hills and single track for the next few kays!”
Carina: “I found the route hard but had fun doing my first night trail run.”

The vibe around the event was described as amazing, especially in the freezing cold conditions, and the many fire pits proved a most popular feature before and after the race as the runners looked for some warmth. (And a few shots of Sherry lent a helping hand, too!)

The next Over The Moon Trail Run takes place on Wednesday 15 July, again at the RideFree Bike Park in Modderfontein Nature Reserve, starting at 7pm. Bring your friends and family, grab a beer and a boerie roll, and enjoy the vibe at this fun event. R110 gets you a 5km entry and R130 gets you a 10km entry. Visit www.twothecoreevents.co.za to enter – closing Tuesday 14 July at 12pm.

Olympic Medal Hopes

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Having won medals at the African Champs, World Champs and Commonwealth Games, and having just added a seventh senior SA title to his list of honours 12 years after his first as a 17-year-old in 2003, star 400-metre hurdler LJ Van Zyl is not only raring to go for the World Champs in Beijing in August, he is also eyeing an Olympic medal in Rio in 2016.

With a new coaching team behind him and fatherhood on the near horizon, LJ van Zyl is running better than ever right now. Just before jetting off to Europe to begin his international campaign last month, the 29-year-old chatted to Modern Athlete about his revitalised form going into 2015, including that SA title in 49.29 seconds in Stellenbosch – his fourth qualifier for Beijing – as well as a new 200m dash PB of 20.71 (following shortly on another new PB of 20.86). He says his great form is largely thanks to working with his new coach Irma Reynecke at the High Performance Centre (HPC) in Pretoria.

“With Irma, it’s a lot of focus on speed work. You’re never slower than 85% in training, which is quite something! It took me about three months to get used to her programme, because I come from a more endurance background, but I’ve seen it work. My 200m flat-out time is faster and my confidence is growing,” says LJ. “Also, being set up at the HPC, from being one of their first athletes back in 2005, I have an organised base camp as well as all my medical covered. Without that help, it would be very difficult for an athlete.”

All Systems Go
Starting with the GreatCity Games in Manchester, LJ says his international campaign will be all about enjoying the ride and loving the sport again. “The City Games is a unique experience and great warm-up because the organisers build an arena in Albert Square in the heart of the city. I won my event there in 2013, so it’s a great way to start my season before the real tester at the Diamond League meeting in Doha on 15 May,” he said.

Doha remains a special venue for LJ, as he holds the Diamond League meeting record there with his 48.11 finish in 2011. It’s a platform where he will be hoping to sneak under 49 seconds again and build more momentum towards the World Champs. Another Diamond League meeting in New York later in June will also tell him where he stands with his training and what he can target in Beijing. “At the 2011 World Champs in Daegu, South Korea, I won a bronze medal, so I want to go to Beijing with a little bit more,” he said. “My planning has gone well and I took a little rest after the national champs, visiting my parents to recharge, but the season is on again and it’s all systems go.”

Eyes on Rio
The three-time African champ, Commonwealth gold medallist and South African record holder (47.66) is hoping that a solid 2015 will set him up nicely for Rio 2016, where he is dreaming of a podium spot. “I’ve really won every medal in the 400m hurdles that I can, except that Olympic one,” he said, as he recalls his fifth placing at the 2008 Games. “I want to leave Rio with something, so this season will hopefully set me up perfectly for that moment.”

And with wife and fellow runner Irvette set to give birth to their first child in September, LJ has a lot more than hard yards on the track to give him the inspiration for next year’s showdown. “I’m so excited and it’s definitely a reason to get up with more fire every morning! Maybe our kid will follow in our athletic footsteps and have that speed from Irvette and me. Either way, it’s a great time for us, so I’m positive about what’s around the corner.”

LJ’s Major Honours

World Championships
Silver 2011 4x400m Relay
Bronze 2011 400m Hurdles
Commonwealth Games
Gold 2006 400m Hurdles
Silver 2006 4x400m Relay
Silver 2010 400m Hurdles
All-Africa Games
Gold 2007 400m Hurdles
African Championships
Gold 2006 400m Hurdles
Gold 2008 400m Hurdles
Gold 2008 4x400m Relay
Gold 2010 400m Hurdles

Back to back medal achieved

No Limbits!

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Para-athlete Dylan Da Silva was born with the physical disability Phocomelia, the malformation of his arms, but he has not let that hold him back from becoming a talented young athlete who is now ready to take the triathlon world by storm.

When Dylan was three years old and got his first bike, he immediately asked his father to take the training wheels off. “He refused, so I took them off myself and was riding on my own that very day. No-one taught me to ride a bike, or to drive a car, and I live like an ‘abled’ person,” says the 20-year-old from Johannesburg, who has always been an avid swimmer and cyclist, and then took to running as well when he challenged himself to do a triathlon in 2014.

His transition to triathlon was smooth after amazing performances in 2012 and 2013 as a para-cyclist in the C4 category, winning countless gold medals in time trials and with national records on the track under his belt. On the triathlon scene, he soon scored a Gauteng Champs win in the PT3 category, then added the SA title and the All Africa Champs title as well. “I was dependent on my swimming and cycling then, but a lot of people don’t realise that the running action requires a lot of work, so as I progress, I figure out what works,” he says.

Waves of Wins
In between the triathlon titles he also picked up the SA and Gauteng Championship para-cycling titles, but his multisport achievements had gotten him noticed and he was selected for the South African Para-triathlon team for last year’s ITU World Triathlon Grand Finale in Edmonton, Canada, where he finished 10th in his category. “Before the start, I sat by the water and looked either side of me and knew that it was a dream I wanted to work on,” says Dylan. Last year’s form as well as a win at the Buffalo City ATU Paratriathlon African Championships in the beginning of 2014 gave him the push to train harder.

His start to 2015 saw his performances get still better as he picked up a win at the Buffalo City ITU World Para-triathlon event in March. Then came what he considers his best performance as he won at the WTS Discovery World Triathlon in Cape Town in April, edging out fierce competitor and friend Stan Andrews, as well as blind para-triathlete Hein Wagner. “I work hard, training twice a day, because there is more competition and that just motivates me,” says Dylan.

Will For More
With the ever-present support of parents Melissa and Manny as well as long-time girlfriend Micaela, plus help from biokineticist Justin Jefferey and sponsor Biogen, Dylan reckons he is on the brink of still better results. He has been picked for the South African para-cycling team to participate at the World Cup in September, and he says he is hoping to find sponsors to help him continue to compete at the highest level. “Sport is my avenue as an ADHD child, and I know my family has gone through a lot, but I want to do well, get points for the World Tri Champs, and go get a podium there, and show the world that disability is nothing,” he says.

The Da Silva family would like to thank everyone who has supported Dylan in his nine years in sport, and ask that any potential new sponsors who would like to support him should please contact [email protected]

Enjoying the race

Grand Running

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In the last two years, two female grandmasters have been rewriting the running record books on a regular basis in SA, so we caught up with both Nancy Will and Margie Saunders to find out what motivates them to chase down these records.

Where there’s a Will…

At this year’s Old Mutual Two Oceans Ultra-marathon 56km, Nancy Will (62), who runs for Pinelands in Cape Town, cruised her way to a new 60-69 age-category world best of 4:12:54 at the 50km marker, but just missed out on the grandmaster course record at the finish with her time of 4:44:48. “I missed out on the record by only 21 seconds! I was not aware of the record on the day and only read about what I had done a day after the race,” she said. “All it tells me is that I have to go back and get that record, because I can cut it down.”

Nancy now has 14 ultra medals (4:08 PB) and six half marathon medals (1:30:40 PB) at Oceans as well as five Comrades Marathon finishes to her name, including two Comrades silvers and a PB of 7:12:34, so it’s strange to think that she never really considered herself much of a runner in her younger years. “I was a swimmer, and it was only after I got married that I turned to running to lose weight, and it just stuck from there,” she says. “Today, there are so many experiences that stick out, from SA Champs to running for Western Province, to all the big races. I’ll also be heading back to Comrades again this year after 10 years away from the race. My son will be running and I am hoping to do well in my age group there.”

Competitive Streak
Having represented South Africa as a swimmer and recorded great results as a road runner, including setting Western Province records at various distances in her age category in the last two years, Nancy has also turned to trail running this year for something a little different. “I ran the 50+ Trail Summit Series and I am enjoying the challenge of trail. There is no boredom factor and it tests me.” Apart from Comrades and trail races, Nancy is also aiming to re-break her provincial records this year across various distances as well as cut down her times on her 42km, 21km and 10km finishes.

Just before her taper period before Comrades, Nancy was clocking around 100 to 120km a week, which was quite an intense load to make sure she can last on race day. “I usually train on my own, but I also join our club group twice a week. The atmosphere and support at the club is always great and there is such a hype around Comrades, too,” she says. “I’m glad I’ve got a sport that’s easy to do, where you can get fit and meet new people, because there are no barriers in this sport. I think the most important things running has given me are good friends and a healthy body!”

The Record Buster

Port Elizabeth’s Margie Saunders (62) has made quite a name for herself in the last year as she has set and reset a number of SA records in the grandmaster category. At the end of February, she broke her own national mark for the 15km (1:04:01) to go with her national marathon (3:15:48) and half marathon (1:30:53) records. Now, having been in great form for the last few months and with her confidence at a peak, she’s ready to chase down the one SA record that has eluded her thus far, Sonja Laxton’s 10km record.

Interestingly, she also only came into running later in life. “I only started running when I was 35 years old, having been a swimmer for years,” she says. “Running came about because I wanted to do triathlons and I jumped right in and started with a half marathon, and suddenly found myself in the provincial team.” She continued setting fast times in her 40s, including a 2:55 marathon and two silver Comrades medals, which she considers her biggest running achievements, but then a speedbump in her health struck in 2000.

“I was diagnosed with breast cancer and for six months I underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” she explains. “At 50 I was back running competitively again, but nothing serious and I was less competitive. Then at age 57, I took on my first Ironman 70.3 and at the 2013 World Triathlon Champs in London, I managed a first and fourth place in my age-group in the sprint and standard distances, and it was my mission after that to take running more seriously.”

Runner & Triathlete
Today, Margie wakes up at around 4am and says she never misses a day’s training, even if she has an early morning flight to Johannesburg for her work as a manager of medical schemes contracted with ER24. “I run every day, and still swim three times a week, but I keep my distances shorter in the week. The swimming is my secret in keeping up my cardio fitness. When I work at home in Port Elizabeth, I can sit at my desk at 5am, run at 8am and get back to work an hour later. Running is easy because you just head out with your shoes!”

Margie is now focused on working on her 10km time and is looking forward to competing in the full Ironman one day. “I retire next September at 63 years, so I can afford more time training for Ironman then, especially when you need time on the bike,” she says. “For now, I clock 40km a week, swim regularly and do some rides a few times a month. I’ve reached my best in my sixties and have got great support from my Nedbank club and my family.”

Six Of The Best

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After 20 years of running, I can look back on some incredible memories of races I have run, places I have been and people that I have met, and still, what I experienced on 27 April touring the Cape Town area with a bunch of running friends as part of the 6 Freedom Runs for Freedom Day Challenge stood out as one of the really special days of my running career!

In 2014 a group of Johannesburg-based runners decided to take on all the 5km parkrun routes in the city in a single day, and they called it doing Freedom Runs, as they ran them on 27 April, the Freedom Day public holiday. Down in the Cape, David Papenfus saw this mentioned online and decided it sounded like a great idea, so in March he called up all his Red Sock and parkrun mates in the Stellenbosch area and suggested a Cape version of the same challenge for 2015, on the six parkrun routes we currently have up and running in the Cape Town area, including Bellville and Stellenbosch. Soon a Facebook group had been created, the various parkruns contacted, and the group of Cape Freedom Runners began to grow, with runners from all over Cape Town saying they would join for one or more of the runs.

Early Start
So it was that the Stellies group met in the Spar parking lot before sunrise and off we went to Fish Hoek for the first run at 7:30am, with great excitement and jokes flying. It was a wee bit cold and windy, but after a few words of welcome from Dave and a group photo, we soon warmed up on the run, and then it was straight back into the cars and over Ou Kaapse Weg to get to Rondebosch Common for Freedom Run number two at 9am. I ran these both fairly hard, to catch up to friends after hanging back at the start to tweet pics of the massive groups that met up to run with us, and I soon realised I was going to have to pace myself a wee bit more if I wanted to get through the next four… So, I took it much slower (and chatted a whole lot more) at the third run in Green Point (10:30am), and again at the Big Bay parkrun in Blouberg at 12, where a brisk south-easter also made the first half of the out-and-back route a bit more challenging.

I was blown away by how many people had heard about our Challenge via Facebook or running friends, and then come out to join us for anything from one to four of the runs, depending on what their schedules for the public holiday allowed. The spirit in the ever-growing group at each run was amazing, which really kept us all going as our legs started to stiffen up from all the stop-starting – but we were having so much fun, that was just a mild irritation, really.

Taking strain…
After a lunch stop in Blouberg, we headed to the hilly three-lap Bellville course for a 2:30pm start, and by now I wasn’t the only one showing signs of strain. Then it was back to Stellenbosch for the Root 44 parkrun, delayed from 4pm to 4:30pm, as we had taken a bit longer at Bellville than planned, and that saw 15 of us running our sixth 5km route for the day. That group included runners from Bellville, Cape Town and Fish Hoek joining our Stellies group, and by that stage we were all comrades in arms and cheering each other on. It was hugs and high-fives all-round as each of us finished our last run of the day.

That evening, over well-earned beers, we heard that 22 runners had done all nine parkruns in Joburg that day, and I still wonder how they managed to fit them all in – they must have raced the routes and then driven like bats out of hell! That said, by next April we’ll have a few more parkruns in the Cape, so we could be doing a nine-run challenge ourselves. It was a stunning experience with stunning people, so here’s a huge shout-out to my fellow Freedom Runners: David, Ilse, Adele, Peter, Mariska, Zahn, Cecil, Jacques, Marion, Anna, Colin, Craig, Kim and Gino. I’m looking forward to doing it again with all of you (and still more runners) next year!

Running through the Jeffreys Bay Windfarm

Life After Comrades

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‘What now?’ asks many a runner just days after Comrades… After months of hard training and the massive toll 87km will take on your body, it’s time to plot those running goals for the second half of the year, but do it wisely!

Your past three months would have consisted of many long runs, anything from 20km and up, all run at a slow, Comrades race pace. These runs are called LSD or Long Slow Distance runs. The point of LSD is to train the body to: (1) withstand the pounding of running from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, (2) become efficient at using fat as an energy source in order go the full distance, and (3) become biomechanically efficient at the slower Comrades race pace and therefore train the muscles to run for hours on end at that pace.

However, the problem with running LSD almost every weekend for the last three months is that you have trained the body to run slowly. If you’re hoping to run a few PB’s in the second half of the year, there are a number of things you’ll need to address.

1 Don’t Hibernate
Recovering from a massive undertaking like Comrades is extremely important, but avoid falling into the trap of going into hibernation for months. From a physiological perspective, the body only maintains what it feels it needs to survive. This means that we quickly begin to lose muscular endurance and strength when we stop exercising completely. Studies have shown that we lose about 10% of our strength and about 30 to 40% of our muscular endurance within eight weeks of no training.
Therefore, give your body enough recovery time to repair the muscle fibre damage caused by Comrades, but then get going again. Take 10 to 14 days full rest and then gradually start to introduce cross-training and a few easy runs. If you still have an ache in your legs, then hit the pool.

2 Need For Speed
With recovery done and dusted, set yourself a few goals for the second half of the year. It’s difficult to get up in the cold mornings if you don’t have a purpose for doing so, and setting goals gives you something to work toward. Post-Comrades is the ideal time to take your training to a new level. For months you’ve essentially been doing a few thousand kilometres of base training. If you stay off the road until September, you’ll have a lot of work to do before you’re back to the level you are now. Instead, focus on the shorter distances and gradually build speed. Improving your times over 5km or 10km has a knock-on effect for your marathons and ultras. This will take your training to a new level and put you on the front foot for your goals in 2016.

3 What weaknesses?
There’s a good chance that as your weekly mileage increased in the build-up to Comrades, so you started to experience a number of niggles, or even full-blown injuries. Every year, a large number of runners, against better judgement, will arrive at the start line and attempt to complete Comrades while nursing an injury. Often it’s these runners who risk their lives by taking anti-inflammatory drugs during the race. If you need a drug in order to finish a race, then you should not even consider starting! These great races are not going anywhere.

Niggles and injuries are a result of muscle imbalances or specific muscle weaknesses. These are exploited through repetitive motion (lots of LSD). The increase in mileage pre-Comrades places such a big energy demand on the body that one cannot focus on endurance, strength and speed training at the same time. It’s a recipe for disaster. This means that pre-Comrades training should have a main focus of endurance. Now, with Comrades behind you, the second half of the year is an ideal time to identify your imbalances and weaknesses and to work on improving them.

The bottom line is that there is life after Comrades, and these guidelines will give you some direction.

LEBOGANG PHALULA SPRINTS TO VICTORY

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Defending champion Lebogang Phalula sprinted the last kilometre to win the Durban leg of the Spar Women’s Challenge in 33.36 minutes on Sunday morning.

Phalula ran much of the race alongside Nolene Conrad, who finished second in 33.39 minutes. Rutendo Nyahora was third in 33.53.

There was a lengthy delay at the start of the race because of a safety issue, and a number of athletes complained that they were concerned about running hard, because they were not properly warmed up. They said this was why times were not as fast as had been expected.

“It was a tough race,” said a beaming Phalula.

“I ran with Nolene for much of the way. She pulled away from me at about eight kilometres, but I knew that I had the speed to overtake her if she was still in sight. My body was feeling good, and so I sprinted the last bit to win. I was pleased it was Nolene and not Rutendo, because I don’t think I could have passed her. ”

Phalula, who won the race last year as well, said she was very happy with her win.
“I love the Durban race, and I also love the Johannesburg one, because that’s where I have won,” she said.

Conrad was delighted with her podium finish, which was only her second.

“It’s the first time I’ve been in contention to win,” she said.

“We didn’t start too fast, and Lebogang and I pulled away from the pack at about 4.5kms, and then I ran away from her. But she sprinted past me, and there was nothing I could do. But I’m very happy to have finished second.”

Nyahora was also very pleased with her run.

“Everything went according to plan. I love the course – it’s pretty flat, and really suits me.”
Phalula’s twin sister, Diana-Lebo, who won the Port Elizabeth leg of the Challenge series last month, finished in sixth position. Sisters Christine and Rene Kalmer, finished fifth and seventh respectively, while Cornelia Joubert came fourth.

Former Grand Prix winner Irvette van Zyl, who is expecting a baby in September, delighted everyone by coming ninth – her second top 10 finish this year.

There have been three different winners for each of the Spar races this year, with Mapaseka Makhanya winning in Cape Town. Makhanya finished 19th in Durban on Sunday. She said she had a left Achilles injury, and had only run the race because she wanted to earn Grand Prix points.

With different winners and podium finishers in the three races run so far, the battle for top spot on the Grand Prix ladder is still wide open. The next Challenge race is in Pretoria on August 29. The final race will be in Johannesburg in October.